(12 June 1917-7 March 2000), farmer. (Lloyd McRae) Born at his parents’ home at Bainsville, GC, on the farm where he was later to spend his entire life except for absences for schooling. Parents: John F. McRae (1874-28 Dec. 1956) and his wife Lillie A. Ross (1884-3 Nov. 1958). The farm of the John F. McRae, just mentioned, i.e., the father of the subject of the present entry, was on Lot 15 in the 1st Concession of Lancaster Township, at Bainsville. Formerly it was the Allan Grove farm of the well known D. M. Macpherson (called the “Cheese King”), proprietor of the Allan Grove Combination of cheese factories. John F. McRae, born on Lot 18 in the 1st Concession of Lochiel Township, GC, bought the 250-acre Allan Grove Farm at auction in 1904, and sold his own farm, which was on the lot just named in the 1st of Lochiel. The Cornwall Cheese and Butter Board history of 1920, called John F. McRae “one of the most prominent farmers in the Glengarry county,” and noting his interest in politics said that “He has been prominently mentioned as a Liberal candidate for the House of Commons on many occasions.”
His son, Lloyd McRae, the subject of the present entry, after attending Bainsville primary school and Williamstown High School, graduated from Kemptville Agricultural College in 1938, and in that year began a partnership with his father. Lloyd McRae was an innovative and enterprising farmer, who built up a particularly distinguished Holstein herd, the Wenron herd. In 1962, his son Ronald bought a half interest in the farm. In 1969-1970 the herd was sold and the McRaes began to concentrate on cash-cropping and tile drainage contracting. In 1967 he won the W. Harris McNish Memorial Award of the Eastern Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association. (Glengarry News 12 & 19 Jan. 1967) At this time he was described as operating a 600-acre farm on which he had 150 purebred Holsteins, 75 of the cows being at the milk producing stage. In 1969 Lloyd McRae and his son won the Master Breeder Award, a much coveted award of the Holstein-Friesian Association. Lloyd McRae was active in a wide range of agricultural organizations and community activities; among other public services, he was a chairman of the Glengarry District High School Board. In 1985, the McRaes established a 21-year agreement with Ducks Unlimited for wetland development. The Allan Grove name of this farm seems to have ceased with D. M. Macpherson’s ownership. From 1963 to 1975, the farm (larger now than in Macpherson’s time) was called Lloyd McRae and Son, and in 1975 the farm was incorporated as McRae Farms Ltd. Wenron was the prefix for the Holstein cattle rather than a name for the farm.
Lloyd McRae was married at Lancaster on 21 Sept. 1938 to Elizabeth (Tibi) McNaughton. He was inducted into the Glengarry Agricultural Wall of Fame in 1993. His death took place at Glengarry Memorial Hospital, Alexandria. (four children, three surviving him) He belonged to the United Church. The physicist Duncan Ross McRae was his brother.
Glengarry News 22 March 2000 (by Anna Margaret MacDonald) and 5 April 2000 * private information * Stiles 190 * Fraser, Gravestones, II, 212 * biog. sketch prepared on occasion of his induction into GC agricultural Wall of Fame, GN 22 Sept. 1993 (with line portrait) * Ian Cumming, “The McRaes Have a Tradition of Excellence,” GN 13 July 1994 (valuable history, by an experienced farmer, of the operation of the McRae farm at Bainsville since 1904) * Holstein: esp. 4, 61, but many refs. throughout, with portrait * Holstein-Friesian World: the Newspaper of the Breed, 25 March 1970: much information on the Wenron herd (illust.) * Charles R. Mead, “’There’s Room at the Top’,” The Furrow (Jan.-Feb. 1964) * Marland Murray, The Canadian Glen Falloch Murrays (1987)145-147 * Ross, Lancaster, 322, 330 * Marin 158, 169 * Ross & Fraser McNaughtons, II, 481 ff