(18 Dec. 1831-3 March 1906), lumberman. (Archie McArthur) (above dates make him 74 at death, other sources say 75 and 76) Born near Martintown, GC. Parents: John McArthur the lumber merchant, and his wife Margaret McMartin. Archibald McArthur was the brother of Alexander, John and Peter McArthur, of McArthur Bros., the Toronto-based lumber firm; he was the brother also of R. D. MacArthur, and was the father and business partner of John D. McArthur. Archibald McArthur was married to Jane McDermid (d. 27 July 1904, aged 66). (three children, two surviving him) In 1871 he entered into a partnership in the lumber business with James Rayside. The Lancaster-based company, known as Rayside & McArthur, was dissolved in 1889, after which McArthur continued on his own as a lumber merchant and sawmill proprietor at South Lancaster. In the GC federal by-election of 14 Jan. 1892, he ran as the Liberal candidate against the Conservative R. R. (Big Rory) McLennan, but was defeated. This by-election had been made necessary when Big Rory’s victory in the general election of 1891 had been invalidated in the courts because of campaign irregularities.

     In 1891, Archibald took his son J. D. McArthur into partnership. The company was known as McArthur & Son. In 1903 McArthur & Son bought the Stuart Tract (see Stuarts of the Stuart Tract) in Cornwall Township with the intention of cutting its forests and bringing the logs down the Raisin River to Lancaster. Archibald McArthur died, however, a few weeks before the first log drive from the tract was to begin, and he was succeeded in the business by his only son, J. D. McArthur. Archibald McArthur died at Lancaster,or South Lancaster. Presbyterian. He is buried at St. Andrew’s cemetery, Williamstown. Though in the same line of work, he was not a member of his brothers’ Toronto firm, McArthur Bros., and it is not clear what business relationship he had to them. He and his son ran, of course, a much smaller business, but still they were reported in 1905 to be employing 100 men the year around. Archibald McArthur was postmaster of South Lancaster from 1897 till the end of his life.

Cornwall Standard (two items) & Glengarry News both 9 March 1906 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 105 * MacGillivray & Ross 461-470 * McArthur-Rayside sawmill burns in 1881, other data on lumbering: see notes to life of James Rayside * mentioned Dictionary of Canadian Biography, XIII, 662 * to be Liberal standard-bearer in the GC by-election, Cornwall Freeholder 8 Jan. 1892 * McArthur & Son have bought bush farms in Lancaster Township for lumbering, will have shanties on them, GN 11 Nov. 1898 * McArthur & Son have “closed a contract” for 800 acres of timberland northwest of Martintown, price $42,000, Cornwall Standard 10 Oct. 1902 (a ref. to the negotiations for the forthcoming Stuart Tract purchase?) * death of wife, GN 29 July & 5 Aug. 1904 * obituary of John A. McLean, business associate or employee of McArthur & Son, Standard Freeholder 1 May 1935