(1851-13 Feb. 1928), tinsmith, businessman. (Peter Leslie, P. A. Leslie) Born at Dundee, Que. Parents: Mr and Mrs Alexander Leslie. Peter Leslie came to Alexandria in 1873 and opened a tinsmithing business there, which later developed into a hardware store. The Alexandria columnist in The Cornwall Reporter of 11 June 1881 wrote, “Mr. P. Leslie, Tinsmith, has turned out over five hundred cans for cheese factory purposes this season.” Thus, in its early days, the GC-area cheese factory system had produced at least this one modest spin-off in local manufacturing. In the years that followed, however, GC-area manufacturing relating to the cheese business was mostly in the production of the wooden cheese boxes. It is hard to guess today whether Leslie’s cans were of the same design as the bulky cans not far different from oil drums in size and shape used in the 1930s and 1940s by GC farmers to take their milk to the cheese factories. In 1899, Sam Levac, of the 3rd Concession of Lochiel, sold 5000 pounds of honey in 100-lb cans he had Leslie make for him. (Glengarry News 20 July 1900) In the spring of 1907, P. Leslie & Son were reported to have sold 20,000 sap buckets in 10 days. (GN 5 April 1907)

     At Aultsville, Ont., about 1875, Peter Leslie was married to Leonora McCracken (1853-1928), whose father was Archibald McCracken of Farran’s Point, Ont. Her sister later married John D. McIntosh, the manufacturer, of Munro & McIntosh. In 1910, Peter Leslie and his wife left Alexandria to live in Ottawa. (GN 1 July 1910) In Ottawa, he continued in the tinsmith business. Peter Leslie died at Verdun, Que., and his wife died one week later, on 20 Feb., at the home of their son-in-law Will J. Simpson, in Alexandria. This couple are buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Alexandria. (two children) Their son, F. A. (Fred) Leslie (1883-1947), of Ottawa, in 1924 began operation of a business, which appears not to have long survived, called Metal Wares Ltd. in the old Schell premises, Alexandria, the president of the firm being Dr J. T. Hope. (Cornwall Standard 10 Jan. 1924)

Glengarry News 17 & 24 Feb. 1928 * Ostrom 346 *GN supplement 1903 [2, 5] * gravestone, Alexandria Protestant cemetery * Ottawa Directory, 1910, 1914, 1922 * GC milk cans: MacGillivray & Ross 404, 622 * P. Leslie & Son finish the iron roofing of a large Alexandria house, and are selling a device called the “shovel from Glengarry,” GN 7 & 28 Aug. 1908