(25 Feb. 1865-2 May 1947), farmer, pump maker. (John Norman, John Norman the Pump Maker) Born presumably on his parents’ farm, which was on Lot 13, in the 9th Concession of Caledonia Township, in the Skye, Ont., community. Parents: John D. MacLeod and his wife Sarah MacInnes. In his earlier years, John Norman MacLeod worked in the Michigan lumber woods. In 1898 he bought a farm on Lot 15, in the 9th Concession of Kenyon Township, GC. There he combined farming with the operation of a small mill that produced boards and shingles, and with the manufacture of wooden pumps. Wooden pumps were widely used in the “dug” wells still commonly found on the farms of the time. Their manufacture required knowledge, and a sure, skilled hand, as well as the right equipment. John Norman sold his pumps throughout a wide area of northern GC and south-central Prescott County, often installing them personally. The board, shingle and pump-making operations on his farm remained essentially at the family workshop level, and as an adjunct to his farming–he never in any sense had a “factory.” They were probably effectively at an end by the beginning of the 1940s, though a workshop he used was still standing more than half a century later. Highly perishable through their materials, it may be doubted that any of his pumps are still in operation today. However, the Glengarry Pioneer Museum at Dunvegan has some of his tools. For two years (1900-1902) he was postmaster of Skye, operating the office out of his home.

     He was married on 24 Nov. 1898 to Catherine Anne MacRae (1875-13 June 1931), of Dunvegan. (seven children) A man who remembers the last years of John Norman MacLeod’s life remembers people sometimes explaining the location of their farms to strangers by stating how far, and in what direction, they lived from John Norman the Pump Maker, so well known was this quiet, private man to the rural people over a wide area. He and his wife are buried in Dunvegan Cemetery. A religious man (more so, probably, than many of his contemporaries) he was a deacon and afterwards an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Dunvegan, and a Sunday school teacher. He was the grandson of Duncan MacLeod, large-scale landowner, of the Skye community, and was the father of Neil Donald MacLeod and the brother-in-law of John A. Welsh.

Glengarry News 16 May 1947 * Lochinvar to Skye 26, 317-321, 462, 502 * MacLeods, ii, 114-115, 142 * Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, The Macleods–The Genealogy of a Clan: Section Three: Macleod Cadet Families (1971?) 166 * articles by Neil Donald MacLeod on his father’s pump-making in Glengarry Life 1983 &1988 and in Manor Chatter Nov. 1982-July 1983 * MacMillan, Kirk, 398 (character sketch) * MacMillan, Kenyon Presbyterian Church, 46, 56, 59 * his gravestone * personal knowledge, private information * obituary of his wife, Cornwall Freeholder 20 June 1931 * obituaries of the last surviving of his siblings, Mrs Katherine MacLeod (1874-1973), widow of the Scottish-born Rev. Malcolm MacLeod, GN 8 March 1973, and of the youngest and last surviving of his children, Alexander Norman MacLeod, GN 4 Dec. 2002 & 1 Jan. 2003