(1869 or 1870-14 Oct. 1950), piper. (John A. Stewart, Johnny Alex Stewart; often identified by adding the designation piper or pipe major) Born at Stewarts Glen, GC. Parents: Lachlin (or Lachlan) Stewart, a native of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and his wife Catherine McRae. John A. Stewart was, presumably, educated only locally. In his early years he worked in Duluth, Minn., and was a cheesemaker at Laggan, GC. But afterwards, in the main occupation of his life, he was a blacksmith for many years at Dunvegan. His shop there was on the southeast corner at the crossroads, where the Glengarry Pioneer Museum now stands. In 1900, he joined the pipe band of the 59th Regiment. In 1907, he took on the position of pipe major, and he continued to be pipe major when the SDG Highlanders Regiment succeeded the 59th. He played with the band of the Royal Highlanders of Canada at the Quebec City Tercentenary celebrations of 1908. He was never in the regular army, and was too old for overseas service in WWI. His military role was always strictly part time, his real or main profession and livelihood being that of the blacksmith shop at Dunvegan. Over many years, however, he went regularly to camp with the militia. He retired as pipe major in 1936.

     In his various roles, Stewart was one of the best-known in his day of all the Glengarry pipers. “Due to his skill as a piper, his services were greatly in demand at concerts, socials, picnics, Highland dancing and piping contests, both as piper and judge.” (Glengarry News obituary). He was married in Ottawa on 16 June 1909 to Edith Grant (1887-25 Sept. 1957) of Bristol, Que., who had been a schoolteacher in Maxville (three children) He died at his home at Dunvegan, being the last surviving member of his parents’ large family. Presbyterian. Orangeman. He and his wife are buried in the Dunvegan cemetery. Among those attending his funeral were W.J. Major, MP, Osie Villeneuve, MLA, Col. J.A. Gillies, and Col. W.J. Franklin, sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons. He is commemorated in the Pipe Major John A. Stewart Memorial Trophy, one of the awards presented by the Glengarry School of Piping and Drumming. His blacksmith shop at Dunvegan was removed in 1954. (Glengarry News 15 April 1954)

     Two of John A. Stewart’s brothers were blacksmiths on Main Street, Maxville: first Big Murdoch Lachlin Stewart (d.1900) and then Norman Lachlin Stewart (d.1949), who took over the blacksmith shop after his brother’s death, and was a carriage maker as well as a blacksmith. The eloquent Thomas W. Munro wrote a fine sketch of Big Murdoch Lachlin Stewart for his “I Remember” series in the Glengarry News. In a bravura passage he remarks of the blacksmith shop operated by these two brothers, that “if the clangs that have resounded from its anvil were united in one grand symphony, it would reverberate through space and beyond it until the inhabitants of Mars would exclaim: ‘How these Maxvillites do harmonize’.”

MacPhee 19-21: biog., with portraits; includes repr. of obituary (Glengarry News 20 Oct. 1950, QF) , and of a biog. article (GN 29 May 1936) on occasion of his retirement as pipe major * Campbell (1990), 117-162 * gravestone * Boss 58 * Maxville (1991) 732, 847-851 * MacMillan, Kirk, 386 * MacMillan, Kenyon Presbyterian Church, 87 * Thomas W. Munro: GN 8 July 1938 repr. Maxville (1967) * Rev. W.S. Sutherland, “The 154th Pipe Band,” Glengarry Life (1978), valuable recollections * presented with silver bread tray on retirement as pipe major, GN 17 July 1936 * death of Muriel, last surviving of his children, Dunvegan column, GN 19 Aug. 1998