Dictionary of Glengarry Biography

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====== Macdonald, Alexander John de Lotbiniere ====== 
 (1857-24 Aug. 1935, died in his 78th year), businessman. (de Lotbiniere Macdonald, A. J. de Lotbiniere Macdonald, John de Lotbiniere Macdonald, de L. Macdonald; sp. also deLotbinière) Most likely he was born on his parents’ farm at Grays Creek, and we may guess from the dates involved that his childhood was spent there. Parents: Antoine Eustache DeBellefeuille Macdonald and his wife Marie Louise de Lotbiniere Harwood. He was the grandson of John Mcdonald of Garth, and had important family connections through the Harwoods and the Taschereaus and the de Lotbinières, and the Hon. William McGillivray of the North West Co. About 1896 he belonged to the Montreal firm “Macdonald Bros., importers.” He spent about the last 25 years of his life in Alexandria, therefore must have come there about 1910, and at the age of about 53. The Christian name by which he was known in Alexandria was “deLotbiniere.” He was described in his //Glengarry News// obituary as one of “Alexandria’s foremost citizens.”

<tab>He was the manager in Alexandria of Alexandria Wood Pipe factory, a small operation, probably basically of the workshop type, which made a product described as wood pipes or wire-bound pipes. The factory, built originally as a match factory but never used for the original purpose, was near the railway station. “Glengarry knew him best… as manager of the Alexandria Wood Pipe factory, where he was justly popular not only with his customers but with his employees to whom he always extended friendly consideration and fair treatment. He paid his men well and in return always obtained the best service of which they were capable. The excellence of the product spoke volumes for the ability of the manager and the efficiency of his staff.” (//Glengarry News// obituary) The plant stood closed following his death, and in the next year (//GN// 3 April 1936) it was reported that the machinery was to be shipped to Acton, Ont.

<tab>In W W I he was on the local recruiting committee, and after the war he was one of the promoters of the building of the Glengarry War Memorial. And in 1918 he was reported to be revisiting his native Grays Creek for the first time in nearly 25 years. (//Cornwall Standard// 5 Sept. 1918) And though the role may seem surprising, in 1923 he was manager of a debt collection agency, the “Glengarry Collection Agency,” based in Mill Square, Alexandria. (advert., //GN// 5 Oct. 1923) He belonged till his death to the board of trustees of the 154th Battalion. This board administered charitable funds for the benefit of ex-soldiers from the Battalion. Col. Boss, in his history of the SDG Highlanders, warmly commends the work of the board, which Boss seems to have regarded as often involving painful decisions about individuals. With his own money, Macdonald was praiseworthy, his Alexandria obituary states, for charitable acts to the poor. Also, Macdonald is described as “an inveterate reader”–an observation which, whatever form of words it takes, always remains frustratingly impenetrable when made about Glengarrians of his generation. Archibald Chaussegros de Léry Macdonald, deLotbiniere Macdonald’s brother, was said to have proved deLotbiniere to be, rightly, the 22nd chief of the Macdonalds of Keppoch.

<tab>Angus H. McDonell, in his recollections of the //Glengarry News// office about 1919, wrote that frequently occupying “a high back ornamented wicker chair” in an inner portion of the office “was a noted citizen deLotbiniere Macdonald. During our first calls we thought this gentleman was a member of the staff but later learned he would be either browsing through the prints or working on book accounts.” (//GN// 11 Jan. 1973)

<tab>Clarence Ostrom, in one of the fullest and most compelling character sketches in his typescript history, describes him as tall and of a fine presence, and of a most agreeable personality. Ostrom says that he was not wealthy, and that it was rumoured his Montreal kinsfolk had sent him to Alexandria as a place of exile because of his drinking problems. Ostrom thought he was the best bred man in GC in his time, surpassing in this role even J. A. Macdonell (Jack Greenfield). Ostrom notes also that he had wonderful stories about the distinguished older families of Montreal. Eugene Macdonald describes deLotbiniere as one of the friends who gathered to play cards at the “Sandfield” home of Garry Fen, Alexandria.

<tab>DeLotbiniere Macdonald died in the Montreal General Hospital. Roman Catholic. He was buried at Rigaud, Que. Probably he never married. He was survived by two brothers and one sister, all of Rigaud. Ostrom reports that at least fifty people from Alexandria went to Rigaud for the funeral.


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<fs small>//Standard Freeholder// 28 Aug. 1935, //Glengarry News// 30 Aug. 1935 (QF) * Ostrom 264 cf. 79 * Boss 70 (p. 132 in 1st edn.) * Macdonald, //Sandfields// [87] * family gravestone, Rigaud * //Lovell’s Montreal Directory for 1896-97// p. 789
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