(13 Feb. 1865-17 May 1948), lawyer, historian. (J.G. Harkness, John G. Harkness) Born in Matilda Township, Dundas County, Ont. Parents: Adam Harkness (1835-1904) and his wife Louisa Graham (d. 23 Jan. 1873). Adam Harkness, brother of Dr Andrew Harkness, was of Northern Ireland Presbyterian and U E Loyalist German ancestry, was warden of SDG in 1876, and was postmaster of the village of Iroquois, Ont., from 1883 till his death, and wrote a history of the Iroquois High School (published 1896). J.G. Harkness grew up on his father’s farm. His mother died just before he was 8 years old. As a young man, before deciding on the profession of the law and returning to Iroquois High School to continue his education, J.G. Harkness taught school for two years. From the University of Toronto (University College), he graduated B.A., 1888. He articled in the law offices of Maclennan, Liddell and Cline of Cornwall, and afterwards with Leitch and Pringle of Cornwall. In 1891, he was called to the bar.

     Except for one year practising law in Iroquois, he spent his long legal career in Cornwall. In 1905 he ran for mayor of Cornwall but was defeated by one vote. He was treasurer, clerk and town solicitor of Cornwall. In 1916, he was appointed crown attorney for SDG, in succession to James Dingwall. (Glengarry News 6 Oct. 1916) Dingwall held the position for 43 years, and Harkness held it for 31, so between them they held it for some three-quarters of a century. Through his work as crown attorney, but also through his many other public activities, Harkness was for many years a well-known public figure. Few people in SDG were more steadily and oftener noticed in the Cornwall press, where there were, indeed, innumerable references to him. Harkness was made a K.C. in 1928.

     His history of SDG was commissioned by the SDG Counties Council in 1941. (Glengarry News 31 Oct. 1941, Standard Freeholder 1 Nov. 1941; see also earlier editorial comment on this project, SFH 23 June 1941) A copy of the history was on display at the Standard-Freeholder office, Cornwall, by 30 July 1946, and public sale of the volumes was expected to begin a few days later. (SFH 30 & 31 July 1946, with editorial of tribute) The title of the substantial, well bound 601-page volume was Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry: a History 1784-1945. Harkness’ history has been much cited over the years, and it must be one of the best-known Ontario local histories. It is characterized by an admirably high degree of accuracy, and with great sureness in the appraisal of historical evidence. Events are not covered as extensively for the years from about Confederation onwards as they were for the earlier period. Also, the history concentrates on Cornwall and the area close to the St. Lawrence, to the neglect, among other areas, of the northern half of GC. Unlike his great predecessor Judge Pringle, Harkness paid little attention to social history. For him, history was first and foremost political history. The history of the SDG farming community passes virtually unnoticed. He wrote in a plain style, unadorned with rhetorical flourishes, but of admirable clarity. So easily that he hardly seems to be doing it, he disentangles and lays clear the often remarkably intricate family relationships of the huge number of people whose biographies he includes. Not of Highlander name himself, he is a faithful guide to the family links the Highlanders so much valued. Harkness gives, to a remarkable degree for a writer, a sense of happiness: he is a happy man, pleased with himself and with the world and its people as he finds them, and he imparts something of his happiness to the reader. To estimate his personality, which after all these years must be done predominantly on his writings, plus old press reports, it may be guessed–this is only a guess–that he was a pleasant, probably rather shy man, quick minded without showiness, and soft spoken but not talkative.

     Late in 1947, when he was approaching the age of 83, Harkness announced his resignation as crown attorney. (Glengarry News 12 Dec. 1947; SFH editorial of tribute 10 Dec. 1947 ) Clarence Ostrom complained, in his history of Alexandria, that Harkness lacked “push” as a crown attorney. (p. 108 ) Harkness died at Cornwall General Hospital. Presbyterian. He had been an elder since 1908 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Cornwall, and was active in the work of the church Sunday school. He was a Mason, and the Standard-Freeholder editorial on his death described him as “closely connected with the development of Masonry in this district.” Harkness was buried in the Harkness cemetery, Brinston, Ont. He was married, in 1892, to Laura Feader, of Iroquois. She died 29 Sept. 1936. (2 daughters) Harkness had a daughter living in Cornwall, and he was said to have been on good terms with her, but they found sharing accomodations with each other difficult, with the result that he lived in his later years at the Cornwallis Hotel in Cornwall. It was at the Cornwallis that he appears to have done much of the work on his history. The Cornwallis Hotel, new when he lived there and since torn down, was in the heyday of its short life the subject of much civic pride in Cornwall.

     Harkness’ history was reprinted in facsimile about 1972. It appears from a prefatory note to that edition that part of the original edition was destroyed in a store room fire in 1951. A short article by Harkness on “Miles Macdonell,” the son of “Spanish John” Macdonell, was published in Ontario History in 1948, the year of Harkness’ death. The historical papers collected by Harkness for his history disappeared after his death. According to one story, they were raided by children looking for postage stamps for their collections. Hopes that some of the papers will one day resurface have so far been frustrated. Like other prominent men of Cornwall in his day, J.G. Harkness was expected to be from time to time a public speaker, and he spoke on topics which included the poetry of James Whitcomb Riley. During the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway, Harkness Island in the St. Lawrence was named after him. (Standard Freeholder 27 & 28 June 1957) A memorial window in his memory donated by his daughters was unveiled 10 April 1949 in St. John’s Church, Cornwall . (SFH 7 & 12 April 1949; illust.) The United Counties of SDG commissioned the history Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry 1945-1978 (1982) by Clive and Frances Marin as a continuation and an update of the Harkness volume. It is abbreviated Marin in the notes to the present dictionary. A further volume of this admirably useful continuation by the same authors and covering SDG events to 2007 appeared in the final stages of the preparation of the present dictionary.

Standard Freeholder 17, 18, 20 May 1948, Glengarry News 21 May 1948 * Harkness on his own life, Harkness 415-418 * outline of Harkness’ life (with fine portrait) on dustjacket of the 1946 edition of his history, portrait also frontispiece both edns *obituary of his wife, Standard Freeholder 2 Oct. 1936 * life of Adam Harkness: Rose, i, 688-689, and Harkness: index * appraisals of the history: review by George W. Spragge, CHR 1947 337-338; MacGillivray & Ross 663-664; Bibliography of Glengarry 69; Ross, Lancaster, 336, 341; Royce MacGillivray, Glengarry Life 1996 * Harkness in index to Bibliography of Glengarry * newspaper progress reports on the writing of his history, SFH 15 Jan. 1942, 3 Nov. 1944, 29 Jan. 1945; see also W. J. Styles * attends Harkness family reunion at Dixon’s Corners, SFH 22 Aug. 1934 * Peter Emerson Harkness dies on the farm where he was born (brother of J. G. Harkness), SFH 11 Dec. 1935 * death of J. G. Harkness’ cousin, Iroquois native Dr Andrew H. Harkness, distinguished civil engineer, SFH 2 March 1943 * James Whitcomb Riley: Cornwall Freeholder 21 Jan. 1931, SFH 6 March 1935, 9 Oct. 1940, 15 Nov. 1941