(21 March 1837-12 Aug. 1920), businessman. (H. C. McRae, Hector C. McRae) Born in Stormont County, Ont. Parents: John McRae, a native of Scotland, and his wife Anna Munro (sp. Ann Munroe also found) . A history of Chippewa County, Wisconsin, in 1913 states that this couple “have passed away and are buried in the same grave on the Indian Lands in Glengarry county.” Hector C. McRae was educated at Martintown and perhaps (since his having high school education is mentioned) at Williamstown, and at a business college.

     He went to Chippewa Falls, Wisc., in 1868. Before this, he had been involved in “the mercantile business” and he now continued in the same for four years at his new location of Chippewa Falls, where he was first a clerk and then a partner in a general store. Charles Ermatinger, in a letter to the Glengarry Times of 22 April 1882 on the success of the Glengarrians at Chippewa Falls (many of whom, he says, arrived “with little or no money”), stated “H. C. McRae of Martintown came here about 1870. He is a mill owner and real estate agent. He has served two terms in the Wisconsin Legislature, and two terms as County Treasurer. Supposed to be worth between $100,000 and $150,000; John McRae, brother of the above, logger and real estate owner, worth $50,000;…” Six years later, a note in the Chicago Canadian-American (reprinted in the Cornwall Freeholder of 2 March 1888, and then again in the Freeholder of 28 Feb. 1908) on the “many ex-Glengarrians among the prominent citizens of Chippewa Falls,” noted in its list ex-mayor Hector C. McRae, from Martintown.

     Hector C. McRae was elected county treasurer of Chippewa County in 1872 and re-elected in 1874. He represented Chippewa County in the Michigan legislature in 1879 and 1880. During one term (elected 1886) he was mayor of Chippewa Falls. He was a businessman in real estate (business notices, 1875, 1877), also about the early 1880s he was in the flour and woollen mill business at Chippewa Falls, being for a time a mill owner there in partnership with his brother John (the brothers were also at some period involved in lumber milling). At a period which is difficult to date, but which was in his later life and is said to have extended for 12 years, he was a U. S. government clerk in the stationery department, Washington. From 1912 or earlier, he was an immigration officer for the Canadian government, stationed apparently at his long-time base, Chippewa Falls. In this role, he was said (1913) to be “regarded as an expert in such matters as come under his jurisdiction.”

     He was married (1) on 14 Nov. 1861 at Martintown, GC, to Margaret J. McKay of Martintown, who became the mother of two children and died in 1869, and (2) on 24 May 1871 to Alice G. Wiltse (b. 1852) of Chippewa Falls, a daughter of Judge Wiltse. The marriage ended in divorce at a date, 1918, surprisingly late in the lives of both partners. The mother of two children, she outlived them and her ex-husband to die 2 May 1929. Hector C. McRae was a Presbyterian, a Mason, and a Republican. He died at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Chippewa Falls. (children surviving him: 1) The claim, which is hardly likely to be true, was made (Forrester) that “His grand uncle, on the maternal side was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.”

     Hector C. McRae’s brother John McRae (John A. McRae) has already been mentioned. Also, Hector C. himself had a son John, who was living in San Diego, Calif., at the time of his father’s death. But Chippewa Falls had at least two other John McRaes from the GC area. Dr John David McRae, who died on 21 April 1937 (Dr J. D. McRae, Dr John D. McRae), was born in GC, the son of Christopher McRae and his wife Ann (Nancy) Chisholm. He was a McGill University medical graduate and was a well-regarded physician at Chippewa Falls for the 38 years preceding his death. He was also a director over many years of the Lumbermen’s National Bank. Dr McRae had a brother John McRae who at the time of the doctor’s death was also a Chippewa Falls resident (the two brothers shared the same name, John). Another brother, Fr D. C. McRae, had been a priest at St. Andrew’s, Ont. For Dr J. D. McRae, see also Alexander B. McDonell.

Obituary, NP, 30 Aug. 1920, evidently from Chippewa Falls area newspaper * biog. sketches in Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin, ed. George Forrester (1891-1892) 499-500 and in Chippewa County Wisconsin Past and Present: a Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II (1913) 47-48 * Intensive Survey Report: Architectural and Historical Survey Project (Chippewa Falls, 1985) 61, 66, 140, 197, 235 * The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin (1907) 979 (Members of Assembly) * obituary of his second wife, The Chippewa Herald-Telegram (Chippewa Falls), 3 May 1929 * Hector McRae, nephew of D. C. Munroe, South Branch, elected mayor of Chippewa Falls, Cornwall Freeholder 19 March 1886, cited in DTL, Standard Freeholder 15 March 1947 & again 16 March 1957 * obituary of Dr J. D. McRae, The Chippewa Herald-Telegram (Chippewa Falls), 21 April 1937 (with portrait) * obituary of Dr J. D. McRae’s mother, Cornwall Standard 11 Oct. 1912 * divorce papers, State of Wisconsin Circuit Court Chippewa County