(died 1 June 1890 aged 51 or 52), soldier, businessman. Born on North Branch, GC-area. He served in the American Civil War and is said at the close of it to have held a responsible position on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant, and to have been present at Lee’s surrender at Appomatox. Certainly, giving his occupation on enlistment at Oswego, N. Y., as that of salesman, he served as a private and afterwards a sergeant in the 184th Regiment of New York Infantry from 17 Aug. 1864 to 15 Jan. 1865. Next, taking a transfer to another unit “by reason of promotion,” he served as a first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster in the 81st regiment of New York Infantry from 16 Jan. 1865, and was either discharged or was due for discharge on 30 Aug. 1865. Whatever happened next, he was under arrest in an officers’ hospital at Fort Monroe, Virginia, immediately after that date, till on 8 Sept. 1865, taking matters into his own hands, he “deserted from said hospital,” presumably thereby ending his U. S. military career once and for all. By this time, of course, the war had been over for some months, and the army to which he belonged was limited to occupation duties. He came in 1868 to Alexandria, GC, where in 1875 he and Allan B. Mcdonald succeeded the Hon. D.A. Macdonald in an Alexandria business. The firm broke up in 1881 and Chisholm continued the business alone. John Chisholm, described as a merchant of Alexandria, was married to Mary O. MacKinnon at Alexandria, 9 Feb. 1875. He died at Alexandria. If the statements of claims that his widow Mary O. Chisholm filed in 1897 and at other dates to secure a war pension from the American government can be taken literally, she was in severe financial straits as a widow and her husband left nothing but about $800 worth of personal effects when he died. In 1916 she asked the American government to restore to the pension rolls her son who was in an asylum at Brockville, Ont.

His death remembered, 20 Years Ago column Cornwall Freeholder 3 June 1910 * brief death notice of John Chisholm, “merchant,” of Alexandria, The Montreal Daily Star 3 June 1890 * pension files of John Chisholm in National Archives, Washington, and his military file (Neatby), New York State Archives * St. Finnan’s CRNI, I, 84, III, 618 * GN supplement 1903 [21] * Ostrom 107