of Cornwall, Ont. Not a Glengarry family, but of GC impact and significance. William Mack (29 Feb. 1828-11 Dec. 1897), was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and educated in Huntingdon County, Que., where his family had settled, and moved in 1849 to Cornwall, where he prospered as a miller and became a leading citizen. He served as reeve of Cornwall over several years and as warden of SDG for 1878, and he was Liberal MLA for a total of three terms covering the years 1879 to 1883 and 1886 to 1894, the name of his constituency during this time changing from “Cornwall” to “Cornwall and Stormont”, and then to “Stormont”. In the campaigns for the MLA-ship he defeated James Leitch in the Ontario general elections of 1886 and 1890, but he was defeated by John Bennett in the Ontario general election of 1894. (In this latter election, Dorothy Dumbrille’s grandfather Oscar Fulton was also a contender.) His son William R. Mack was sheriff of SDG from 1904 to 1930.
William Mack’s granddaughter (daughter of Sheriff Mack) was Miss Mary A. Mack (12 June 1899-28 May 1978) (Mary Mack), well known in Cornwall for many years as a social worker, a personality, a promoter of the arts, and a member of the Cornwall City Council from 1947 to 1957 (she was Cornwall’s first woman councillor). Socially she was of a family sufficiently secure for her to be presented to the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace in 1926. (Cornwall Freeholder 8 July 1926) Mary Mack studied art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and in Paris, and was the major founder of the Cornwall Art Association, which promoted art and music in Cornwall in the later 1930s. Her painting of “The Deserted Mill at Martintown” won acclaim and was on exhibit in Montreal in 1929. And in 1931 she exhibited two watercolours, called “La Ferme Fouché, Barbizon,” and “Village, Lower St. Lawrence,” in the Annual Exhibition of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada. (Cornwall Freeholder 6 April 1929, 28 Jan. 1931, and information from National Gallery of Canada) However, painting never seems to have been more than a recreation in her life. She marvelled that when she was a worker (perhaps a church worker) in the Cariboo region of B. C., people there were still telling the stories about John A. (”Cariboo”) Cameron. Celebrated for her knowledge of the history of Cornwall and the area near it, she worked for the SDG Historical Society, but unfortunately published little. A GC historian who interviewed her near the end of her life was warned on the eve of the visit that old age was making her limited and cranky, but instead of having an unpleasant experience he was immensely impressed by her charm, and by the richness, speed and sureness of her mind.
Biog. detail in Harkness, Senior (including, unindexed, 533, 540), and Marin * Roderick Lewis * biog. sketch of William Mack in Rose, i, 659 * funeral of Sheriff William R. Mack, Cornwall Freeholder 22 Jan. 1930 * “Mr William Mack, miller, of Cornwall,” wins “the honorable position of Warden of the three large and wealthy Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry,” Gleaner 28 Feb. 1878 * family gravestones, Woodlawn Cemetery, Cornwall