====== McRae, Milton Alexander ====== (13 June 1858-11 Oct. 1930), newspaper publisher. (Milton A. McRae; called “Colonel” by newspaper colleagues) Born in Detroit. Parents: Duncan B. McRae and his wife Helen Stevenson. Duncan B. McRae, the father of the subject of this sketch, “came as a wee lad to Canada” from the Kintail area of Ross-shire, Scotland, with his parents (who spoke both Gaelic and English), and he lived for a time at Glen Norman in the 9th Concession of Lancaster Township, GC, before migrating to the United States, where, after several previous places of residence, he settled in Detroit “about 1847,” when he was 33 years old. Milton A. McRae described Duncan B. as an “ardent” abolitionist, who helped pre-Civil War slaves escape via Detroit to Canada and who sheltered blacks from mob violence. An article in the //Glengarry News// of 1918 remembered that Duncan B. McRae “often visited his Glengarry friends especially the late John McLeod of Glen Norman.” Duncan B. McRae’s wife, Helen Stevenson, was of Lowland Scots and Irish family and had, presumably, no GC connections except through her husband. Milton A. McRae, who was a medical student before he turned to newspaperwork, was involved from the 1880s in building up, with Edward W. Scripps, what became known as the Scripps-McRae League of newspapers, of which McRae was joint owner and served as president (this League, in reorganized form, was later known as Scripps-Howard Newspapers). The Scripps-McRae Press Association, an organization for gathering and distributing news, was founded in 1897, and, again, McRae served as its president (later, it evolved into the United Press Association). When he was 49, ill health forced McRae into partial retirement from business. Thereafter, he travelled much and did philanthropic work, including work for the Boy Scouts of America. Milton A. McRae died in La Jolla, Calif. His eldest daughter Edith (d. 1918) was married to John P. Scripps (d. 1914), the son of McRae’s associate Edward W. Scripps. This family alliance exacerbated rather than improved the ill-tempered Edward W. Scripps’s often stormy relationship with McRae. After the early death of both parents, McRae became guardians of John P.’s son. Milton A. McRae described his own life in his //Forty Years in Newspaperdom: the Autobiography of a Newspaper Man// (NY, Brentano’s Publishers, 1924; pp. xviii, 496). He was allotted an entry in the //Dictionary of American Biography// (//DAB//), but he was omitted from the recently issued new version of that work, the //American National Biography//. (//ANB//) Milton A. McRae had relatives in GC, and maintained some contacts there. In Sept. 1909, he entertained a party of 28 friends and relatives to a luncheon at the Grand Union Hotel in Alexandria. He was touring at this time with his wife, their two daughters and his sister, in their chauffeur-driven car. The //Glengarrian// reported in its account of the luncheon that McRae and his business partner then owned and controlled 25 American daily newspapers. McRae was back in GC again for a visit in 1922 (//Glengarry News// 4 Aug. 1922) and there were it may be assumed a few other visits as well. This very wealthy businessman was not a Glengarrian by birth or origin, but his success made him prominent in what may be described as “the second generation out” from GC. The //Glengarry News// article of 1918 already cited noted McRae’s “brilliant achievements,” calling him “one of the descendants of the Scottish race which has made the name of our historic county famous throughout the North American Continent.” Indeed, the newspaper noted, “Contractors, railway builders, mine owners, and in fact men of prominence in almost every sphere of life have shed an added lustre on the name of old Glengarry.” His attentions, small though they may have been in a life of dazzling success, to his old county, confirmed McRae’s place in the GC legends. The 1909 visit has been remembered over the years by the people who most actively and with greatest interest strive to keep alive the Glengarry traditions and anecdotes. ---- //DAB// life * his //Forty Years in Newspaperdom// (QF ) * biog. in //National Cyclopaedia of American Biography//, XVI (1937) 148-149 * lives of members of Scripps family, //ANB// * Edward W. Scripps, //I Protest//, ed. Oliver Knight (1966): Scripps’s hostile attitudes to McRae * Jack Casserly, //Scripps: the Divided Dynasty// (1993) * biog. article on McRae, based on the death of his daughter Mrs Scripps, //Glengarry News// 18 Dec. 1918, repr. Fraser //Obits.// 279 * Ross, //Lancaster//, 291, 319-321 (repr. of the //DAB// article) * visit 1909: //Cornwall Standard //24 Sept. 1909 (mostly repr. from //Glengarrian//), with note also //CS //17 Sept. 1909 * the Roy Howard Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, have material relating to McRae * A. N. Marquis, ed., //The Book of Detroiters: a Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Detroit// (2nd edn., 1914) 332-333 [<6>]