====== Chisholm, Valentine G. ====== (11 July 1865- 23 Dec. 1958), farmer, township clerk. (Valentine Chisholm. V. G. Chisholm) Born in Lochiel Township, GC. Parents: Valentine Chisholm and his wife Sarah MacRae. His parents died when he was four years old and he was raised in the home of a bachelor uncle, Angus Chisholm. Valentine Chisholm was educated at the local schools and at Alexandria High School. For the remarkably long period of over 1/2 century, from 1898 till 11 Jan. 1949, he was clerk of Lochiel Township. He was also one of the organizers of the Glengarry Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and he was secretary-treasurer of the company for 54 years from its founding in 1895 till his retirement from the post in 1949. He took part in the founding of the Alexandria Cheese Board, and he was secretary also for many years of the Lorne Dairy Company. He died at Cornwall General Hospital. He was married in 1892 to Catherine Ann MacDonald (1866-1956). Their children included Angela Chisholm (Sister Aimée de Marie) and Mary Jane Chisholm the research chemist, who lived to be the last surviving of the children. One of the best known men in GC in his time, Valentine Chisholm established over many years a record of steady, unobtrusive public service. It was said in an obituary that he ressembled the “idealistic impression” people have of the hero of Ralph Connor’s //Man from Glengarry//. A devout Roman Catholic, he is said to have joked about the nearness of his birthday to the Orangemen’s day of celebration, the 12th of July. However, the date of birth does seem really to have been the 11th, not as a later version of this story would have it the 12th. He was evidently the brother of Dr Alexander Chisholm, a McGill medical graduate who practised medicine at Alexandria and died suddenly, a young man, 7 May 1883. Dr Chisholm had practised in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was a boarder at the Commercial Hotel, Alexandria. Valentine Chisholm of the present entry has to be distinguished from the other men named Valentine in the Chisholm family, including his nephew Valentine J. Chisholm (1887-19 June 1968), who was active in the Farm Forum movement of the 1950s in GC. ---- //Glengarry News// 25 Dec. 1958 * MacGillivray & Ross 147 * //Butternuts and Maple Sugar// 3, 189, 228-230 (Neatby), 333 * biog. sketch, //GN// 3 Feb. 1939 * remembered (with portrait), Ken McKenna’s column //GN// 9 Feb. 1994 * //Sinnsearachd// 250 * St. Alexander CR, I, 19 * Chisholm gravestones (on which the name Valentine appears a number of times), St. Alexander’s cemetery, Lochiel, GC * Dumbrille, //U//, 125-126 * Ostrom 109 * //Glengarry News// 20 March 1903, cheese board * //GN// 3 July 1942, Golden Wedding * //GN// 2 April 1943, Mrs Chisholm fractures hip * //GN// 14 July 1955, 90th birthday, date of birth 11th * death of Dr Chisholm, //Cornwall Freeholder// 11 May 1883, & DTL in //Standard Freeholder// 8 May 1948 * Valentine J. Chisholm: obituary, //GN// 20 June 1968; Farm Forum, //GN// 11 April 1952, 25 March 1954 [<6>]