(1837-20 Feb. 1915), farmer. Born at River Rouge, Que. He lived in his earlier years in Michigan, then was a farmer in Kenyon Township. GC, east of Dominionville. Presumably a shantyman in his earlier years, he had some later involvement, probably fairly limited, with lumbering and with railway contracts. Harkness says that he “bought the right of way for the Canada Atlantic Railway Company [CAR] from Coteau to Ottawa,” which most likely means that Clark was the agent who on behalf of the CAR bought the land or the legal right to use it from the farmers who owned it. He was reeve of Kenyon, and he was warden of SDG for 1877. Presumably he was the James Clark who in 1893 was the first president of the Kenyon Agricultural Society. He was married in 1868 to Elizabeth Sproul. He died at the home of his son in Lancaster Township, but is buried at Maxville. He was a Presbyterian.

     The outline of Clark’s life remains vague. It is highly possible that if more details could be filled in, he would be shown to have been a man of considerable influence and standing in his area in his time. He was evidently the J. Clark who was one of the speakers at the turbulent meeting at Kenyon Town Hall in Dec. 1881 at which D. A. (Sandfield) Macdonald was memorably insulted by the voters on the railway issue. He seems to have been made to share the unpopularity of Macdonald on that day, but to have been better received as a speaker. He may have been the James Clark who was named in a Conservative newspaper as one of the “leading Liberals of Glengarry” who visited Alexandria one day in Aug. 1901 allegedly in connection with a move then reported afoot to have D. M. Macpherson, currently the Liberals’ candidate for the GC provincial seat, “replaced by a stronger man.” (Cornwall Standard 23 Aug. 1901)

Glengarry News 26 Feb. 1915 (2 items) * Harkness 255-256 (portrait) * MacGillivray & Ross 459 * KAS 44 * Kenyon Town Hall: M & R 175, 280; entry for D. A. MacArthur; Cornwall Reporter 31 Dec. 1881 *death at Dominionville, 3 Oct. 1877, of another James Clark, aged 72, Witness 16 Oct. 1877