| <tab>John A. Chisholm was not a Glengarrian, but he was a student of GC history and relevant to the propagation of the mystique of GC. He was the great-grandnephew of the legendary Glengarrian Big Finnan of the Buffalo Mcdonald. For several years, beginning in 1922, Chisholm carried on a correspondence with an American historian, T.C. Elliott of Walla Walla, state of Washington, on the life of Finnan. They worked together on a manuscript on Finnan’s life but it seems not to have been published. The correspondence, which contains much valuable information which Chisholm acquired on Finnan, together with a few draft sections of the proposed biography, is preserved in the files of the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Ore. On 5 Jan. 1924 the Toronto //Star Weekly// published one of the best remembered articles on GC, Greg Clark’s report on the funeral at St. Raphael’s of Isabella McRae (Belle John), called “Glengarry’s Heart Still in the Highlands. Historic Clans Gather at Funeral of Pioneer.” Chisholm wrote to Elliott that “I personally dictated nearly the whole of that article in Toronto Star Weekly; dictated it right out there at St. Raphaels to the shorthand reporter, and did it without any trouble at all and without any notes to refresh my memory by.” The //Star Weekly// article contains the statement that John A. Chisholm, Cornwall barrister, had “amassed a complete history of the immigrant Highlanders to Glengarry,” and was “to collaborate with an American historian” on a biography of Big Finnan. Chisholm was a gifted public speaker, and topics on which he spoke included Big Finnan (//Cornwall Freeholder// 8 May 1924, //Cornwall Standard //17 Dec. 1925). | <tab>John A. Chisholm was not a Glengarrian, but he was a student of GC history and relevant to the propagation of the mystique of GC. He was the great-grandnephew of the legendary Glengarrian Big Finnan of the Buffalo Mcdonald. For several years, beginning in 1922, Chisholm carried on a correspondence with an American historian, T.C. Elliott of Walla Walla, state of Washington, on the life of Finnan. They worked together on a manuscript on Finnan’s life but it seems not to have been published. The correspondence, which contains much valuable information which Chisholm acquired on Finnan, together with a few draft sections of the proposed biography, is preserved in the files of the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Ore. On 5 Jan. 1924 the Toronto //Star Weekly// published one of the best remembered articles on GC, Greg Clark’s report on the funeral at St. Raphael’s of Isabella McRae (Belle John), called “Glengarry’s Heart Still in the Highlands. Historic Clans Gather at Funeral of Pioneer.” Chisholm wrote to Elliott that “I personally dictated nearly the whole of that article in Toronto Star Weekly; dictated it right out there at St. Raphaels to the shorthand reporter, and did it without any trouble at all and without any notes to refresh my memory by.” The //Star Weekly// article contains the statement that John A. Chisholm, Cornwall barrister, had “amassed a complete history of the immigrant Highlanders to Glengarry,” and was “to collaborate with an American historian” on a biography of Big Finnan. Chisholm was a gifted public speaker, and topics on which he spoke included Big Finnan (//Cornwall Freeholder// 8 May 1924, //Cornwall Standard //17 Dec. 1925). |
| <tab>Chisholm spent about three months a year in travel. Chisholm died at Hudson City Hospital, Hudson, N.Y., and is buried at the cemetery of St. Mary’s Church, Williamstown. Chisholm left money for a stained glass window in St. Mary’s Church, Williamstown (see Fr Alexander L. Mcdonald). Chisholm was unmarried. He was a descendant of the fur trader Archibald McLellan, and was also a nephew of Donald McLellan (Big Donald the Assignee) and a first cousin of Katherine McLellan, and he was a kinsman of Archibald Mark Chisholm (QV, for their tour in Scotland, 1921). See also [[mcdonald_angus_j|Angus J. Mcdonald]], rancher and banker. | <tab>Chisholm spent about three months a year in travel. Chisholm died at Hudson City Hospital, Hudson, N.Y., and is buried at the cemetery of St. Mary’s Church, Williamstown. Chisholm left money for a stained glass window in St. Mary’s Church, Williamstown (see [[mcdonald_alexander_l|Fr Alexander L. Mcdonald]]). Chisholm was unmarried. He was a descendant of the fur trader Archibald McLellan, and was also a nephew of Donald McLellan (Big Donald the Assignee) and a first cousin of Katherine McLellan, and he was a kinsman of Archibald Mark Chisholm (QV, for their tour in Scotland, 1921). See also [[mcdonald_angus_j|Angus J. Mcdonald]], rancher and banker. |
