Dictionary of Glengarry Biography

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====== Smillie, Alexander Innis ====== 
 (Alexander I. Smillie, Alex Smillie) (1857-1910), and his brother **John William Smillie** (John W. Smillie, John Smillie) (died 4 April 1934, aged 78 or 79) and John’s son **John Walter Smillie** (Walter Smillie, J. Walter Smillie) (1904- 20 Feb. 1984), businessmen. Alexander I. Smillie was born at Huntingdon, Que. Parents: William Smillie and his wife, whose surname was Innis. Alexander Innis Smillie worked in stores at Athol and Dunvegan, both in GC. Later, he operated a general store, post office and tailor shop at St. Elmo. When a “frame house” on the SE corner of the St. Elmo crossroads burned in Nov. 1944, it was described as a landmark of St. Elmo, “erected some 65 years ago by Alex and John W. Smillie and… used both as a general store and post office in by-gone years.” (//Glengarry News// 17 Nov. 1944) If the implications of this statement are correct, it would seem that his brother John W. Smillie was already associated with him in business when Alexander was at St. Elmo, but by another account John, who had been in California, did not join Alexander till they settled in Maxville. Alexander I. Smillie was married to Elizabeth Spencer, also of Huntingdon, Que. When the coming of the Canada Atlantic Railway through GC sparked the rise of Maxville, Alexander I. Smillie moved into the new village and with his brother John W. Smillie operated there a store called Smillie Brothers.

<tab>Alexander I. Smillie left Maxville in 1894, after the death of his wife, and settled in California, where he followed a business career which included some connection with the Klondike in gold rush days. One of his daughters married Dr W. B. MacDiarmid. John W. Smillie, after the business partnership with his brother was dissolved, gave up for a time the general merchant occupation, and under the firm name Smillie & Robertson was the partner of a Duncan Robertson in operating the Maxville sawmill and sash-and-door factory. Afterwards, Smillie was a partner in a Maxville store for some years with Dan McDiarmid, the firm name being Smillie & McDiarmid. McDiarmid left the partnership about 1933. John W. Smillie was married to Jessie A. Stirling (d. 28 Sept. 1904, aged 42). Their son William Alexander Smillie (20 Nov. 1896-13 Nov. 1916) was killed in the battle of the Somme a week before his 20th birthday. A younger son, J. Walter Smillie (Walter Smillie), continued the Maxville business till 1949, when he sold his general store and egg-grading station at Maxville to J.N. Fitzgerald. (//Glengarry News// 9 Sept. 1949) The store had been burned in 1935, but was rebuilt. After giving up his Maxville business, Walter Smillie lived in Peterborough, where he was the manager of an arena, and in Sarnia. He was in 1935 married to Georgia Anna Wilson (1909-1979) of Riceville, Ont. (children surviving him: 2) During his Maxville years, Walter Smillie was secretary-treasurer of the Maxville Millionaires, Maxville’s celebrated hockey club, and probably the best-known ever of all GC sports teams.


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<fs small>Alexander I. Smillie: Munro (T.W.) 11 Nov. 1938, repr. //Maxville (1967) //80-81; honoured on leaving Maxville for Calif., //Glengarry News// 3 Aug. 1894 * John W. Smillie: //Standard Freeholder// 4 & 13 April 1934, //GN// 6 April 1934; gravestone, Maxville Cemetery * J. Walter Smillie: //GN// 29 Feb. 1984; gravestone, Franklin Corners Cemetery * //Maxville (1991) //84-85, 306-307, 315, 319, 347 * Clark Hoople & Walter Smillie buy Maxville building, //GN// 9 March 1945 * photog. “Smillie Bros.” store, Maxville, c. 1890s, //GN// 29 Dec. 1999, also on family, Winter //GN// 5 Jan. & 4 Oct. 2000
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