(died 2 Oct. 1919, aged 78), businessman, farmer. (A. G. McBean–the usual form of the name; the full name is rarely found) Born near Lancaster Village, GC. Parents: Mr and Mrs George McBean. After previous studies at the Cornwall Grammar school, he entered Queen’s University in 1862 at the age of 21, and graduated in the spring of 1865 with his B. A. About this time he was planning to be a Presbyterian minister. He was master of the Williamstown Grammar School in 1866 and 1867. When he left that position at the end of 1867, it was reported that he intended to complete his legal studies. (Cornwall Freeholder 27 Dec. 1867) However, it was instead in the hay and grain business in Montreal that he thrived. He was was described in 1895 as an ex-president of the Montreal Corn Exchange. The Glengarry Times (Lancaster), of 6 Aug. 1881 reported that “A. G. McBean, commission merchant and shipper, of Montreal, and brother of our popular townsman here, Mr. D. G. McBean, sold 100,000 bushels of wheat” in one day. And the newspaper added, “It is no harm to be a Glengarry boy after all.” He was the owner of Thornhill Farm, at Lancaster (spelling Thorn Hill also found). About 1880 on this property he built the Thornhill house or mansion, a splendid three-storey landmark with its view of the St. Lawrence River. In 1909 he was appointed chief government inspector of grain east of Port Arthur. In the winter of 1915 he bought the Sandfield farm next to his Thornhill land. (Glengarry News 26 Feb. 1915) He was married to Catherine (Katherine) Stewart, the sister of Mrs Alexander C. McDonell. (two children, children surviving him: 1 daughter) They were the parents of A.S. McBean. A. G. McBean was the brother of D. G. McBean.

     The Thornhill mansion, which was situated between South Lancaster and Lancaster Village, on the west side of Highway 34 and with a broad view of Lake St. Francis, served as a private boy’s school in the 1950s, but was vacant for some time before it burned in a spectacular fire on 10 May 1975. (Glengarry News 15 May 1975)

     Who was George McBean, father of A. G. McBean? Certainly, he and his wife, residents at that time of the 4th Concession of Lancaster Township, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1881. (Glengarry Times 23 July 1881) In their son’s Queen’s records of the 1860s, George the father of A. G. is called a farmer and lumberman. A. W. McDougald, in his history of GC, mentions Duncan and George McBean and apparently a brother or brothers among the “very substantial trading firms” operating at the railway village of Lancaster (i. e., the present village of Lancaster) in Grand Trunk days before Lancaster was marginalized by the building of the Canada Atlantic and CPR lines through more northerly parts of GC. With the decline of Lancaster, the “McBeans” moved to Montreal. George of the Lancaster trading firm was probably George McBean, father of the subject of the present article. If this identification is correct, it helps explain how A. G. McBean got settled in his particular form of Montreal commerce, for farm produce, which he dealt with in Montreal, had been important to the Lancaster station in its great days. As a note on the family relationships, A. G. McBean’s mother was probably the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Macpherson.

Glengarry News 3 & 10 Oct. 1919 * Campbell (1990), 171 * Queen's University Archives * Dumbrille, B, 29-30 * Ross, Lancaster, 221, 230, 266, 348, 399 * Ross & Cameron 11 * Standard Freeholder 22 June 1965, exuberantly inaccurate unsigned article on Thornhill house, dating it to the Loyalist or pre-Loyalist period (illustr.) * “McBean & Co.” as shippers of grain by barge from Lancaster, Cornwall Freeholder 13 May 1881, and as grain buyers at Greenfield, GC, Cornwall Reporter 30 Dec. 1882 * CF 14 Nov. 1890, cited DTL SFH 12 Nov. 1949: death of Mackenzie MacDonell, “confidential clerk” of A. G. McBean, son of Alex. (Ossian) McDonell * 200 hogs McBean bought in Western Ontario for fattening have to be destroyed because of hog cholera, GN 17 July 1896 * McBean is candidate to be grain inspector, Montreal district, GN 8 March 1901 * Mrs A. G. McBean spends day at Thornhill, Cornwall Standard 7 April 1905 (presumably not the permanent residence at this date) * George McBean the elder: McDougald, GN 27 Jan. 1933; Ross, Lancaster, 190 (advert.), 200; cf. obituary, ASC, ii, 42, for (another?) George McBean & cf. Fraser, Gravestones, II, 211