(died 16 Dec. 1915, aged 93; date of death 23 Dec. 1915, aged 92 aso found), farmer. (Duncan Ewen Ban MacMillan, Duncan B. MacMillan, D. H. B. MacMillan; sp. McMillan also found) Born in Lochiel Township, GC. Parents: Ewen Ban MacMillan and his wife Christy MacLeod. He was married to Catherine MacRae (d. 8 Sept. 1903, aged 76) and they farmed in the Brodie area of the 5th Concession of Lochiel Township. (thirteen children) Having broken his leg while working in shanty in the Upper Ottawa Valley, Duncan Ewen Ban MacMillan successfully carried out the almost incredibly difficult and painful task of driving himself alone the great distance back to his GC home in his injured condition by sleigh over the rough winter roads. He then arranged to have his son Roderick D. MacMillan (28 April 1856-27 Oct. 1941) go to the shanty to take his place. Since Roderick is remembered as having been fifteen at the time, the accident can be dated at approximately 1871. Duncan Ewen Ban MacMillan himself would have been about 50 at the time (certainly, by the standards of the time, not too old to be a shantyman), and in fact had another son working in the shanty at the time of the accident, providing another example of the father-and-son teams sometimes found in shanty work. Duncan Ewen Ban MacMillan, a Presbyterian, was an elder at the Kirk Hill West Church for over 40 years.

     His truly remarkable drive home from shanty relates to Canadian literature. The well-known Canadian author E. W. Thomson. in his short story “Dour Davy’s Drive,” describes vividly how a strong-minded shantyman, Davie McAndrews, drove himself back to the “Scotch settlement” over several days’ journey with a broken leg. Davie was evidently too young to have an adolescent son, but on arrival home he arranged to have some of his neighbours go to the shanty to provide the work force needed there. It is possible that Duncan Ewen Ban MacMillan’s drive became known to Thomson and provided the germ for his story. The GC writer “Sandy Fraser” (John E. McIntosh) in 1944 retold much the same story about a shantyman he called Archie Grant.

     See the E. W. Thomson entry for more on this subject.

     Roderick (Rod) D. MacMillan, the son already mentioned who took his father’s place in shanty, later worked as an apprentice carpenter “with the McRae’s of Vankleek Hill and the Chisholms of Alexandria.” (See John R. Chisholm for the probable family) Later, he worked in the American West (Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Colorado and Montana are named), sometimes at least in mining, before going to the Yukon about the time of the 1898 gold rush, and to Alaska about 1903. Except for coming home to GC sometimes for the winter, he remained in Alaska till 1918, when he concluded the adventuresome part of his life and resettled back in GC, his home for the remainder of his life. He never married. He died at his Brodie home, and he and his parents are buried at the West Church cemetery, Kirk Hill.

Glengarry News 24 & 31 Dec. 1915 (drive home from shanty not mentioned) * Butternuts and Maple Sugar 98-113, with family portraits * gravestone, Kirk Hill * obituary of son Roderick, GN 14 Nov. 1941