| <tab>Through his work in promoting the GC cheese industry, so long the economic mainstay of GC farmers, D. M. Macpherson had a greater influence on GC economic history than any other man. His cheese factory on his Allan Grove farm was one of the first in the county. In the end, the GC cheese industry outlived Macpherson by only about forty years (a period a little longer, in number of years, than his own active career as a cheeseman), being effectively wound up in the 1950s. His employment served as a valuable “school” to instruct others in the cheese business, and not just in the actual work of making the product, but in the management of the business. For successful former employees, notable in the dairying business, see J. A. Kinsella, J. A. Ruddick, Wesley McLeod. One of his strongest abilities seems to have been that of a picker of talent–a feature notable in his choice of employees. Otherwise, Macpherson himself was clever, thoughtful, innovative and energetic, with a speculative touch, but he seems to have lacked a forceful personality, or at least as forceful a personality as one might expect from the remarkable success he enjoyed for so long–though not, as it turned out, to the end of his life. | <tab>Through his work in promoting the GC cheese industry, so long the economic mainstay of GC farmers, D. M. Macpherson had a greater influence on GC economic history than any other man. His cheese factory on his Allan Grove farm was one of the first in the county. In the end, the GC cheese industry outlived Macpherson by only about forty years (a period a little longer, in number of years, than his own active career as a cheeseman), being effectively wound up in the 1950s. His employment served as a valuable “school” to instruct others in the cheese business, and not just in the actual work of making the product, but in the management of the business. For successful former employees, notable in the dairying business, see [[kinsella_john_a|J. A. Kinsella]], [[ruddick_john_archibald|J. A. Ruddick]], [[mcleod_wesley|Wesley McLeod]]. One of his strongest abilities seems to have been that of a picker of talent–a feature notable in his choice of employees. Otherwise, Macpherson himself was clever, thoughtful, innovative and energetic, with a speculative touch, but he seems to have lacked a forceful personality, or at least as forceful a personality as one might expect from the remarkable success he enjoyed for so long–though not, as it turned out, to the end of his life. |
| <tab>His title of the Cheese King came from the contemporary British and American practice of calling prominent businessmen the “King” of whatever form of commerce they excelled in. References to Macpherson, in whatever context, in the GC and Cornwall press of his time, usually include the title of Cheese King. This helped to distinguish him, of course, from other Macphersons. How widely the title was used by the people in everyday speech, as opposed to the press, we have no way of knowing. And when the term was used by the people, such as the farmers talking with their neighbours at the cheese factory, was it always used by them in the sympathetic way it was used in print? Indeed, how difficult it must have been for the GC Scots of his time, with their biting, mocking Celtic wit, to repeat that title of “Cheese King” without letting their intonation give a satirical edge to the words. Glengarry as much as Ireland had its Celtic “begrudging.” Once multitudes knew the answer to the question of how the populace used the title. Now, with the change of generations, it stands unanswerable. | <tab>His title of the Cheese King came from the contemporary British and American practice of calling prominent businessmen the “King” of whatever form of commerce they excelled in. References to Macpherson, in whatever context, in the GC and Cornwall press of his time, usually include the title of Cheese King. This helped to distinguish him, of course, from other Macphersons. How widely the title was used by the people in everyday speech, as opposed to the press, we have no way of knowing. And when the term was used by the people, such as the farmers talking with their neighbours at the cheese factory, was it always used by them in the sympathetic way it was used in print? Indeed, how difficult it must have been for the GC Scots of his time, with their biting, mocking Celtic wit, to repeat that title of “Cheese King” without letting their intonation give a satirical edge to the words. Glengarry as much as Ireland had its Celtic “begrudging.” Once multitudes knew the answer to the question of how the populace used the title. Now, with the change of generations, it stands unanswerable. |
