(11 March 1870-18 March 1951, lawyer and judge. (Francis T. Costello, F. T. Costello) Born at L’Orignal, Ont. Parents: Martin Costello, a native of County Galway, Ireland, and his wife Anne Jane Fulton. Education: Hawkesbury High School, Osgoode Hall. He was called to the bar in 1892, and practised law in Alexandria from 1893. He was active in the social life of Alexandria, and we see him in one of the lighter roles of life, when the Vankleek Hill newspaper, mentioning F. T. Costello, barrister, as one of those involved, reported in 1895 that “Several Alexandria bicyclists wheeled over to THE Hill, on Saturday afternoon and returned in the evening by the light of the moon.” (Vankleek Hill Review 11 Oct. 1895) From 1897, Costello was a partner of John A. Macdonell (Jack Greenfield) in the Alexandria law firm of Macdonell and Costello. Costello was involved in the movement c. 1905-1908, which though ultimately unsuccessful was well supported by the Alexandria political and business leaders, to separate GC politically from SDG. He served as mayor of Alexandria, 1904, 1905, 1911 and 1912.

     In 1929, F. T. Costello was appointed county judge. Thereafter he moved to Cornwall, though apparently not immediately after the appointment. He retired as judge in 1945. He died at Cornwall. Roman Catholic. He had been president of the Glengarry Liberal Association. He was married: (1) in 1902 to Annie C. McPhee, who died in 1909, and (2) in 1913 to Catherine Ann MacDonald, who died 1963. He was father of Francis Costello (b. Alexandria, 1916; d. Kitchener, Ont., 19 Sept. 2002), who was also a judge (1961-1991) but who died too late to be included in the present dictionary, and of Air Commodore Martin Costello.

     Judge Costello’s “Report on Equalization of Assesment” includes a historically valuable insider’s and eyewitness sketch of the origins and early effects of the Depression in SDG, and of its different effects, for a time, on the local agricultural and industrial community (text, Glengarry News 8 Jan. 1932). The text of his statement, 1938, relating to his decision in the matter of the expropriation of Purcell and Craig land in Charlottenburgh Township for the St. Lawrence San is interesting for the views it gives of Costello at work. There, again in connection with the Depression, he remarks on the “depreciation in farm values since 1927.” (Standard Freeholder 5 Jan. 1938) An article on Judge Costello by a journalist who wrote under the initials R. A. J. (Ottawa Citizen, repr. Cornwall Freeholder 23 Dec. 1931) mentioned Costello’s fine library and his interest in GC history. Costello was an honorary president of the SDG Historical Society. (SFH 7 Feb. 1934) With regard to his personal origins, it was noted that he was one of five L’Orignal “old boys” who were Ontario judges. (SFH 28 Feb. 1934)

Glengarry News 23 March 1951 * Prominent People of the Province of Ontario (1925) 46 * Harkness 414 * Harper, plate 5 * GN 10 & 17 Jan. 1913, marriage * rumoured likely to be county court judge, GN 3 May 1929 * his appointment as judge was extensively reported in the local press, with biog. sketches, report on the banquet to honour him in Alexandria; see GN 13 & 20 Sept. & 4 Oct. 1929, Cornwall Freeholder 14 Sept. (with editorial of welcome) & 2 Oct. 1929 * Ostrom 104 * Boss 56 * Ross, Lancaster, 259, 323 * obituaries of his daughter, Kathleen Costello (d. 5 Jan. 1997, aged 90), GN 8 Jan. 1997, and of his son Judge Francis Costello, GN 25 Sept. 2002 * Martin Costello receives OBE, Standard Freeholder 14 June 1945