====== Leclair, Alexander ====== (1843-1 July 1914), merchant. Born probably at what is now North Lancaster, GC. Parents: Charles Leclair and his first wife Thérèse Guindon. Alexander succeeded his father as a general merchant at North Lancaster in 1872. He retired in 1902, when his health was failing. In his later stages as a merchant at North Lancaster, he had as a business partner Archibald John Macdonald, later MP for GC. He was presumably the Leclair of Leclair and McRae’s sawmill, North Lancaster, 1890. (//Glengarrian// 24 Jan. 1890) Alexander Leclair was treasurer of Lancaster Township for 25 years, and served also as its deputy reeve. He was married (1) 13 Jan. 1873 to Bridget Masterson, who died 26 Sept. 1883, aged 30. She was a native of Ireland, and the sister of Fr John Masterson, and (2) 13 Jan. 1885 to Catherine Forestell, the niece of Patrick Purcell. She was born in 1863 and died in Sept. 1938. Leclair had children by both marriages. Leclair was one of the head men of Patrick Purcell in the GC election of 1887, and he was one of the executors of Purcell’s will. In 1889, Patrick Purcell and Alexander Leclair toured the British Isles and Europe. Alexander Leclair was the brother of Fr Louis William and Dr Peter Napoléon Leclair, both of this dictionary. Alexander Leclair died in Montreal, at the home of his son and is buried at Glen Nevis. ---- //Cornwall Freeholder// & //Cornwall Standard //both 9 July 1914, //Glengarry News// 10 July 1914 * Dr Norbert Ferré, “The Leclairs of Glengarry,” //Glengarry Life// (1977) * MacGillivray & Ross 163 (portrait) * Purcell and Leclair sail for Europe, return from their visit to British Isles and Europe, //CF //26 July & 27 Sept. 1889, cited, resp., DTL, //Standard Freeholder// 24 July 1948, 24 Sept. 1949 * second Mrs Leclair: obituary //SFH// 16 Sept. 1938; gravestone, Precious Blood Cemetery, Glen Walter; MacGillivray & Ross 163 (portrait) * private information * interview with Mrs Kathleen MacDonell (b. 1898), daughter of Alexander Leclair, taped late 1970s for Multicultural History Society of Ontario * with another executor, Leclair offers reward for return of Purcell’s body, //Ottawa Citizen// 21 May 1891 * it is recalled that in Jan. 1897 a clerk shot and killed a man breaking into Leclair’s store at North Lancaster, //CS //28 April 1905 [<6>]