(fl. early 20th century), hotel keeper. (John A. Cameron, Capt. J. A. Cameron) John A. Cameron was proprietor of the Commercial Hotel at Maxville in 1890 and from about 1894 he was proprietor of the Grand Union Hotel at Alexandria. (Maxville (1991) 78, Vankleek Hill Review 23 March 1894). In 1902, during a month’s trip to the Canadian West, he was reported to have bought 2000 acres of land in the Qu’Appelle River Valley. (Glengarry News 17 Oct. 1902). By 1925, Mrs Cameron, evidently by then a widow, and her daughters left Alexandria to live in Ottawa. (GN 15 & 29 May 1925) He was one of the various GC people who shared the John A. Cameron name with the celebrated John A. (“Cariboo”) Cameron.

     The identification remains unproved, but the subject of the present entry was probably the same man as John A. Cameron, Jr, of the Greenfield area, GC, who in 1885 or a little earlier was in charge of gathering, in the Greenfield area, signatures to a petition seeking a modification of the Canada Temperance Act. By a declaration made at Alexandria on 30 May 1885 and printed in the Debates of the Canadian Senate, Cameron, identifying himself as a “Farmer’s son,” defended the authenticity of all the 47 signatures on the portion of the petition for which he was responsible, one of the signatures having been sharply contested. Senator McMillan described him at this time as a “young man… the son of good honest parents.”

Ostrom 21, 23 * kills fox while hunting in 2nd Concession, Lochiel Township, Glengarry News 27 Oct. 1899 * Grand Union hotel license renewed GN 24 April 1903 * Can. Senate, Debates, 27 May & 2 June 1885 pp. 988-989, 1036-1038