(1866-10 or 11 Jan. 1966), stonemason. Born in the Dunvegan area, GC. Parents: Angus Fletcher (1830-1877) and his wife Margaret MacCuaig (1837-1924). An obituary states, “In early manhood he travelled extensively and was employed in Western Canada for many years. Following his return to Dunvegan he became a stonemason and labored in the Ottawa Valley for his remaining years. He resided with his mother in the village [Dunvegan] till her death.” The reference to travelling in this somewhat vague passage probably means only that like so many of his GC contemporaries he moved about a good deal in Canada and perhaps the United States in his earlier years supporting himself in various kinds of work. The Ottawa Valley was probably a general term for Eastern Ontario. We may also guess that in his Ottawa Valley years his home was at Dunvegan, but that he left from time to time to live in boarding houses and the like when he was on the more remote work projects. Being a stone mason, it may be noted, was a rare and unusual occupation for a Glengarrian. After his mother’s death in 1924 Fletcher, who never married, lived alone at Dunvegan till old age and fading eyesight caused him to become a resident of the Glen-Stor-Dun Lodge, near Cornwall. He died at the Lodge, in his 100th year, the last surviving member of a family of 8, and is buried at Dunvegan. In his last years, he was blind. “Mr. Fletcher was a lover of good music, a good Gaelic singer and a noteworthy violinist; and although blind in life’s evening, he continued to share his violin talent with other residents in the Lodge almost to the last.” We may assume that he was the Mr Donald Fletcher who at the “annual Christmas tree,” i. e., Christmas concert, at the Dunvegan school house in 1941, “played some violin numbers accompanied by Miss M. Campbell, at the organ.” (Dunvegan column, Glengarry News 26 Dec. 1941)

     Professor Charles W. Dunn, probably in 1960, tape-recorded a Gaelic song (“I Am Melancholy”) as sung by Donald Fletcher. Dunn afterwards wrote an article called “Glengarry’s Gaelic Heritage” (Dalhousie Review Vol. 42: 1962-1963) in which he included a portion of an English translation of the song. And 20 years later, Margaret MacDonell in her well-known The Emigrant Experience: Songs of Highland Emigrants in North America (Univ. of Toronto Press, 1982) published a Gaelic text of the song and of Fletcher’s Gaelic prefatory note on the song, both with English translations (pp. 136-139, 219). Scottish born, a professor at New York University when he visited GC in 1960, Dunn was afterwards a professor at Harvard and died in Boston 24 July 2006, aged 90. The recording which he made of the song and which was used by Margaret MacDonell for her transcript is in the Celtic Archives at Harvard University.

Glengarry News 20 Jan. 1966 (QF) * family gravestone, Dunvegan * Kenyon Church Report 1924, 1966 * Prof. Dunn visits GC, GN 11 Aug. & 29 Sept. 1960 * Angus H. McDonell, GN 21 Nov. 1990, on this Fletcher family and its musical traditions, with some notes on Donald’s early life as shantyman and musical entertainer * Dunn: Harvard University Gazette, 2 Aug. (portrait) & 19 Oct. 2006 * “I Am Melancholy” still sometimes sung: example cited Winter GN 14 Feb. 1996 * biog. articles (overlapping but not identical, illust.) on Fletcher family for GC Celtic Music Hall of Fame, Glengarry News 2 April 2008 & Vankleek Hill Review 30 April 2008