(5 July 1843-9 Dec. 1928), physician. (Dr Jim) Born at Nairn, Scotland. Parents: Rev. John Munro and his wife Esther Thompson. He came to Canada at the age of 10 with his father, who was a missionary preacher for the Church of Scotland. The future Dr Munro’s mother and four other children came to Canada later, and the reunited family lived in Roxborough Township. James T. Munro attended high school at Hawkesbury, and was a schoolteacher in the area between Hawkesbury and Vankleek Hill. In 1872 he obtained his medical degree from McGill. Dr Munro established a medical practice at Dominionville before the railway, which was to create Maxville, went through this portion of Indian Lands. In 1888, he moved from Dominionville to the new village of Maxville. Dr Munro’s ledger of professional calls 1873 to 1881 while he was at Dominionville still exists. He retired from practice 12 years or by another account 18 years before his death. Dr Munro made many visits to California, where he had his own orange grove near Rialto, far from the snowy streets of Maxville.
His death was at his home in Maxville. He was a Presbyterian, and afterwards a member of the United Church. On 5 Feb. 1874 he was married to Christena Robertson (d. 23 July 1934), the sister of Alexander H. Robertson of Maxville. Their son the Rev. John Munro (1874-2 Jan. 1925) was a clergyman in British Columbia and California, but by 1921 he was a lawyer (Glengarry News 25 Nov. 1921) and he is described as having been “prominent” in the legal profession in California. Dr and Mrs Munro were the parents also of Olive O’Hara and of Dr J. Howard Munro, who was also a physician in Maxville. The two Dr Munros made up one of the three remarkable father-son combinations which we find practising medicine in Maxville in this period. (For the others, see Dr Donald and Dr W.B. MacDiarmid, and Dr Duncan and Dr Bennett McEwan.) Dr James T. Munro was a Conservative in politics, and is recorded to have been a close friend of Sir Donald Macmaster.
A few weeks after the death of Dr James T. Munro, the Glengarry News published an anonymous, and surprisingly frank, tribute to him. “for long he was known as ‘Wild Jim Munro.’ He was a devotee to the prevailing worship of Whiskey and only used conventional English as punctuations for his lurid speech.” But conversion and religious commitments followed. He “would so busy himself in thought as to pass his own wife on the road, speak to her and ask for her people while he passed on still studying some baffling case he had met that day.” The author of this tribute may have been the Rev. G. Watt Smith. Smith, who is described in Munro’s obituary as “an old personal friend,” remembered Dr Munro in his autobiography as the only non-rural member of his St. Elmo congregation, and praised his conduct of prayer meetings. Thomas W. Monro, who is less likely to have been the author of the anonymous tribute, wrote elsewhere about Dr James T. Munro that “To a stranger, his manner was brusque even to abruptness, but he was one of the most tender hearted of men, espcially when children were concerned.” Thomas W. Monro speaks also with warmth of Dr Munro’s knowledge and skill as a physician, and he reports that “His fame as a healer of men went far beyond the confines of this district.” Dr Munro was a cousin of Katherine Thompson.
Cornwall Freeholder 12 Dec. 1928, Glengarry News 14 and 21 Dec. 1928 * Campbell, Tannis and Stewart, MacDougalls, 223-225 * Maxville (1991) 294, 774-778 (portrait), 347 (1918 Maxville phone directory for the Drs Munro, father and son * Harkness 455-456 * ledger 1873-1881: described in Gordon Winter’s column, GN 17 May 1995 * Munro GN 24 Feb. 1939, repr. with no author or source stated Maxville (1967) 84-85 * Fraser (1959) 201 * Rev. G. Watt Smith, From the Plough to the Pulpit: a Plain Pastor’s Pathway (1947) 65 * son John Munro: life in Morgan (1912) 835; sources as for his father; tribute from Kingston Whig to Rev. John Munro, CF 16 Dec. 1898; receives LLD degree, Glengarry News 30 Oct. 1903 * Dr Munro appointed assoc. coroner, SDG, The Canadian Journal of Medical Science (Jan. 1877) * improves Maxville office with clapboarding, Glengarrian 25 Oct. 1889 * predicts yield of 12 carloads of oranges from his California plantation, GN 24 March 1905 * sells orange grove, GN 13 March 1914