====== McNab, Archibald ====== (20 Jan. 1825 or 1826-17 July 1904), political figure. (Sheriff McNab) Born at Breadalbane, in GC. Parents: Alexander McNab and his wife Catherine McDougall or Macdougall. This couple came to Canada from Scotland in 1815 on the //Atlas// among the settlers under the Bathurst proclamation. Alexander McNab acquired altogether 500 acres of land in the 8th and 9th Concession of Lochiel Township, GC, and 150 acres in Prescott County. His son Archibald, the subject of the present sketch, attended primary school at Breadalbane. Archibald was a farmer on Lot 16 in the 8th Concession of Lochiel (the land on which his parents first settled) and took part in the lumber business. On 7 Jan. 1851 he was married to Margaret McArthur; she predeceased him by many years. He was a councillor and reeve for Lochiel Township, and the warden in 1868 of SDG, and was one of the directors of the Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway, and a vice president of the Canada Atlantic Railway. As the Liberal candidate for the GC constituency he stood at the Ontario general elections of 1867 and 1875, being defeated both times by his Conservative opponent, who in 1867 was James Craig and in 1875 A. J. Grant. At the GC federal by-election of 7 July 1875 (the by-election necessitated by the decision of D. A. Macdonald to vacate his federal seat in order to become lieutenant governor of Ontario), McNab was elected the Liberal MP for the GC constituency, defeating the Conservative candidate, the future Senator Donald McMillan. Clarence Ostrom records the tradition that McNab was D. A. Macdonald’s especial candidate. The Conservatives challenged the election results in the courts, with the outcome that the results were voided, and another by-election took place on 31 July 1876. This time, however, Dr McMillan declined to be a candidate, and John McLennan opposed McNab, unsuccessfully. In the federal general election of 17 Sept. 1878, John McLennan, again the Conservative candidate, defeated McNab. McNab’s parliamentary career was therefore short. He had the reputation of being a man of ability, but had little opportunity to show his abilities in Parliament. It is said, however (as recorded by Harkness), that his speech in 1876 on the budget was the finest in the debate. Donald S. Fraser, giving a different slant on this, has preserved an interesting tradition that “ the speech was probably written by his neighbour Peter MacIntosh,” the father of the J. E. McIntosh who wrote under the pen name of “Sandy Fraser.” This was an age when Glengarrians loved to hear good public speakers, and from his //Glengarry News// obituary we learn that McNab, one of “Glengarry’s eloquent sons,” had a justly earned reputation in his early years as “one of the best stump speakers in the province.” It was reported in 1882 that Archibald McNab, ex-MP, had sold his farm of 200 acres in the 6th [sic] of Lochiel for $7000 and had left for Winnipeg, “where he intends to reside.” (//Cornwall Freeholder// 24 Feb. 1882) The aforementioned obituary describes him as being in the Winnipeg real estate business with his sons A. F. and John A. McNab. Whatever his plans at that time with regard to remaining in the West, he may have been forced to alter them by the death in Winnipeg shortly after of the son A. F. McNab. Archibald McNab was made license inspector for GC in 1887. The Alexandria Conservative newspaper criticized the appointment as grossly partisan, which was a flamboyantly unreasonable objection in the context of the time, and complained that it violated promises made by James Rayside. (//Glengarrian// 6 May 1887) In 1897, when he was in his early 70s, McNab was made sheriff for SDG, in succession to Dr D. E. McIntyre, and was honoured accordingly at a complimentary banquet in Alexandria. He remained sheriff till his death. Following the appointment he moved to Cornwall. It was at Breadalbane, however, having been taken ill at nearby Vankleek Hill, that he died, “on the old homestead… in the same room in which he was born, nearly 80 years ago.” (five children) The burial was at Breadalbane. He was a Protestant, almost certainly a Presbyterian. Despite their Breadalbane associations, the McNabs of his stock are said not to have been Baptists. In 1889, he addressed the Celtic Society of Montreal on “The Early History of Glengarry.” (//Cornwall Freeholder// 22 Feb. 1889, cited in Down the Lane column, //Standard Freeholder// 23 Feb. 1946) His essay on “The Settlement of the Township of Lochiel, Glengarry,” was printed in the //Transactions of the Celtic Society of Montreal//, 1892. Generally a good, plain history of the subject of its title, intelligent if sternly cautious, it will be most valued today as the testimony of an eyewitness whose own recollections went back to pioneer days; he has valuable remarks on the early prevalence of Gaelic and especially on its decline among the Breadalbane people, owing, he thought, to their exposure to the anglophone settlers of West Hawkesbury Township next door. His daughter Christina or Christena married Robert Campbell who was MLA for Renfrew South and was the son of Robert Campbell the lumberman. Archibald McNab’s businessman son John Arthur McNab (John A. McNab) already mentioned lived for many years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, being a resident there at the time of his father’s death, but after financial reverses perished by suicide in the Niagara River in 1908. (death of John A. McNab: //Cornwall Freeholder// 17 July 1908) Archibald McNab was the uncle of A. P. McNab, the lieutenant-governor of Saskatchewan, and was the great-uncle of Angus McMillan the Saskatoon real estate man. Also, it may be noted Mrs Margaret Dixon MacDougall was a tutor to the sisters of the future Member of Parliament. ---- //Glengarry News// 22 July 1904 (QF) * St. Columba CR, 16 (birth, baptism) * Harkness: index (portrait) * Ostrom 278, 243-244 * Roderick Lewis 94 * MacGillivray & Ross: index * three articles by Elizabeth Mary McNab, Donald S. Fraser, and Marion MacMaster on the McNabs of Lochiel Township, //Glengarry Life// No. 32 (1993) * McNab printed genealology in 12-pp, photocopy with no title page but with p. 1 headed “The McNabs,” given to present author in 1970s by Elizabeth Blair; the just mentioned article by Elizabeth Mary McNab (d. 1948) is condensed from this source * //Campbell (1983)//, 208 * Campbell, Tannis, & Stewart, //MacDougalls//, 220 * and Montreal & City of Ottawa Junction Railway, Canada Atlantic Railway, //Witness// 29 May 1872, //Gleaner// 3 March 1881, resp. * obituary of A. F. McNab: //Glengarry Times//, 29 April 1882, repr. from Winnipeg //Times// of 10 April 1882 * made sheriff, banquet, //Vankleek Hill Review// 12 Feb. & 5 March 1897, //GN// 19 Feb. 1897 [<6>]