(8 Oct. 1834-9 Sept. 1918), merchant. (D. A. MacArthur, Donald A. MacArthur) (dates 1830 and 28 Oct. 1836, 10 Sept. 1918 also found) Born at Grants Corners, Charlottenburgh Township., GC. Parents: Alexander MacArthur and his wife Mary Macdonald. Alexander MacArthur’s grandfather MacArthur had fought at Culloden. Mary Macdonald was the sister of Col. Archibald McDonell of Osgoode Township. D. A. MacArthur was educated in Cornwall and Alexandria. As a young man, he worked as a schoolteacher for several years in GC. In Alexandria, after an initial period on his own as a merchant, he was first an employee of A. S. Macdonald, and then a partner of George Harrison. In 1874 he again began business on his own in Alexandria as a merchant. He was one of the promoters of the Canada Atlantic Railway, and one of its directors. In a letter to The Cornwall Reporter of 12 Nov. 1881 he attacked the directors of the Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway (the defunct predecessor of the Canada Atlantic; D.A. “Sandfield” Macdonald was the director principally aimed at) with great sharpness over the burning issue of the township bonds. At the Kenyon Township nomination meeting of Dec. 1881 (the meeting at which D. A. Macdonald was howled down by the ratepayers) he again attacked Macdonald vigorously on the subject of the bonds. MacArthur “was in capital feather and made a rattling good speech.” It was perhaps in connection with this scene that “brave MacArthur” is cited in Dr Donald Duncan Macdonald’s poem on “A Trip to the Cairn,” as teaching his enemies law at “Kenyon, council day.”

     MacArthur was nominated for reeve of Kenyon (for the year 1882) at this meeting. He must have caused Macdonald great political and personal embarrassment, but nevertheless, in the election he himself was defeated for reeve, the victor being James Clark. In the GC provincial by-election of 18 Oct. 1882 MacArthur ran as the Conservative against James Rayside but was defeated. MacArthur was elected reeve of the newly incorporated village of Alexandria in Jan. 1885, defeating D. A. Macdonald. Altogether, MacArthur was reeve of Alexandria 1885-1890, 1896-1898. In 1886, he was warden of SDG. As a member of the SDG Council, he was chairman of the project begun in 1888 for the deepening of the River Beaudette.

     On 26 Oct. 1895, late in life, he married Janet McDonald (d. 1937), daughter of Angus Mcdonald, the registrar of GC. Clarence Ostrom somewhat surprisingly says she was herself a deputy registrar in the GC registry office, resigning about Aug. 1895.

     Like other GC businessmen of the time, MacArthur had investments in the timber business. About 18 years before his death, MacArthur gave up mercantile life. Thereafter, he was involved in real estate and conveyancing. He was one of the leaders in the vigorous but ultimately unsuccessful campaign of 1906-1908 to effect the separation of GC from SDG. In the later part of World War I he served on the local tribunal set up under the Military Service Act. His older son Donald Alexander MacArthur (14 Jan. 1898-4 Nov. 1917) joined the 154th Highlanders and perished in the war. His name and dates appear on his father’s gravestone, with the words “Killed in Action at Passchendaele.” His other son Angus L. MacArthur outlived his father by nearly three-quarters of a century. A Toronto resident, he is described as having “returned to Glengarry every summer to visit friends and relatives.” (his obituary, Glengarry News 31 Jan. 1990) D. A. MacArthur, the subject of the present sketch, died at his home in Alexandria and is buried in St. Finnan’s cemetery. Roman Catholic. He was noted to be an able public speaker, and of a pleasing personality. He had a brother Archibald MacArthur who was reeve of Cornwall Township.

Glengarry News 13 Sept. 1918 (with portrait), Cornwall Standard 12 &19 Sept. 1918 * biog. sketch in Rose, i, 650-651 * Harkness 269, 271, with portrait * GHS Newsletter, Nov. 1996 * MacGillivray & Ross 460 * Ostrom 262 * MacArthur gravestone, St. Finnan’s cemetery * obituary of his wife, Standard Freeholder 1 Sept. 1937 * death of his mother: Cornwall Freeholder 25 April 1890, cited DTL SFH 22 April 1944 * Roderick Lewis, 94 * Ross, Lancaster, 212, 259 * CF 25 March, 8 April, & 8 July 1881, verse satire on MacArthur by Dunvegan author, joke that reeve-expectant MacArthur has bought Glengarry Times press (see J. C. McNEIL) to use as Kenyon Township stone crusher, insinuation (in Dunvegan column) that MacArthur, for spite, kept the Canada Atlantic Railway from going through Dunvegan * ref. to his “two stores,” Glengarry Times, 27 Aug. * anecdote re MacArthur and prospering farmer, Cornwall Reporter 15 Oct. 1881 * Kenyon Township meeting and reeveship campaign: Cornwall Reporter 3 & 31 Dec. 1881, 14 Jan. 1882 * promotes building by SDG of two iron bridges in GC (at Alexandria, and on the River Beaudette), GN 7 Feb. 1902, 16 Jan. 1903 * son Donald leaves for St. Michael’s College, Toronto, dies WWI, GN 22 Oct. 1915, 23 Nov. 1917