Donald McLean

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-158796P
• Residence: 1849, Dumfries Township, Gore District, Ontario
• Occupation: 1851, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Teacher
• Residence: 1851, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian
• Occupation: 1861, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Teacher
• Residence: 1861, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Occupation: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Customs Inspector
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; U. Presbyterian
• Occupation: 1887, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada; collector of inland revenue
• Occupation: 1887, Guelph Township, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada; Excise Tax Collector

Notes:

AXTELL, NEB., Nov. 24th, 1888.

DEAR SIR, From the tenor of your note requesting my early recollections of the township of Beverly, it would seem you infer that I am a Beverlonian. Such is not the fact. My father moved from Copetown co Dumfries and settled on a farm near St. George, in what year I am unable to say. Nevertheless, it was there that on the 25th of November, 1829, I first saw the light, but although not born in Beverly, I was reared within sight of her towering pines and had more friends and relatives within her borders than in Dumfries. I have always been highly pleased with Mr. Cornell s letters to the papers previous to the series he has recently contributed on the Town ship of Beverly, and if I can be of any assistance to him in his laudable enterprise, 1 am happy. Although not personally acquainted with him, I knew his grandfather and have frequently been in his church and heard him tell his hearers the way they should go. So far as the Copes of Copetown go, I probably know less about them than Mr. Cornell. I certainly know more of their early history since reading his letters than before.

I was much pleased at Mr. Holcomb s description of that queer old pedagogue, Solomon P. Thayer. He was my first teacher, and the house in which he taught was a log building, perhaps fifteen feet square, with a fireplace that would hold at least half a cord of wood, and was used not only as a school room hut as a kitchen, dining room and sleeping room also. He was what now-a-days would be called a crank. Sometimes he would get off his base altogether. At such times he would adjourn the school, and meander about the country talking to himself, as harmless as a goose and with just about as much sense. On one of these occasions he came to our house and said to mother, " The Lord commanded me to come and tell you to fry me three eggs." Of course an order from such high authority was promptly attended to. And yet withal he was in many respects a good teacher, and numbers of young men who afterward he came quite famous, came long distances to attend his school ; among them were E. B. Wood, late chief justice of Manitoba ; Donald McLean, late revenue collector of Guelph ; Dr. Picton, Brown and others.

As I am now speaking of teachers, I cannot stop until I say something about another. When Mr. Holcomb, Sr., was preparing to move to Canada, Mrs. Holcomb, accompanied by her son, preceded him, stopping for a time with Ambrose Clemens, a relative. I cannot tell what year it was, but Mr. Holcomb, jr., " Johnnie " he was then called, will know when I tell him that whenever anybody inquired his age, the inevitable reply was " free years old last auger." The school house was just across the road and the district sadly in need f a teacher. Mrs. Holcomb was persuaded to teach the school, and let me say right here that for all the education I have which has ever been of any practical use to me, I am indebted to Mrs. Holcomb. Cobb s Spelling Book, Dayboll's Arithmetic, and Kirkham's Grammar, come to think of it, perhaps I had better omit the Grammar. She had the most executive ability of any person I ever saw, man or woman. If a boy six feet high transgressed the rules, she would talk to him so that in five minutes he would feel like sinking through a hole in the floor and pulling the hole in after him. After they moved on to the farm called the " Squire Murray place," the people again urged her to continue to teach the " young idea how to shoot." A large room which had been used as a summer kitchen was fitted up and she taught there one or two terms. And this reminds me of an other man, and a Beverly man, too, that ought to revere the memory of Mrs. Holcomb when she taught our school. A boy named Albert Smith, whose father lived on the farm now owned by James Sager, attended. He was a cripple and walked on crutches. After they moved to the farm the distance was too great, and he could not go. Almost everybody in that section knew that Mr. Holcomb always kept a good many horses and many know that he sometimes traded horses also, and Mrs. H. felt so much interested in the crippled boy that she prevailed upon her husband to loan him a pony, so he might ride to school, which he did for the entire summer. He is still living in Beverly, near Troy, if I am not mistaken. I sincerely hope Mr. Cornell may succeed in getting out his hook and reap as rich a reward pecuniarily as I know he will from the gratitude of his fellow-townsmen.

Always yours,

R. M. COPE.

Donald married Agnes Matilda Keachie 5 Jan 1849, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Agnes (daughter of James Keachie and Elizabeth Susan Buchanan) was born 3 Dec 1821, , Ontario, Canada; died 3 Jul 1893, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada; was buried , Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-158799
• Residence: 1851, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian
• Residence: 1861, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; U. Presbyterian
• Occupation: 1876, Mount Forest, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada; land surveyor

Notes:

James Keachie McLean

By K.A. McLean (Mrs. J.K. McL., 26 Rideau Terrace, Ottawa)

Mr. Jas. K. McLean was born at Galt, Ont., in December 19th, 1851, and died suddenly on May 25th, 1913, on the Sarcee Reserve, near Calgary, Alta., where he had commenced his season's work for the Department of Indian Affairs. He held the position of surveyor for the Department of Indian Affairs, Ottawa.

Mr. McLean received his early education at Dr. Tassie School, Galt, and served his apprenticeship with the late Hugh Wilson, of Mount Forest, and passed his final examination on April 8th, 1876, Charles Booth served the first year of his apprenticeship with Mr. Wilson, and the remaining time with Mr. McLean.

Mr. McLean served with the surveyors in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. A photograph of fourteen of the surveyors taken in 1885 at Winnipeg includes the following: -

T.R. Hewson, Peterborough; Lewis R. Ord, Thessalon; J.F. Garden, Meaford; H.C. Denny, Toronto; C.E. Wolfe, Ottawa; A.F. Cotton, Ottawa; C.F. Miles, Walkerton; F.W. Armstrong, Orillia; T. Kains, Lindsay; H.B. Proudfoot, Clinton; Edgar Bray, Oakville; Thos. Drummond, Montreal; J.K. McLean, Elora; Chas. McGrath, Ottawa.

Three children survive: Donald R. McLean, Calgary; Salina A.K. McLean, Ottawa; Agnes M. McLean, Ottawa.

Association of Ontario Land Surveyors pg. 60

____________________________

His wife: Katherine Anne McDiarmid
b. 13 Nov 1851 ON
d. 19 Feb 1947 Elora, ON
m. 19 Dec 1876
buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park

Their children:
1-Selina Anne McLean
b. 5 Oct 1877 Mt. Forest, ON; d. 22 Dec 1961 Fergus, ON
buried Woodlawn Memorial Park
2-Agnes Matilda McLean
b. 21 Aug 1879 Mt. Forest, ON; d. 4 Jul 1974 Fergus, ON
buried Woodlawn Memorial Park
3-Kathleen Louise Keachie McLean
b. 7 Dec 1885 Elora, ON; d. 29 Aug 1886 Wellington, ON
4-Donald Roy McDiarmid McLean
b. 23 Jan 1888 Elora, ON; d. 5 Dec 1944 W. Vancouver, BC
buried Ocean View Burial Park in Barnaby, BC

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-178046
• Residence: 1861, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; U. Presbyterian

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-178047
• Residence: 1861, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; U. Presbyterian

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-251937
• Residence: 1861, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; U. Presbyterian
• Occupation: 1901, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada; barrister

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-178050
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; U. Presbyterian
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Painter
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian