(died 7 Aug.1869, aged about 30), schoolteacher and prospector. Born in Charlottenburgh Township, GC. Parents: John McLaren and his wife, whose Christian name was Catherine. The subject of the present entry became a student at Queen’s University in 1857 at age 18, his religion being recorded by the university as Church of Scotland, and his father as a farmer. John McLaren graduated from Queen’s University with the degree of B. A. on 26 April 1860. He was killed by the collapse of a mine shaft (known as the Columbia shaft), on Williams Creek in Cariboo, British Columbia. Covered with sand and tailings, he was dead, probably from suffocation, by the time the body was retrieved about an hour later. His obituary in The Cariboo Sentinel stated he “came to British Columbia in 1864. He had been engaged in mining during the greatest part of the time while in Cariboo. In the winter of 1866-7 he was editor of the Cariboo Sentinel, and that journal was never so well managed, nor the original matter so ably written as during the period he acted as such.” The obituary said he “had been well-known and generally respected as a man, miner and scholar. His numerous intimate friends… had entertained great hopes of his ultimately taking position in the front ranks of public life…”

     The Montreal Daily Witness of 29 Dec. 1869, in error about the date of death, reported, “John McLaren, formerly head-master of the Grammar School at Williamstown, county of Glengarry, and a graduate of the Queen’s College, Kingston, was killed by the falling in of a mining shaft near Barkerville, Cariboo, in the early part of last month.” McLaren is buried in Barkerville Cemetery. He belonged to the Masonic order. After his death, a group of his ex-students and other well-wishers met, probably at Williamstown, but at any rate in the GC area, to establish a fund to perpetuate his memory through a scholarship. G. A. Gadbois was recording secretary at the meeting and the future Sir Donald Macmaster was also among those chiefly involved. Years later, Col. Donald McGregor praised him as an advocate of the incorporation of British Columbia into the Canadian Confederation, recalled his editorship of the Cariboo Sentinel, and noted the remarkably high price of the newspaper, at a dollar an issue.

     The Cariboo Sentinel obituary mentioned that “Alex. A. Robertson, his cousin, and Jas. Dingwall, a companion in his boyhood,” were also on Williams Creeek “and deeply deplore his loss.” So far as is known, Dingwall was not the James Dingwall of the present dictionary. Robertson testified at the inquest.

Obituary, with report on inquest, The Cariboo Sentinel, 11 Aug. 1869 * mentioned, with various information, by Col. Donald McGregor (Cornwall Standard 26 July 1917, Cornwall Freeholder 28 Aug. 1919) and Mary Mack (Standard Freeholder 9 Aug. 1945; includes gravestone inscription) * Queen's University Archives * memorial scholarship meeting: ASC ii, 63 * NAC-MD, Vol. XIV, ff. 797, 814 * document related to reappears, Sue Harrington column, Glengarry News 8 Aug. 2007