| (//fl//. 1830s to 1870s), cooper and piper. (Allan the Cooper; sp. also Alan) Born in Canada. His parents were probably Hector McDonald, who was a cooper and a piper, and Margaret McPhee, natives of Scotland and Red River settlers. Allan McDonald can be traced with reasonable certainty that we are dealing with the same man throughout the censuses of 1851-1852, 1861 and 1871. At the time of the 1851-1852 census, he belonged to a household in Roxborough Township, Stormont County, but he was actually resident in Charlottenburgh Township, GC. By the 1861 census he was living in Kenyon Township, GC. The location was probably Concession 20 or 21 of Indian Lands, i.e., the Athol area. By the time of the 1871 census, he had moved a little farther west and was living on Lot 13 in the 7th Concession of Roxborough Township, as a tenant. Consistently throughout these censuses, he is described as a member of the Church of Scotland by religion and as a cooper by trade. The census information indicates he was born somewhere around 1830. He may have been the child whose baptism on 20 Jan. 1829 is recorded in the St. Raphael’s registers. It is said that in the pioneer period children in GC-area Protestant families sometimes were baptized by Roman Catholic priests. | (//fl//. 1830s to 1870s), cooper and piper. (Allan the Cooper; sp. also Alan) Born in Canada. His parents were probably Hector McDonald, who was a cooper and a piper, and Margaret McPhee, natives of Scotland and Red River settlers. Allan McDonald can be traced with reasonable certainty that we are dealing with the same man throughout the censuses of 1851-1852, 1861 and 1871. At the time of the 1851-1852 census, he belonged to a household in Roxborough Township, Stormont County, but he was actually resident in Charlottenburgh Township, GC. By the 1861 census he was living in Kenyon Township, GC. The location was probably Concession 20 or 21 of Indian Lands, i.e., the Athol area. By the time of the 1871 census, he had moved a little farther west and was living on Lot 13 in the 7th Concession of Roxborough Township, as a tenant. Consistently throughout these censuses, he is described as a member of the Church of Scotland by religion and as a cooper by trade. The census information indicates he was born somewhere around 1830. He may have been the child whose baptism on 20 Jan. 1829 is recorded in the St. Raphael’s registers. It is said that in the pioneer period children in GC-area Protestant families sometimes were baptized by Roman Catholic priests. |
| <tab>Charles Sinclair, in his memoirs, recalls that “Alan the Cooper, with his pipes would strike up a tune” at bees and similar gatherings. In a loving description of one of the first weddings Sinclair attended (“Oh what a feast table after table providing good things”), Sinclair notes that “Alan the Cooper” played the pipes. So in fact on this occasion, Sinclair relates, did the Rev. Daniel Gordon, who, Sinclair says, “could play well” and who, according to his son Charles W. Gordon (the novelist “Ralph Connor”), was a great lover of the pipes. Allan the Cooper appears in Chapter 14 of Connor’s //Glengarry School Days//, where, a sporting competition having been planned, “A big crowd awaited the appearance of ‘the folks from the Front.’ They were expected about two, but it was not till half-past that there was heard in the distance the sound of the bagpipes. ‘Here they are! That’s Alan the cooper’s pipes,’ was the cry, and before long, sure enough there appeared Alphonse le Roque driving his French-Canadian team, the joy and pride of his heart,…” (For Alphonse le Roque the horseman see the notes in the Appendix to the biography of C. W. Gordon this dictionary.) Allan the Cooper died between 1871 and 1881. He had TB, and after his death his pipes are said to have been buried or burned to avoid their spreading the disease to anyone else. He was married to Catherine McIntosh, probably of Lochiel Township. Long outliving her husband, she died 2 Feb. 1925, in Montreal, and was buried at Maxville. | <tab>Charles Sinclair, in his memoirs, recalls that “Alan the Cooper, with his pipes would strike up a tune” at bees and similar gatherings. In a loving description of one of the first weddings Sinclair attended (“Oh what a feast table after table providing good things”), Sinclair notes that “Alan the Cooper” played the pipes. So in fact on this occasion, Sinclair relates, did the Rev. Daniel Gordon, who, Sinclair says, “could play well” and who, according to his son Charles W. Gordon (the novelist “Ralph Connor”), was a great lover of the pipes. Allan the Cooper appears in Chapter 14 of Connor’s //Glengarry School Days//, where, a sporting competition having been planned, “A big crowd awaited the appearance of ‘the folks from the Front.’ They were expected about two, but it was not till half-past that there was heard in the distance the sound of the bagpipes. ‘Here they are! That’s Alan the cooper’s pipes,’ was the cry, and before long, sure enough there appeared Alphonse le Roque driving his French-Canadian team, the joy and pride of his heart,…” (For Alphonse le Roque the horseman see the notes in the Appendix to the biography of [[gordon_charles_william|C. W. Gordon]] this dictionary.) Allan the Cooper died between 1871 and 1881. He had TB, and after his death his pipes are said to have been buried or burned to avoid their spreading the disease to anyone else. He was married to Catherine McIntosh, probably of Lochiel Township. Long outliving her husband, she died 2 Feb. 1925, in Montreal, and was buried at Maxville. |
