(c. 1821?-1 May 1878) clergyman. Born in Alexandria parish, GC. Parents: Col. Alexander Chisholm and his wife Janet (Jannett) McDonell. He was ordained priest at Rome, 1845, and also received his Doctor of Divinity degree at Rome. Fr Chisholm was the priest from 1848 to 1856 at Lindsay, Ont., where he organized a separate school, and began work on a new brick church, before being transferred to Alexandria, Dec. 1856. He was the priest at St. Finnan’s, Alexandria, 1856 to 1866. There, he built the brick school for boys, and introduced the Forty Hours’ Devotion. While at Alexandria, he also conducted services every second Sunday at St. Alexander’s, Lochiel, till 1863, when a permanent priest (Fr Alexander Macdonell, later bishop of Alexandria) was appointed for St. Alexander’s. At Alexandria, moreover, it is perhaps worth mentioning given the widespread Canadian neglect at the time of civic amenities, he planted shade trees at the church and near the future Bishop’s Palace. He was on the first Alexandria high school board. (Harkness 347) Fr Chisholm was transferred from Alexandria to Perth, 1866 and died at Perth, where a mural tablet to his memory was placed in St. John’s Church. Fr Chisholm was presented with purse of $400 from the Protestants of the area when he left Lindsay and an address from the Protestants when he left Alexandria. The ex-MP McNab in his essay of 1892 on the settlement of Lochiel Township and J. Lockie Wilson in his unpublished recollections of Alexandria note his good relations with the Protestants, and the former praises his support for the temperance cause.

Macdonald, St. Finnan’s 7-9 (portrait)* Watson Kirkconnell and F.L. MacArthur, County of Victoria Centennial History, 2nd edn. (1967) 247 (pastorate at Lindsay) * Sinnsearachd 51, 59 * Cornwall Freeholder 16 & 30 Nov. 1866, leaves Alexandria * demolition of boys’ brick separate school, history, Glengarry News 21 April 1905