(21 May 1846-9 Feb.1937), farmer, prominent citizen. (J. N. Gauthier, Nappie Gauthier, John N. Gauthier, John Napoleon Gauthier) Parents: Gabriel Gauthier (5 Feb. 1809-22 June 1883) and his wife Mary McKinnon. According to his obituary in the Glengarry News, “His father Gabriel Gauthier was one of the first French Canadians to take up farming in the Township of Kenyon, while his mother Mary McKinnon belonged to one of Glengarry’s best known families.” John N. Gauthier, the subject of the present article, was married on 3 July 1876 to Janet McKinnon. (There was therefore a double McKinnon marriage connection in this family, since both he and his father married McKinnons.) His farm, inherited from his father, was on Lot 1, 4th Concession of Kenyon Township, just north of Alexandria. He lived on this farm throughout his life and was a farmer on a large scale. His daughter Kathleen Gauthier affectionately remembered the life of the busy Gauthier farm. If Alexandria had succeeded in obtaining the Dominion Reformatory which about 1896 the federal goverment was promising to build there, the reformatory would probably have been built on land severed from the Gauthier farm. For about a quarter-century, he was a member of the Alexandria Separate School Board. He died “on the old homestead.” (survived by four sons and four daughters) Burial was in the Gauthier family plot at St. Finnan’s cemetery. He was the brother of Archbishop C.H. Gauthier and the parent of Fr C.F. Gauthier. A granddaughter, Sister Mary Gauthier, served with Our Lady’s Missionaries in the Philippines. Again, according to the obituary, “from his earliest youth [he] obtained an excellent working knowledge of the Gaelic language and was able to converse fluently in Gaelic as well as in English and French.”

Glengarry News 12 Feb. 1937, Standard Freeholder 10 Feb. 1937 * St. Finnan’s CRNI, I, 144 * Gabriel Gauthier : seriously ill, Cornwall Freeholder 23 March 1883; death, DTL SFH 24 June 1944 based on CF 29 June 1883 * report on funeral of Mrs Gabriel Gauthier and obituary of her son Willie (who lived with his brother Fr Gauthier), ASC ii 31, 154 * Belden Atlas 42-43 * Reformatory: MacGillivray & Ross 194-196 * Gauthier farm expected to provide land for Reformatory, Vankleek Hill Review 2 Aug. 1895 * Dr Norbert Ferré, “The Gauthiers of Glengarry,” Glengarry Life 1978 * interview with his daughter Kathleen Gauthier recorded 4 July (1979?) for the Multicultural History Society of Ontario * obituary of John N.’s son John C. Gauthier, GN 20 Oct. 1982