McMartin, Alexander

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Allan J. MacDonald, “McMARTIN, ALEXANDER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mcmartin_alexander_8E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Militia officer, businessman, politician, justice of the peace, and office holder; b. 1788 in Charlottenburgh Township (Ont.), son of Malcolm McMartin and Margaret McIntyre; m. 14 Jan. 1834 Mary Carlyle of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and they had four sons and two daughters; d. 12 July 1853 in Martintown, Upper Canada.
    • Alexander McMartin’s loyalist father settled in Charlottenburgh Township and in 1789 began acquiring land along the banks of the Raisin River. There he erected the mills from which the surrounding settlement would take its name. Alexander grew up in MacMartin’s Mills (later known as Martintown) and by 1811 was running his father’s general store.
    • McMartin had taken over his father’s growing sawmill, grist-mill, and carding-mill operations at Martintown in the 1820s. In 1827 he and a partner became involved in the construction of the Rideau Canal. 
    • In 1812 McMartin had been elected to the House of Assembly for Glengarry along with John Macdonell (Greenfield). A man of solidly conservative political views, he continued to serve in the house until 1824 when he lost to Duncan Cameron. McMartin was returned in 1828 and again in 1830 but lost the general election of 1834 to Alexander Chisholm. Because of his standing in the community and his staunch support of the provincial government, McMartin also held numerous local public offices. 
    • A pillar of the Presbyterian community, McMartin was a ruling elder of the congregation at Martintown and served for a time as president of the Bible Society and as a commissioner of the clergy reserve fund. When he died in 1853, he was eulogized in the local newspaper as a man “whose urbanity and warmth of heart endeared him to his fellow-men of all creeds and political opinions, and . . . whose place in society it will be difficult to fill.”
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5639
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90214970/alexander-mcmartin