(early June 1836-27 April 1898), businessman. (A. D. McPhee) Born at Martintown, GC. Parents: Donald McPhee and his wife Isabella McCulloch. Archibald lived in California 1856-1865, then returned to GC, where he was “in the mercantile and milling business” with his brother Donald D. McPhee (D. D. McPhee), Alexandria. The two brothers operated a sawmill and gristmill on what was called the Island Survey, in Alexandria, for some years, then after the death of Archibald, D. D. McPhee left the milling business to concentrate on being a general merchant in Alexandria. It is probably with reference to these brothers that the Alexandria correspondent of The Cornwall Reporter 4 Dec. 1880 wrote, “Our sawmills are beginning to steam up. Mr. D. A. McDonald and Messrs. D. and A. McPhee are starting several saw log shanties.” Later (25 Dec. 1880) the correspondent mentions the “Island Mills” sawmill. The Glengarrian (Alexandria) 10 Oct. 1890 noted, “Having purchased the saw-mill machinery of Messrs. Stewart & McRae, of Dunvegan, our townsman Mr. A. D. McPhee is erecting a new saw mill on the site of the one burnt down some 14 months ago, south of this village. We are glad to hear of this move.” The brothers may or may not have been, in the earlier stages of their careers, the A. and D. McPhee who operated a stage coach line between Lancaster and Vankleek Hill, via Alexandria.

     Archibald was a member of the first council of Alexandria after the incorporation of Alexandria as a village in 1884. In the provincial election of 5 June 1890, Archibald stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate against James Rayside, the Liberal incumbent, to be the MLA for the GC constituency. At the time of his death Archibald was the president of the Conservative Association for GC. He died in Alexandria, a few days after being attacked by a sudden illness. He is buried in St. Finnan’s cemetery. His funeral was described in the Glengarrian as “the largest gathering of the kind which ever took place in Alexandria.” The reports on his death make it emphatically clear that he was a man of standing, well known and well regarded throughout GC, but it is hard now to determine exactly how and why he was important, and how much the importance was related to the Conservative Party, and how much traits of personality mattered. Archibald was married 25 April 1872 to Agnes MacDonald, the daughter of Angus S. Macdonald, a prominent early merchant of Alexandria. (six children) She long outlived her husband, to die 9 July 1941, at the home of her daughter in Reading, Massachusetts. Archibald’s brother D. D. McPhee moved late in life to Calgary, where members of his family were living, and he died there 1 June 1914. See Senator Donald McMillan for James MacPhee, also Archibald’s brother, who was married to Senator McMillan’s daughter.

Glengarrian (QF) 29 April & 6 May 1898 * baptism, marriage: St. Finnan’s CRNI, III, 669 * GN supplement 1903 [3, 5, 20, 30] * Roderick Lewis 94 * obituary of wife, Glengarry News 18 July 1941 * obituary of his brother, D. D. McPhee, GN 5 & 12 June 1914, repr. Fraser Obits. 262-263 * stage coach: A. W. McDougald, GN 27 Jan. 1933, Cornwall Freeholder 27 Oct. 1865 *election campaign: nomination, election manifesto, defeat, CF 30 May 1890, Glengarrian 30 May & 6 June 1890