(1817-1 Dec. 1886), businessman, wanderer, religious sceptic, local councillor, whose life appears in the second volume of Rose’s Cyclopedia of Canadian Biography. Born in Kingussie, Inverness-shire, Scotland. His father was a merchant who emigrated to Canada in 1822 (if Rose is correct) and settled in GC. The subject of this biography, R. B. McPherson, spent his childhood in GC, leaving home at the age of thirteen. He worked on the St. Lawrence lumber rafts in his early years; then later, he was a storekeeper in Central and Western Ontario, and involved in businesses variously connected with the Welland Canal. Rose gives his place of residence as Thorold, Ont. He died during a visit to Buffalo, N. Y. He was married in 1855 to a Miss Secord, granddaughter of the famous Laura Secord. The colourful biography in Rose’s volume must be assumed to be largely drawn from McPherson’s own words.

Rose, ii, 154-155