(1822-27 Oct. 1898), clergyman and author. Born at Forfar, Scotland. Interested in botany from an early age, he studied it under Sir William Hooker. For Hooker and GC, see also the life of the Rev. Walter Macgilvray. It may be guessed that Drummond was a relative of the distinguished botanist family of his contemporaries, James and Thomas Drummond, who were also of a Forfar connection.

     Drummond’s education included studies at the University of Glasgow and at New College, Edinburgh. He was a missionary preacher in Glengarry about 1847-1848 for the Free Church of Scotland. He was remembered there as a fervent preacher and highly effective evangelist. J. Fraser (probably the Rev. John Fraser of the present dictionary), in a letter dated at Cornwall 13 Oct. 1847 and published in the Nov. 1847 issue of The Ecclesiastical and Missionary Record, for the Presbyterian Church of Canada, says “Mr. Drummond has been at work among the people. His labours will not, I am confident, be in vain. He does not preach in the Gaelic tongue, and, therefore, cannot be so extensively useful as he otherwise would be in this part of the country; but multitudes go to hear him. The simplicity of his style is an advantage.” After leaving GC, Drummond apparently visited the West Indies for reasons of health. He was almost certainly the “J. D.” whose letter of 25 Nov. 1848 from Havana, Cuba, with its references to GC, was published in the Dec. 1851 issue of The Ecclesiastical and Missionary Record, for the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Thomas Drummond the botanist, it may be noticed, had died in Havana in 1835. The Rev. James Drummond, the subject of the present biography, having returned to Scotland, left for India on missionary service, having been ordained as a missionary to Madras for the Free Church of Scotland in 1850. The outcome, however, was that he returned to Scotland because of ill health. He was inducted as minister of the Free Church at Clackmannan, Scotland, on 23 Nov. 1854, and he remained the minister there till his death close to half a century later. A colleague and successor for him was ordained in 1894. Drummond was married in 1850 to Margaret Orr. (children)

     Drummond was the author of A Forest Flower or a Memorial of Daniel M’Killican, Who Died in the 14th Year of His Age, This most remarkable little book was published in 74 pages about the early 1850s at Philadelphia by the Presbyterian Board of Publications. Also, there was an edition published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1852, by John Greig and Son, of Melbourne Place. Set at Breadalbane in GC, A Forest Flower is a novel and a religious tract and a fictionalized biography of a real-life character, Daniel McKillican, the son of the Rev. Daniel McKillican. The work is beautifully written, and to a remarkable degree it is psychologically subtle and accomplished. Copies are now very rare. The very existence of the Philadelphia publication was little known till the 1970s, and the Edinburgh edition (which may have been older or newer than the Philadelphia one) may have been totally unrecorded till a copy came to light about 2006. However, references to the Forest Flower in a Montreal Witness article of 1894 seem to assume that it would not be unfamiliar to readers at that time. It may be that there were editions of it which have vanished completely. Also, it may be that it was reprinted in Sunday school magazines and in other religious periodicals, or that portions of it were used in other religious tracts. Donald Cattanach, in a letter dated 9 Aug. 1858 printed in the Sept. 1858 issue of The Ecclesiastical and Missionary Record, for the Presbyterian Church of Canada, pays tribute to a divinity student, Kenneth McLennan, born in Charlottenburgh Township, who had recently (2 July 1858) drowned at the early age of 35, in an accident at the Rouge River. McLennan had been converted under the ministry of Drummond, and McLennan “engaged with the writer [Cattanach] as Colporteur, to circulate the religious publications of the Presbyterian Board of Philadelphia, so favorably known to our Church in Canada.” This board was of course the publisher of the Forest Flower, and one may guess that the Forest Flower was among the publications McLennan circulated.

     The Philadelphia edition of the Forest Flower has two illustrations, one showing Daniel speaking to a negro who lived near his father’s home at Breadalbane and the other showing Daniel on his deathbed with what may be interpreted to be Mr and Mrs McKillican and some of the children of the McKillican family. (The Edinburgh edition has illustrations also, presumably the same. For early illustrations of Breadalbane, see also F.A. Cox and J.F. Doudiet) The Forest Flower is the first in the succession of Glengarry novels about pioneer life. The next novel was Margaret Murray Robertson’s Shenac and the best known of course are Ralph Connor’s Man from Glengarry and Glengarry School Days. See also Pierre Cholet.

     Drummond is known to have been the author of only one other book, Communion (Edinburgh 1848); there is a copy in the National Library of Scotland.

The Alloa Advertiser (Alloa, Scotland.), 5 Nov. 1898 * Annals of the Free Church of Scotland 1843-1900, vol. I (1914), ed. Rev. William Ewing, p. 141 * MacGillivray & Ross 73-77, 684-685 and the sources stated there, and references in index * MacMillan, Kirk, 207, 393 * anecdote about Drummond and the Irish Famine victims at Bytown in John Anderson, Reminiscences and Incidents (1910) 130-132 (identified by surname only but evidently the present Drummond) * Jean McCuaig MacIntosh, “Our Heritage”: a History of Old St. Andrew’s the Stone Church at Martintown (1984) 13 * “his contemporaries” James and Thomas Drummond: DNB VI, 33, 41, Dictionary of Canadian Biography VI, 221-222, ODict * Bibliography of Glengarry 8-9 for discussion of date of publication of A Forest Flower * comments on A Forest Flower by Daniel’s brother, Witness 4 Sept. 1894 * letter of Herbert McKillican 1 Dec. 1976 to Ewan Ross discussing A Forest Flower and analysing and annotating its references to members of the McKillican family, also letter of Herbert McKillican to present editor 12 Jan. 1977 on A Forest Flower (both letters owned by the present editor)