(died 18 Aug. 1908, aged 35 or 36), poet. Born on the family farm, on Lot 14, Concession 8, Lancaster Township, near Glen Nevis. GC. Parents: Dougald McLachlan (d. 1904) and his wife Catherine McDonald or McDonell (d. 1905). He lived on the farm aforementioned, and died there, at an early age, soon after a sudden illness struck him in the night. There was a report at the time that he had “the largest funeral ever held at Glen Nevis.” “The late Mr. McLachlan was a Gaelic scholar of no mean ability, and his compositions of Scottish song were numerous and of such merit as to win for him the designation of the ‘Bard of Glengarry’.” If the texts of any of his compositions survive, their location is not generally known. Following McLachlan’s death, Dr D. D. Macdonald of Alexandria wrote a Gaelic poem or song in tribute to him (about 10 column inches in length), which was published in the Glengarry News of 11 Sept. 1908 (repr. Ross, Lancaster, 263-265). John A. McLachlan was unmarried. The family was very widely dispersed, only one of his numerous siblings being a GC-area resident at the time of John A.’s death. He was a brother of Ranald McLachlan the prospector.

Glengarry News 21 Aug. 1908 (QF) * Mr John A. McLachlan, “the poet,” mentioned, GN 23 Feb. 1906 * family gravestone, St. Margaret’s cemetery, Glen Nevis