(1804-10 Jan. 1886), merchant. Born in Lower Canada. Parents: Charles Leclair and his wife Mary Ann Choquette. Charles Leclair, the subject of the present article, settled about 1828 (dates 1828, 1833 and 1834 are given) on Lot 24, in the 6th Concession of Lancaster Township, and established a store and farm there. His enterprises flourished, and came to include an ashery (pearl-ash manufacture), a hotel, tenant houses, and other land, and moneylending. He was a postmaster, a JP, and a miliita officer. The settlement that grew up about his store was called Leclair’s Corner and Clairville (from his surname) but was afterwards renamed North Lancaster. The obituaries of his son Alexander noted that in the days before the Canada Atlantic and Canadian Pacific Railways came through GC, Charles Leclair did an extensive business extending from St-Polycarpe in the east to the northern regions of GC. He had a store by 1862 at Lancaster Station (now Lancaster), the village that grew up around the Grand Trunk station.

     Charles Leclair was probably the first French Canadian businessman to thrive on a large scale in GC. As such, he foreshadowed the many French Canadians who were later to own prosperous GC businesses. The Cornwall Freeholder of 4 Nov. 1881 suggested that to show government regard for the French Canadians of the Eastern District, a French Canadian from there should be appointed to the Senate, and that Charles Leclair of North Lancaster would be an excellent choice. The Lancaster, GC, newspaper, a few weeks later, spoke of Leclair as the man “who has of late been mentioned so conspicuously as the probable successor of Dr Brouse in the Dominion Senate. ” (Glengarry Times 31 Dec. 1881) The recently deceased Dr Brouse was not a French Canadian, but he belonged, like Leclair, to the eastern regions of Ontario.

     Charles Leclair died at his home at North Lancaster. He was married (1) to Mary Theresa Guindon (Thérèse Guindon, Marie-Thérèse Guindon, M. T. Guindon), who died 22 Nov. 1849, aged 38 (children surviving him: 9), and (2), at St. Raphael’s, on 30 Jan. 1850 (date 30 April also found), by the celebrated Father John (Rev. John Macdonald) to Mrs Caroline McDonell, née Caroline Barnum, who was the widow of Godfrey McDonell. She was born at Pointe-Fortune, and died 25 April 1900, aged 90 or 92. It may be noted that John Macdonell “Le Prêtre” (d. 1850) had a son called Godfrey. (For a possible literary connection, see also E. W. Thomson) Charles Leclair was the father of Alexander, Fr Louis William and Dr Peter Napoléon Leclair, all of this dictionary.

Cornwall Freeholder 8 Jan. 1886 * Dr Norbert Ferré, “The Leclairs of Glengarry,” Glengarry Life (1977) * MacGillivray & Ross 155-164 (portrait) * Ross, Lancaster, 104 (North Lancaster post office), 107, 136, 179, other refs. *marriage records, St. Raphael’s (second marriage) * death of widow, Glengarry News 27 April & 4 May 1900 * Leclair gravestone at St. Raphael’s; Fraser, Gravestones, III, 49 * will of Charles Leclair and inventory of his personal effects, in records of the Surrogate Court of SDG * Lovell 1857 332 * Walling’s 1862 map SDG * Belden Atlas 53, 83 * fight at Leclair’s hotel, North Lancaster, CF 5 May 1882 * death of his son Adolphus D. Leclair (1840-1914), of Brockville, Ont., Cornwall Standard 17 Sept. 1914 * “Descendants of Charles Leclair,” paper kindly contributed by Evelyn Scullion