(10 or 19 Feb. 1876-18 Feb. 1967), farmer, political figure. (John D. MacRae, J. D. MacRae; middle name David also found) Born in the Apple Hill area, GC. Parents: John MacRae and his wife Mary McIntosh. Primary school may have been the limit of his formal education. John D. MacRae farmed on a large scale (by the GC standards of his time) on the 13th Concession of Indian Lands, near Apple Hill. He served as deputy reeve and reeve of Kenyon Township. At the federal general election of 14 Oct. 1935, he was elected MP (Liberal) for GC, defeating Angus McGillis (Conservative) and J. A. Macdonell (Stevens’ Reconstruction Party), but he served for only one term. As the next federal general election approached, John D. MacRae failed (Feb. 1940) to secure the Liberal nomination. In a hard-fought struggle for the nomination, in which one of the contenders was the ex-Senator W. L. McDougald, the victor was Dr W. B. MacDiarmid of Maxville, who as the Liberal standardbearer was duly elected MP for GC in the federal general election of 26 March 1940.

     John D. MacRae was married on 19 Sept. 1918 to Hazel Ross Carlyle (1886-23 Feb. 1968). Her father, Thomas Carlyle, was a millwright from Dundas County who owned and operated mills at Munroes Mills, GC, and also built a mill complex in Colorado. From 1940, John D. MacRae and his wife lived in retirement in Maxville, before spending their final years at the Glen-Stor-Dun Lodge near Cornwall. He died in Cornwall General Hospital. (three children, two surviving him.) United Church.

     John D. MacRae and his wife were the parents of Marion MacRae (b. GC 1921, d. 11 Aug. 2008), the distinguished author and architectural historian. She was the co-author (with Anthony Adamson) of Hallowed Walls: Church Architecture of Upper Canada (1975) which won the Governor General’s award for non-fiction for 1975. She was also co-author of The Ancestral Roof (1963) and Cornerstones of Order (1983) and author of MacNab of Dundurn (1971). Her final years were spent at Maxville Manor.

Glengarry News 23 Feb. 1967 * Harkness 325-330 (with portrait) * Johnson (1968) 439 * Maxville (1991) 285-286 * gravestone, Maxville Cemetery * Marion MacRae, “Munroes Mills,” Glengarry Life 1994 (for Carlyle family) * Ottawa Citizen sketch of, as Liberal candidate, repr. GN 4 Oct. 1935 * struggle 1940 for Liberal nomination: see documentation in entry for Dr W. B. MacDiarmid * obituary, GN (ND) of wife * obituary, report on funeral, of his son Carlyle MacRae, died age 22, Standard Freeholder 9 & 12 March 1942 * re-elected president of GC Liberal Association, GN 23 June 1933 * speaks against high price of farm machinery, House of Commons, GN 11 March 1938 * farm re-sold, GN 3 April 1953 * describes his work for GC as MP, SFH 28 Feb. 1940 * strove unsuccessfully as MP to have plaque placed to commemorate Ralph Connor, SFH 25 Feb. 1948 (letter, editorial) * Marion MacRae: Canadian Who’s Who 1990 p. 598; GN 20 Aug. 2008 (three notices, portrait)