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| <tab>And in fact, we do have a record, if a late and by no means favourable one, that Dr Simpson of Alexandria also attended to patients at Dunvegan. An extract, dated 1942, from the Dunvegan Tweedsmuir history states: “There was no resident doctor at Dunvegan in the early days… At Alexandria lived Dr. Simpson (Doctor Dhu, the Black doctor) who also administered to the ills of the [Dunvegan] villagers. When you went for him you took two horses–one for him to travel on. Then he was very often under the influence of liquor so he’d have to sober up before making the journey. On his return trip two horses accompanied him too–someone had to bring back the horse the doctor rode.” This is the only reference that has been found to the doctor having a drink problem. The failing was not uncommon among pioneer physicians, and for that reason is so easily imputed to a particular physician as identities blur in anecdotal history that a single reference such as this must be taken with caution. | <tab>And in fact, we do have a record, if a late and by no means favourable one, that Dr Simpson of Alexandria also attended to patients at Dunvegan. An extract, dated 1942, from the Dunvegan Tweedsmuir history states: “There was no resident doctor at Dunvegan in the early days… At Alexandria lived Dr. Simpson (Doctor Dhu, the Black doctor) who also administered to the ills of the [Dunvegan] villagers. When you went for him you took two horses–one for him to travel on. Then he was very often under the influence of liquor so he’d have to sober up before making the journey. On his return trip two horses accompanied him too–someone had to bring back the horse the doctor rode.” This is the only reference that has been found to the doctor having a drink problem. The failing was not uncommon among pioneer physicians, and for that reason is so easily imputed to a particular physician as identities blur in anecdotal history that a single reference such as this must be taken with caution. |
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| <tab>J.G. Harkness evidently sought out unpublished material on Dr Simpson for the biographical sketch in Harkness’ history. Harkness records that the home Dr Simpson built in Alexandria, at the corners of Kenyon and Ottawa Streets, was at the time of Harkness’ writing occupied by Dan (called Big Dan) MacGillivray (for Big Dan, see Dr John Duncan McGillivray). Harkness does not mention that Dr Simpson was black. Dr Simpson’s grandson, James R. Simpson, Harkness notes as being clerk treasurer of SDG in the 1920s. Dr Simpson died just as Alexandria was leaving its status as a backwoods village and was entering upon the remarkable boom period which the town enjoyed between the coming in of the Canada Atlantic Railway in the early 1880s and the decline of Alexandria’s industries about the time of WWI. His daughter Miss Barbara Simpson, who died in 1936, was the “last surviving member of the family [i.e., of the children] of the late James Simpson, M.D.” (her obituary //Glengarry News// 7 Feb. 1936) | <tab>J.G. Harkness evidently sought out unpublished material on Dr Simpson for the biographical sketch in Harkness’ history. Harkness records that the home Dr Simpson built in Alexandria, at the corners of Kenyon and Ottawa Streets, was at the time of Harkness’ writing occupied by Dan (called Big Dan) MacGillivray (for Big Dan, see [[mcgillivray_john_duncan|Dr John Duncan McGillivray]]). Harkness does not mention that Dr Simpson was black. Dr Simpson’s grandson, James R. Simpson, Harkness notes as being clerk treasurer of SDG in the 1920s. Dr Simpson died just as Alexandria was leaving its status as a backwoods village and was entering upon the remarkable boom period which the town enjoyed between the coming in of the Canada Atlantic Railway in the early 1880s and the decline of Alexandria’s industries about the time of WWI. His daughter Miss Barbara Simpson, who died in 1936, was the “last surviving member of the family [i.e., of the children] of the late James Simpson, M.D.” (her obituary //Glengarry News// 7 Feb. 1936) |
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| <tab>With regard to GC and the history of blacks in Dr Simpson’s time, it may also be noted that on 3 Sept. 1875 Jessie Stewart from Baltics Corners, near Dunvegan, was married at Dunvegan by the Rev. Kenneth Mcdonald, the Presbyterian minister of Alexandria, to Henry Blake Wright, JP, of Montreal, who has been remembered as being “a coloured man.” | <tab>With regard to GC and the history of blacks in Dr Simpson’s time, it may also be noted that on 3 Sept. 1875 Jessie Stewart from Baltics Corners, near Dunvegan, was married at Dunvegan by the Rev. Kenneth Mcdonald, the Presbyterian minister of Alexandria, to Henry Blake Wright, JP, of Montreal, who has been remembered as being “a coloured man.” |
