(4 Nov. 1910-22 Dec. 1995), businessman. (John Fraser, John A. Fraser) Born at Vankleek Hill, Ont. Parents: Neil Fraser and his wife Helen Mary McCrimmon. Education: Vankleek Hill public school, Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute, Queen’s University (B.Sc.,1934, M.Sc., Chemistry, 1936). John Fraser was employed from 1936 to 1945 at Price Bros. paper mill, Jonquière, Quebec. While at Jonquière he learned to speak French. He left Jonquière in 1945, to enter into partnership with his father in the cheese and transport business. (See the entry for his father for description of the Fraser family business to this date.)

     Thereafter, as a businessman, John Fraser was a resident of Vankleek Hill. At this stage the Frasers had cheese factories at McCrimmon, Skye, Fisk Corners, Hawkesbury (Hawkesbury Dairy), Fournier and Barb. The Fraser trucking business involved shipping cheese to Montreal and carrying back mixed freight for delivery at Hawkesbury and Vankeek Hill and the area around them. Also, the Frasers’ cold storage warehouse and the Vankleek Hill cheese grading station needed attention. His father died in 1949, after which John conducted the business on his own, succeeding to his father’s role as one of the most prominent and respected businessmen of the area. However, an era in Ontario agriculture was ending. From the early 1950s the cheese industry in Eastern Ontario was in deep decline, and one cheese factory after another closed. The McCrimmon factory lost most of its “patrons” (farmers who supplied milk) when the Carnation Plant opened in Alexandria, and the McCrimmon factory closed in the early or mid-1950s. The Skye factory closed about the same time. On 5 Dec. 1973 the Vankleek Hill Review published a long illustr. article on the closing at Green Lane, south of Hawkesbury, of the last of the Fraser cheese factories at the end of Nov. (The Frasers had owned this factory since 1948.) From 1975 to 1990 a widely known speciality shop called Fraser’s Country Cheese Store operated from a part of the former factory. With transfer of business effective 21 April 1975, Fraser’s Transport was sold to Rigaud Transport Inc., of Rigaud, Que. (Vankleek Hill Review 23 April 1975) John Fraser was town councillor and mayor of Vankleek Hill. He retired, largely, from business in 1980. He spent the last two years of his life at Maxville Manor, and died at Maxville Manor of Parkinson’s Disease. Presbyterian. He was married on 31 Jan. 1953 to Pauline M. Chapman. (children)

Private information * text of eulogy, probably for funeral * obituary, QAR, Sept./Oct. 1996 * Lochinvar to Skye, Menzies, MacKinnon, Rutley, as in notes to life of Neil Fraser * MacGillivray & Ross Chapter XII * Standard Freeholder 13 April 1948, Hawkesbury Dairy Co. sells its plant to Neil Fraser & Son * “No More Cheddar Cheese,” editorial, Glengarry News 13 Dec. 1973, on the Closing of the Green Lane Cheese Factory * Jim Mullin, history of Green Lane Cheese Factory, Vankleek Hill Review 11 March 1992 * death of Gerald McBain (d. 10 Sept. 1997 aged 72), born at Apple Hill, GC, who was a cheesemaker for Frasers’ Green Lane Factory, VKHR 17 Sept. 1997 (two notices, portrait), GN 18 Sept. 1997