(29 Jan. 1904-3 Oct. 1995) farmer, personality. (William K. MacLeod, W. K. MacLeod, Willie Duncie William, Little Willie) Born at Skye, Ont., on his parents’ farm on Lot 14 in the 8th Concession of Caledonia Township, 1 1/2 miles north of GC. Parents: Duncan W. MacLeod (grandson of Duncan MacLeod, d. 1889, the Skye landowner of the present dictionary) and his wife Catherine Mary Chisholm. Educated at Skye school and Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute. When his father died in Feb. 1919 at the age of about 52, leaving a widow and nine children, Willie had to assist in raising the younger members of the family and he settled down, accordingly, to his lifetime work as a farmer on the family farm at Skye. Over the 22 years from 1924 to 1946, he played soccer for the Dunvegan football team, achieving a lasting reputation as one of the better GC-area players of his time. He was also a successful farmer–football playing was something the people did only in their limited spare time–winning various awards and honours over the years for his farm work and involvement with local fairs. In 1993, on his 89th birthday, the Kenyon Agricultural Society presented him with a plaque honouring him for his services to the Kenyon Agricultural Society, with which he had been involved, as an exhibitor of grain and forage and as a director, over a fifty-year period. (GN 3 Feb. 1993 p. 18) He was married to Maud Hartrick. (no children) Willie, who continued to farm till late in life, died at Glengarry Memorial Hospital, and his wife died at Maxville Manor less than two months afterwards, on 29 Nov. 1995, aged 85. Presbyterians. They are buried in Dunvegan Cemetery.

     Willie was well known for his personality; he was warm, hospitable, excitable (if not over excitable, as some people thought), and impetuously generous (he once gave a calf to a city-born family who had moved into the neighbourhood and expressed an interest in agriculture); and a cautious, hard-shell faction among the old neighbours in Skye, while agreeing that Willie as one of the shrewdest, most hard-working, and most prosperous farmers of the area, sometimes thought him overly indulgent to everyone he met. Always an emotional man, following the funeral of a neighbour who had died tragically, he tried to say a few words to one of the next of kin, then burst out of the house in tears. Some people thought his extraordinary tolerance towards his increasingly mentally disturbed elder brother Duncan Alec (11 May 1895-20 Oct. 1977), who had farmed with him for many years, was praiseworthy but unnecessary, though highly characteristic of Willie. (Willie held that Duncan Alec, in his best years, had worked harder than any other man in Skye.)

     Willie’s brother John Chisholm (called Chisholm), an engineer, was a Queen’s University graduate (BSc, 1924). Willie’s sister Gretta (1909-1988), who was a nurse, travelled to India in 1937 to marry her future husband, Dr R. Keith Muir (1902-1999), a physician.

     Willie’s mother, Catherine Mary Chisholm (12 Jan. 1873-14 Sept. 1971), who almost completed a century of life, was herself recognized by all as a remarkable person–very much in the “Grand Old Lady” category, and sharing Willie’s impetous, excitable, open personality. She was known at Katie, and Katie Duncie William, and Katach, a form of the name which has Gaelic origins. Gaelic was her first language. After a few years as a domestic servant in Montreal, she was married at the age of twenty-one; and she was a widow for over half a century. The great achievement in life of both Katach and Willie was shaping themselves to be who they were, yet this is an achievement which, in truth, must have only a weak meaning for those who did not know these two remarkable people in life.

Glengarry News 25 Oct. 1995, Standard Freeholder 28 Oct. 1995 * obituary of his wife, GN 13 Dec. 1995 * Lochinvar to Skye 324, 411-421 (with character sketch of his mother Katie, and portraits), 556-559 * biographical sketch in Angus H. McDonell’s series on Glengarry County athletes, GN 4 June 1980, with drawing by Douglas A. Fales * biographical sketch prepared for his induction into Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame, printed in leaflet prepared for Second Annual Induction Dinner, 9 July 1980 * personal knowledge, private information * J. L. Lefebvre, “Dunvegan’s 1930 GSL Champs Enter into Hall,” GN 4 Sept. 1996 * MacLeods, i, 142-144, 158, ii, 137-138 * various data, pictures, KAS, 144, 152, 155, 162, and MacMillan Soccer, 5, 34, 181, 315, 348, 369 * Muir gravestone, Dunvegan cemetery * Muir, India, SFH & GN both 6 Aug. 1937, also GN 9 Feb. 1945 * performs opening kick-off for soccer tournament, Lochiel, GN 5 Sept. 1984 * notice of his estate auction, GN 25 Oct. 1995 * also obituaries of his brothers Duncan and Alec, GN 26 Oct. 1977, John Chisholm MacLeod, GN 1 & 8 April 1992, QAR July/Aug. 1992