Dictionary of Glengarry Biography

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====== MacMaster, Angus Donald ====== 
 (died 7 or 8 Jan. 1941), shantyman, personality. (Angus MacMaster, Angie D. MacMaster, Angie Donald MacMaster, nicknamed Pain Killer) He was presumably the Angus McMaster who was born 5 Oct. 1862, the son of Donald McMaster and his wife Catherine McLeod, of Lot 7, 8th Concession of Kenyon Township. (Gravestone gives dates 5 Oct. 1863-8 Jan. 1941); age at death 78 also found, consistently with birth date 1862). In a society where young men from the farms routinely went to shanty in their earlier years, before they settled down as married men and farmers, Angie D. MacMaster, who never married, apparently continued (as did other lifelong bachelors) to go to shanty to a later stage of life than was average. He got his name (which he is remembered to have intensely disliked) from Perry Davis’ Pain Killer, a patent medicine or linament of the time. Charles Macnamara wrote of the shantymen that “They rarely suffered from anything that could not be cured by a few pills or a bottle of Pain Killer.” In fact, the verses about Angie D. MacMaster (see the following) seem to imply he got the nickname from his use of Pain Killer for the farm stock, but no doubt the name was seen as appropriate to him in more than one connection.

<tab>The writer of a local news column from the “South Woods” (the New York State lumber woods) in the //Glengarrian// of 23 Dec. 1892 says, “I suppose the folks of Glengarry will be surprised to hear from this section of the world. There are quite a number of boys out here from that vicinity. Pain Killer and Rheumatic king arrived at Santa Clara safe and sound; they say there is no snow out in Glengarry yet.…This is a very mountainous country, but the timber grows on it just the same.” Angie D. MacMaster farmed for some years on the North 1/2 of Lot 12 in the 9th Concession of Kenyon Township, having ownership of the property from 1914 to 1921, i. e., throughout the greater part of his 50s. Afterwards, he lived at McCrimmon village, where he worked as a drover. He enjoyed noisy celebrations with friends and rowdies. Uncouth though he may seem in retrospect, this was clearly not the whole story, for nearly 60 years after his death an elderly lady remembered appreciatively what an excellent dancer he had been. He is buried at St. Columba’s cemetery, Kirk Hill, near the west side of the church.

<tab>He will be remembered as the subject of a satirical but never scornful 56-line song or poem composed by Donald Norman MacLeod. Donald Norman MacLeod (1894-1966), who farmed at McCrimmon where his farmhouse stood at the curve on Highway 34, facing MacMaster’s house a few hundred feet away, was the son of Mr and Mrs William D. MacLeod of Bonnie Briar, and was the brother of Dr J. G. MacLeod of Finch. The song, after circulating for years in manuscript, seems to have been published for the first time in the //Lochinvar to Skye// history of 1988. With much unevenness, it contains some good phrases, and some striking depictions of the GC life of the day, and a vivid sketch of “Pain Killer” himself. A portion of it follows:

//He was the sportsman of the clan // \\
//He early learned to hit the can, // \\
//And in a row he was in the van // \\
//Yelling "Cotton Beaver<sup>1</sup> man for man." // \\

//He had a farm, he tilled the ground // \\
//He worked the horses round by round // \\
//And in winter time when chores got slow //  \\
//Off to the shanty he would go // \\

//Off to south woods he did go // \\
//Himself and Mr A. D. O.<sup>2</sup> // \\
//But Angie's wit they didn't need // \\
//So they put Allan on the lead // \\

//And if stock got sick, he had no book // \\
//But for Perry Davis he would look // \\
//He never thought that there would come a day // \\
//When he'd become known as P. K. // \\

//He worked the farm until he got old // \\
//He surely made a lot of gold, // \\
//So Angus Bethune bought the ground // \\
//And for McCrimmon he was bound // \\

//So at last he bought a car // \\
//But Angie never travelled far // \\
//At buying calves he tried his luck // \\
//And he turned the Ford into a truck. // \\

//He was honest, kind and true // \\
//He was a MacMaster through and through, // \\
//When times got tough and you couldn't pay // \\
//He'd always put some cash your way. // \\

//But time and tide for no man wait // \\
//And Angie had to meet his fate. // \\
//They say 'twas written in his will // \\
//That he'd be buried at Kirk Hill. // \\

<tab><sup>1</sup>Cotton Beaver was–and is–approximately the location stated above for Angus’ parents’ home \\ 
<tab><sup>2</sup>Allan D. O. MacCrimmon
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<fs small>//Lochinvar to Skye// 256, 308-309, 577-578, 604-606 * birth: St. Columba CR, 116; MacMillan diary * death 7 Jan. 1941: Lochinvar diary 49 * private information * Charles Macnamara, “The Camboose Shanty,” //Ontario History// Spring 1959 p. 76; also on this patent medicine, Donald MacKay, //The Lumberjacks// (1978) 231 * buys a radio, //Glengarry News// 23 Nov. 1923 * refs. to him as “Mr. Painkiller” & “Mr. Pain-Killer” in local news cols., //Glengarrian// 2 & 9 May 1890 * mention of medicine called Pain-killer, W. D. Flatt, //The Trail of Love// (1916) 186 * Donald Norman MacLeod: //Lochinvar to Skye// 163-165, 167, 257, 603-607 (includes another poem or song by him); //MacLeods//, ii, 350
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