(1866-26 June 1928), lawyer. (Q. C. often used with name) Born at Lindsay, Ont. Parents: Alexander Chisholm and his wife Catherine McLellan. Alexander Chisholm, who was a merchant in Lindsay, had been in the California goldfields for nine years and was one of the brothers known as the California Chisholms. After Alexander’s death, his widow came to Cornwall with their son. John A. Chisholm was educated at Lindsay and studied law there, and was called to the bar in 1889. He became a lawyer in Cornwall, and was three times mayor of Cornwall.

     John A. Chisholm was not a Glengarrian, but he was a student of GC history and relevant to the propagation of the mystique of GC. He was the great-grandnephew of the legendary Glengarrian Big Finnan of the Buffalo Mcdonald. For several years, beginning in 1922, Chisholm carried on a correspondence with an American historian, T.C. Elliott of Walla Walla, state of Washington, on the life of Finnan. They worked together on a manuscript on Finnan’s life but it seems not to have been published. The correspondence, which contains much valuable information which Chisholm acquired on Finnan, together with a few draft sections of the proposed biography, is preserved in the files of the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Ore. On 5 Jan. 1924 the Toronto Star Weekly published one of the best remembered articles on GC, Greg Clark’s report on the funeral at St. Raphael’s of Isabella McRae (Belle John), called “Glengarry’s Heart Still in the Highlands. Historic Clans Gather at Funeral of Pioneer.” Chisholm wrote to Elliott that “I personally dictated nearly the whole of that article in Toronto Star Weekly; dictated it right out there at St. Raphaels to the shorthand reporter, and did it without any trouble at all and without any notes to refresh my memory by.” The Star Weekly article contains the statement that John A. Chisholm, Cornwall barrister, had “amassed a complete history of the immigrant Highlanders to Glengarry,” and was “to collaborate with an American historian” on a biography of Big Finnan. Chisholm was a gifted public speaker, and topics on which he spoke included Big Finnan (Cornwall Freeholder 8 May 1924, Cornwall Standard 17 Dec. 1925).

     Chisholm spent about three months a year in travel. Chisholm died at Hudson City Hospital, Hudson, N.Y., and is buried at the cemetery of St. Mary’s Church, Williamstown. Chisholm left money for a stained glass window in St. Mary’s Church, Williamstown (see Fr Alexander L. Mcdonald). Chisholm was unmarried. He was a descendant of the fur trader Archibald McLellan, and was also a nephew of Donald McLellan (Big Donald the Assignee) and a first cousin of Katherine McLellan, and he was a kinsman of Archibald Mark Chisholm (QV, for their tour in Scotland, 1921). See also Angus J. Mcdonald, rancher and banker.

Cornwall Freeholder 28 June & 5 July 1928, Cornwall Standard 28 June 1928 * Harkness 427-430 (portrait) * Boss 59: militia service, biog. & character sketch * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 34-35 * cartoon of John A. Chisholm, barrister (patterned after Sir Leslie Ward’s “Spy” cartoons), CS 29 March 1907 *obituary of his mother CS 16 July 1909 and her death noticed in 20 Years Ago column CF 17 July 1929 * obituary of Miss Barbara Catherine McLellan, 77, former milliner and nurse, who in retirement lived with her cousin J. A. Chisholm, barrister, of Cornwall, till his death, Standard Freeholder 14 Nov. 1945 * files of Oregon Historical Society; Chisholm’s letters there contain a little biog. information on himself * article by, Stiles 7-8 (portrait) * many refs. in Cornwall press * to be mayor of Cornwall, Glengarry News 5 Jan. 1912