(1870-27 Oct. 1906), lumberman. (J. D. McArthur) Born at Lancaster, GC. Parents: Archibald McArthur and his wife Jane McDermid. In 1891 he was taken in as a partner with his father in the family lumber mill and lumber business at South Lancaster, GC. He was married to Lilian McPherson, the daughter of D. M. Macpherson the Cheese King. (three children) In the spring of 1903, J. D. McArthur took a raft of square timber to Quebec City, returning to Lancaster on 23 May. (Glengarry News 29 May 1903). The late Ewan Ross wrote that this was the last record he had found of Glengarry rafts going to Quebec. (MacGillivray & Ross p. 461)

     Early in 1906, on the death of his father, J. D. McArthur became head of the firm, which had bought the Stuart Tract three years before, and had begun logging it. Owing to lack of water in the Raisin River, it proved difficult to get the logs through to South Lancaster.The Williamstown columnist in the Cornwall Standard of 14 Sept. 1906 wrote, “D. M. McPherson and son, Duncan [D. J. Macpherson], have taken the contract from McArthur & Co, of Lancaster, of bringing all their logs and timber detained in the river between here and Martintown, through the rapids and over the dam and landing them at the mill at South Lancaster. If perseverance and ingenuity will do it, the contract is in the right hands.” By October, an effort was being made to get the logs hauled out of the stream before the ice formed. That month, not much more than a half year after his father, J. D. McArthur died at St. Luke’s Hospital, Ottawa, aged 36, leaving a widow and small children. The estate of J. D. McArthur, under the direction of his widow, and with the assistance of her brother Duncan J. Macpherson, continued to log the Stuart Tract and to operate the sawmill for a few years. In 1909 the sawmill and lumber business were sold, but by about 1914 the new owners had ceased operations. Finally, in 1921, the disused mill was destroyed by a fire. J. D. McArthur was a Presbyterian and a Mason. He is buried in St. Andrew’s cemetery, South Lancaster. His widow, who long outlived him, died at Utica, N.Y., on 15 April 1948. (her obituary Standard Freeholder 23 April 1948)

Cornwall Standard (two items) & Glengarry News both 2 Nov. 1906 * Fraser, Gravestones, II, 66 * MacGillivray & Ross 461-470 * Ross, Lancaster, 258, 259-260, 265, 267, 276-277, 303 * J. D. McArthur is Liberal delegate, GN 2 Dec. 1904 * Estate of J. D. McArthur has good 19-day 1908 log run down Raisin River, Cornwall Freeholder 1 May 1908 * Mrs J. D. McArthur sells home, GN 16 Oct. 1914 * obituary, report on funeral, of Daniel McGillivray, 78, born at St. Elmo, Cornwall paper mill employee, who had been “foreman for McArthur Brothers [sic], lumber merchants,” at Lancaster, Standard Freeholder 26 & 29, May 1947 *pre-WWI postcard photo of McArthur saw mill, GN 16 Jan. 2002