(14 Dec. 1854-9 Aug. 1899), accountant. Born at Fraser’s Point, GC. Parents: Col. Alexander Fraser of Fraser’s Point and his wife Margaret Summers. He was the 10th child and youngest son of his parents’ twelve children. He was probably the David Fraser of the Montreal law firm of MacMaster, Hutchinson and Weir, who in the fall of 1883 went to Winnipeg to take a position with the CPR, and the law firm was almost certainly that of the future Sir Donald Macmaster (Henceforth, in this article, Macmaster) David Fraser , the subject of the present article, is reported to have been at some time a law student in Macmaster’s law firm. If so, and whatever his reasons for not persevering with a legal career, Macmaster was to be important over the years in the lives of David and his wife. David Fraser appears as the (political) financial agent for Macmaster in a legal notice printed in connection with and shortly after the 1887 federal election. (Glengarrian 4 March 1887)

     For at least four years, from the spring of 1888 or earlier, till the spring of 1892, when it was mentioned in Big Rory’s correspondence that Fraser was “going away for a time” (letter of John Simpson, Registrar, 11 April 1892), David Fraser was secretary, political agent and man of business for R.R. (Big Rory) McLennan. At this time he lived in McLennan’s house in Alexandria. In leaving Alexandria, he perhaps broke with McLennan. However, a new career followed, immediately or after an interval, in Newfoundland. An undated newspaper clipping reports that “David Fraser of Alexandria, sailed from Montreal on Wednesday for Newfoundland, to overlook the operations on the Hull’s Bay [Halls Bay] railway line, in which he is interested.” (ASC ii,30) At the time of his mother’s death (c. 1891-1893) he is described in her obituary as being “well known in Glengarry” but as living at that time in St. John’s, Nfld. (ASC ii,5,26) The St. John’s, Nfld., directory 1898 lists him in St. John’s as “agent R G Reid,” i.e., as an agent for the eminent railway builder Robert Gillespie Reid, who was engaged at that time in railway construction in Newfoundland.

     Fraser died in Montreal. In his will, dated 19 Jan. 1899, he identified himself as an “Accountant” with a fixed place of residence at the Village of Lancaster, and he named his wife and Macmaster as his executors. Whatever other connections he may have had with Macmaster, he had known Macmaster well during his work as McLennan’s political agent, when McLennan and Macmaster worked together to control the Conservative political affairs in GC. If there had been a quarrel with McLennan it was not serious enough to prevent McLennan from acting as one of his pallbearers.

     Fraser was described in the Glengarry News at the time of his death as “one of Glengarry’s most widely known and illustrious sons.” This statement seems surprising in terms of anything he actually accomplished in his short 44 years of life. However, there is no doubt that he was well connected and well regarded. He was perhaps one of those men seen by those who know them as having abilities out of the ordinary of which they have never made adequate use. (Cf C. C. Fraser) When David’s son Nevill Fraser was killed in WWI, an item from an unnamed newspaper (repr. Cornwall Freeholder 28 Sept. 1916) of St. John’s, Nfld., stated, “Unless we are in error this gallant soldier was born in this city, the son of one of the most gentle, courteous and clever officials of the Reid Newfoundland Railway, a man whose memory is held in esteem and we may truly say in sincere affection by many in St. John’s today. Evidently the son was worthy of his sire, and that is praise indeed.” However much David Fraser’s reputation may have depended on personality, the many references to him in the large collection of Big Rory McLennan’s papers in the Ontario Archives will give Fraser a certain claim to the attention of posterity, and his wife (see Mrs David Fraser) was a person of importance in her own right.

     David Fraser was a Roman Catholic, though his wife was a Protestant. At the consecration of the first bishop of Alexandria in 1890 David Fraser read an address from the Parish of St. Finnan’s, and E.H. Tiffany accompanied by R.R. McLennan and Brock Ostrom read an address from the Protestants of Alexandria and district.

Glengarry News 11 & 18 Aug. 1899, The Montreal Dail Star 11 Aug. 1899 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 20 * will in Surrogate Court records for SDG * private information * Archives of Ontario-RRM * there is a life of Sir Robert Gillespie Reid in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. XIII * CPR 1883, Consecration1890: DTL Standard Freeholder 2 & 30 Oct. 1948 * Ostrom 220 mentions another “secretary” (in this case, probably a letter-writer, essentially, is meant) of Big Rory’s, Mr J. J. Lomax, later a court stenographer in Montreal.