(1873-4 Jan. 1931), physician. (Dr J. T. Hope) Born at Glen Robertson, GC. Parents: John G. Hope and his wife Elizabeth Green. He attended the local primary school and Alexandria High School. For a few years early in life he taught school. Dr Hope, who graduated in medicine from McGill University, settled in Alexandria in 1903 (Glengarry News 27 March 1903), and was a physician there for the remainder of his life. He served also as medical health officer for Alexandria, and as coroner, and was mayor of Alexandria in 1913,1914 and 1915, and was trustee and chairman on the Alexandria Public School Board. As medical health officer, his semi-annual report at the end of 1918 described the ravages of the flu epidemic in the town. (GN 20 Dec. 1918) Described in an obituary as “an ardent Liberal,” Dr Hope was secretary for some 10 years of the Glengarry Liberal Association. He was interested in sports, including hockey and lacrosse, and was a member of the Alexandria Gun Club, and was a violin player. His well composed Montreal Gazette obituary (“Special to The Gazette”), evidently written by someone in Alexandria, emphasizes his activity as a curler, which the writer sees as having brought many acquaintances and wide notice in Montreal. Dr Hope was a Presbyterian; then after Church Union, he was a member of the United Church. He was on the building committee for the construction of the Presbyterian Church, Alexandria, in 1911. (Glengarry News 12 May 1911) Dr Hope made money in the stock market but lost it in the 1929 Crash. (Ostrom) He died at his home in Alexandria, aged only 56, after an illness lasting several months. Clarence Ostrom remembered his funeral as being on “one of the worst stormy days ever seen.” Dr Hope was married in 1904 to Mary Isabel MacDougall, of Maxville. Three of their children died of TB (MacDougalls) and Ostrom gives the cause of the doctor’s death as TB. According to report, the family was infected with TB by a cow they were keeping for domestic milk. The Ostrom history of Alexandria contains copies of a lively letter written in 1923 by the doctor to the chairman of the Ontario Liquor License Commission, protesting against the irregularities and scandals which arose from trying to enforce the drink laws, and the commission vice-chairman’s outraged reply: two documents which throw much light on the times, and on the customs of an earlier Alexandria and an earlier Ontario. FOR Alexandria politics about the time Dr Hope was mayor, see also P. J. Moloney.

     Dr Hope’s daughter Dorothy was married to R. J. Graham. Dr Hope, the mayor of Alexandria, must be distinguished from Dr G. J. Hope (form of name J. G. Hope also found), of Edmonton, dentist, who was married to Grace, the daughter of the manufacturer Hugh Munro.

Montreal Gazette 5 Jan. 1931 (QF), Cornwall Freeholder 7 Jan. 1931, & (repr. Fraser Obits. 88-89) Glengarry News 9 Jan. 1931 (portrait) * Campbell (1990), 538-546 * Ostrom 204, 355-359 *returned mayor by acclamation, GN 3 Jan. 1913 and again GN 2 Jan. 1914 * with Alexandria town council, in fine group portrait, GN 12 Dec. 1984 *sports, gun club, GN 8 Jan. 1904, 17 April 1908, 2 Dec. 1910 * passes his final year medical examinations, McGill, Glengarry News 14 June 1901, and Ont. medical examinations, GN 27 June 1902 * buys J.T. Schell’s house, Alexandria, GN 4 Aug. 1905 * letter of J.A. Macdonell (Greenfield) to Mayor Hope, denouncing Grant Trunk Railway’s notoriously ramshackle station at Alexandria, GN 28 Dec. 1913 (more on this subject 30 Jan. 1914) * buys Ford car, GN 15 May 1914 * (Sir) Donald MacMaster’s letter to Mayor Hope, acknowleding condolences, Cornwall Standard 25 Nov. 1915 * office affected by Alexandria major fire, GN 22 Dec. 1922 * Dr Hope is president of Metal Wares Ltd (company to begin operations in Schell premises, Alexandria), CS 10 Jan. 1924 * buys Ford car, GN 15 May 1914 * death of his son Keith Hope, 27, at St. Lawrence Sanatorium, Standard Freeholder 19 April 1941