(17 March 1835-2 Oct. 1893), contractor. Born presumably at St. Raphael’s, GC. Parents: John McRae and his wife Anne MacDonald. He was a Roman Catholic. On 15 July 1862 he was married to to Flora Anne MacDonell (1840-1925) of GC. (16 children) John Joseph McRae was a railway contractor, working in places which included Michigan and Minnesota. He and his family moved back and forth across the Canadian-American border as the needs of his occupation required. In Alexandria, he was also the proprietor or manager of the Atlantic Hotel at the station. For a time, presumably from his period there, it was known as the McRae Hotel. Becoming ill with tuberculosis, he decided to move to what was thought to be the favourable climate of the Canadian West. Leaving Alexandria in April 1892, he and his wife with eight children arrived in Strathcona (now a part of Edmonton), where he operated a teamster business before dying at Strathcona the following year. His granddaughter Mrs Norma L. Paradis wrote a interesting book largely about him, his wife and their descendants, called The Clan McRae: a Canadian Ceilidh (1977). John Joseph McRae was the brother of Isabella McRae, the celebrated Belle John. Also, John Joseph McRae was the father-in-law of Angus L. McLaughlin and was the grandfather of J. L. McLaughlin, two eminent contractors. And he was the grandfather of the eminent Canadian Don W. Thomson (1906-9 Jan. 2001; brother of Mrs Norma L. Paradis), who was the author of Men and Meridians: the History of Surveying and Mapping in Canada, 3 vols. (Ottawa, Queen’s Printer, 1966-1969). Thomson was active in the work of the Canadian Authors Association, and was one of the people who laid the foundations for establishing the Public Lending Right system for authors in Canada.

Glengarry News 6 Oct. 1893 * Paradis, passim (with portrait) * GN obituaries of Mrs and Mrs Angus L. McLaughlin as per notes to entry for Angus L. * Don W. Thomson: Paradis; obituary tribute from Canadian Authors Association on internet