Macdonald, Archibald John

(9 Jan. 1876-12 Jan. 1938), political figure. (Archie John Macdonald, Archibald J. Macdonald, A. J. Macdonald) Born at North Lancaster, GC. Parents: Hugh A. Macdonald and his wife Janet MacDonald. He attended the North Lancaster Public School, Williamstown High School and Belleville Commercial College. In his early years, he was an employee or student in a law office in Cornwall, and acquired a grounding in the law there; then afterwards he worked as bookkeeper for John McMartin (who was later an MP) on a contract McMartin had in the Crow’s Nest Pass, British Columbia. About 1900, he began business as a general merchant at North Lancaster, GC, in partnership at first with Alexander Leclair, then on his own after a year or two, and he continued to be a general merchant at North Lancaster till the end of his life. He was clerk-treasurer of Lancaster Township from 1902 or 1903 till his death. As the Liberal candidate for GC in the Ontario general election of 20 Oct. 1919, he was defeated by Duncan A. Ross, the United Farmers of Ontario candidate. Standing as a Liberal, he was elected MP for GC in the general election of 29 Oct. 1925, defeating Angus McGillis, Conservative, and J. W. Kennedy, Progressive. In the general election of 14 Sept. 1926, he was re-elected, defeating D. D. McCuaig, a Conservative. Macdonald completed his term but was not a candidate at the general election of 1930. Meanwhile, private life also went on, for in 1925 we find him building a new store at North Lancaster, after a fire on 2 March, a half year before his election victory, destroyed his old store with much merchandise. (Glengarry News 6 March & 27 Nov. 1925)

His Alexandria and Cornwall obituaries stressed that he played an important role both while MP and ex-MP as a defender of the Eastern Ontario farmers. “His store was a favorite meeting place for the farmers from the immediate district and there numerous matters pertaining to the improvement of farm conditions were discussed and considered and various schemes were managed which resulted in bettering conditions generally.” (obituary, GN) He was one of the founders in 1932 of a GC organization, the Cheese Factory Patrons’ Association, and he acted as its secretary-treasurer. He was also secretary of the Alexandria Cheese Board.

He died at his home at North Lancaster. (children surviving him: 2) Roman Catholic. He is buried at Glen Nevis Cemetery. He was married on 22 April 1903 to Elizabeth (Bessie) Macdonald (1877-1965) of Cornwall, daughter of Dan Macdonald, ex-warden of SDG. His sister Miss Elizabeth Macdonald was for many years a well-known teacher in the Roman Catholic school system in Cornwall. In 1949, with investiture in Cornwall being in 1950, she was awarded the medal Bene Merenti by Pope Pius XII.

Macdonald was the subject of one of GC’s surprisingly few political scandals. The issue was muffled for a time, but never completely suppressed. Clarence Ostrom put it on record privately in his typescript history that about 1937 a special audit of the accounts of Lancaster Township, of which Macdonald had been clerk-treasurer, showed that thousands of dollars were missing, but that as much as possible the matter was hushed up and no legal action was taken. This scandal, evidently well known at the level of rumours, probably reached publication for the first time in Ewan Ross’s Lancaster of 1982. The Ontario government in the late 1930s, vigorously but without getting much co-operation from Macdonald or the township authorities, investigated the question of the missing money, compiling thereby a fascinating file of papers now in the Ontario Archives. The investigation petered out with, seemingly, a little of the missing money recovered. In fairness, it must be admitted that there was not necessarily the embezzlement that many suspected, or even any dishonesty. It may have been that over time, through the horrendous sloth and dilatoriness that seem to have become the norm in the township’s management, aggravated by an aging man’s jealousy of his authority and of his right to work at his own speed, and his sense (said to have been found elsewhere in GC long-time township clerks!) of his own utter indispensibility, there simply developed a large discrepancy between the receipts and the expenditures of the township.

A son, D. Harold Macdonald, died in 1935, aged 18. (Standard Freeholder 17 May1935) Another son, Archibald S. Macdonald, who died 10 Oct. 1975, aged 68, was associated with his father in the general store at North Lancaster, then was prominent in organizing the growing and processing of flax in the GC-area when flax was briefly important there during World War II. Later, he worked for the post office department in Ottawa. Archibald S. Macdonald was married to Evelyn Whyte, daughter of Clement Whyte.