(4 April 1852-14 Aug. 1908), farmer, cheese-factory proprietor. (William D. McLeod, W. D. McLeod; probably known to neighbours and relatives as Billie D. ) (age at death also given as 53 and 54, inconsistently with the 1852 date of birth) Born at Kirk Hill, GC, probably on his parents’ farm, which was on Lot 18 in the 7th Concession of Lochiel Township. (Lot 19 in the same concession also found) Parents: Kenneth MacLeod,who was born in Canada but was the son of Capt. Alexander MacLeod of the 1793-94 emigration, and Kenneth’s wife Ann Duncan, a native of Scotland. As a youth, William D. McLeod began his highly successful career by working as a helper in a cheese factory north of Alexandria owned by Duncan A. Macdonald, the Alexandria businessman and postmaster. Trained as a cheesemaker, he went on to be also a cheese buyer and cheese-factory proprietor. He organized his cheese factories, which, it is reported, eventually came to the number of 18, under the name of the “Kirk Hill Combination.” In subsequent years he disposed of many of these, keeping six of the larger ones.

     The Glen Sandfield columnist in the Cornwall Freeholder of 10 July 1885 referred to him as “our popular cheese king.” The Brodie columnist in the Glengarrian of 6 May 1887 mentioned him as “Mr. W. D. M’Leod (Little Cheese King).” It was inevitable at the time that anyone who did well in the cheese business would share the title of “cheese king,” and he was one of several people known by the title of the Little Cheese King. (D. M. Macpherson was the Cheese king, the big king.) In the fall of 1889, McLeod was “erecting a large storehouse and granary at the station” in Alexandria. (Glengarrian 25 Oct. 1889) In 1902, W. D. McLeod of Kirk Hill was preparing to build one of the finest business blocks in Vankleek Hill. (VKHR 24 Jan. 1902) He had holdings of about 14,000 acres in the Saskatchewan River valley. Other business activities were probably minor, but they included interests in several mining companies in the Cobalt, Ont., area.

     Besides being a prominent figure in the GC and Eastern Ontario cheese business, William D. McLeod was a leading and progressive farmer on his farm on Lot 19 in the 7th Concession of Lochiel Township. He served on the Lochiel Township Council and the SDG Council. He was elected as a Conservative MLA for GC in the Ontario general election of 29 May 1902, defeating the D. M. Macpherson just mentioned, who was the Liberal candidate. In the next Ontario general election, on 25 Jan. 1905, William D. McLeod was defeated by John Angus McMillan, a Liberal. William D. McLeod was a Presbyterian. He died at the home of his son, Vankleek Hill. William D. McLeod and his wife are buried at the West Church Cemetery, Kirk Hill. In 1896 his sister Miss Catherine McLeod died (with four other victims, all women) at Vankleek Hill in a hotel fire which the Vankleek Hill newspaper called the” most terrible calamity which has ever befallen Vankleek Hill.” (VKHR & Glengarry News both 4 Sept. 1896)

     William D. McLeod was married to Jane McDougall on 18 Nov. 1879. (five children) She died 31 March 1924, aged 63. One of their sons, John William MacLeod (4 May 1882-3 Dec. 1976), was, like his father, a farmer and a prominent man in Lochiel Township. John William MacLeod was a councillor and reeve of his tp, a long-term director of the Glengarry Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company, was active in the Glengary Conservative Association, was a Mason, and over many years acted as his neighbourhood correspondent for the Glengarry News and other local newspapers. Another son of William D. McLeod and his wife, Dr Donald Alexander MacLeod (1884-13 Jan. 1951), was a medical graduate of McGill University (1913), served in the First World War, and was for many years a physician at Hamilton, Ontario.

Glengarry News 14 & 21 Aug. 1908 (portrait) * biog. sketch prepared for his induction into GC Agriculture Wall of Fame, GN 9 Sept. 1992 * Harkness 300-303 (with portrait) * MacGillivray & Ross 196-197 * article on Canadian and GC cheese and the rise of William D. McLeod’s “The Northern Spring Creek Combination,” Glengarrian 20 May 1887 * Innis 54n. * his gravestone * MacLeods, ii, 84, 89-91 (with portrait), ii, 63, 72-77 (with portraits) * Rutley: index * his marriage, Witness, 27 Nov. 1879 * Roderick Lewis, 95 * Lochinvar to Skye 161, 496 * MacKinnon 263, 268 * Butternuts and Maple Sugar 209 * text of his election manifesto, Cornwall Standard 16 May 1902 * comparison of McLeod and D. M. Macpherson as candidates in current provincial election campaign (much to disfavour of Macpherson), The Weekly Sun [Patrons of Industry newspaper], 21 May 1902 * obituary of his wife, CS 3 April 1924 * obituaries of his sons Dr MacLeod and John William, GN 2 Feb. 1951, 9 Dec. 1976 (heading: “Grand Old Man of Lochiel Died at 94”) * son K. D. McLeod is proprietor of the “Kirk Hill Combination” of cheese factories, current business plans, GN 11 Dec. 1908, 18 Nov. 1910 * son Donald: graduation, war service, GN 20 June 1913, 24 Dec. 1915