(1851-8 Aug.1904), businessman. (D. A. McPherson is the standard, almost invariable form of the name in sources; Dannie Alex McPherson was found once) Born at Lancaster, GC. He was a partner with James Alexander at Lancaster, GC, in the merchant firm McPherson and Alexander, which A. W. McDougald in his history of GC (see the entry for Donald McNaughton) speaks of as being among the large, successful trading enterprises of that village in the days when possession of a railway station gave Lancaster a trade monopoly over a large part of GC. The firm dealt in farm produce, including grain and pork. The Cornwall Reporter of 29 July 1882 stated, “We are glad to acknowledge the receipt of the circular and business card of Messrs. Macpherson and Alexander, of Lancaster, who have resolved to open a branch of their business in Montreal, at the corner of King and William Streets.” The same newspaper’s Lancaster columnist a half-year later (20 Jan. 1883) described McPherson and Alexander as “largely engaged in the grain business, [and] having agents buying at all the principal points in the county.”

     McPherson’s settlement as a businessman in Montreal has been dated to 1882. Lovell’s Montreal Directory for 1883-1884 and 1884-1885 has the notice, “McPherson & ALEXANDER, Farm, Dairy, Produce and Provision Merchants, and Wholesale Dealers in Grain, Flour, Pork, Butter, Cheese, &c., &c., cor King and William; Branch Offices Lancaster and Brockville, Ont.” At this time, McPherson is listed already as a resident of Montreal, but Alexander as a resident of Lancaster. By the time of the Lovell’s directory for 1885-1886, however, where much the same business notice appears, the name of Alexander is missing from the firm. The Montreal business address remains the same, and again there are branch offices at Lancaster and Brockville. Notices for McPherson’s company appear in the same directory for the years following (for a time he had a partner, J. M. C. Muir). Meanwhile, Alexander, like McPherson, had established himself as a substantial merchant in Montreal separately from the old partnership. In the season of 1890, McPherson was reported to be the third largest exporter of cheese from the Port of Montreal. Some of this cheese came from northern New York State, being brought into Canada under bond for re-export. He was also a large-scale grain dealer, who in the early 1890s was apparently making Alexandria the storage point for the grain purchases he made along the line of the Canada Atlantic Railway.

     D. A. McPherson died in the Coteau Rapids, when he fell or threw himself overboard from a steamer in which he was returning from visiting his family at Stanley Island (near Summerstown). Duncan J. Macpherson states that he “encountered financial difficulties and committed suicide.” (quoted, Fraser) He was married (five children) to a sister of John A. McLean (another McLean sister was married to J. D. Houston). He was, presumably, the D. A. McPherson whose farm buildings at Lancaster are shown in a half-page steel engraving in the 1879 Belden atlas of SDG. And he was also, presumably, the D. A. McPherson who, at the early date of 1887, had a telephone in his home at Lancaster. D. M. Macpherson the Cheese King had his office at Lancaster in a store building near the railway tracks which had once housed the the firm of McPherson and Alexander.

     In 1907, it was reported that the D. A. McPherson Produce Company, Ltd, exporters of butter and cheese, had gone into liquidation. The firm thus named, presumably in some sense a continuation or reworking of D. A. McPherson’s previous company, was said to have been organized about two years before, and to have as its chief members Thomas Ryan and Barclay McPherson. (Cornwall Standard 26 July 1907)

     D. M. Macpherson the Cheese King and D. A. McPherson “of the eminent grain house of McPherson & Alexander” arrived home in mid-February 1881 from a trip to Britain and Europe. They had hoped that in Britain they could “open new channels for their increasing business,” and on return they they were reported to have “attained the commercial object of their visit” there. At the end of 1880, before they left Canada, well wishers had given them a banquet. (Glengarry Times 31 Dec. 1880, 22 Feb. 1881, Cornwall Freeholder 31 Dec. 1880, 25 Feb. 1881)

     A further note on the McPhersons, merchants of Lancaster: A. W. McDougald, in a passage referred to in the opening lines of the present article and quoted in the article on Donald McNaughton, mentions “William and David McPherson” as “large general merchants” of Lancaster in the days of Lancaster’s railway monopoly. The firm name appears also as D. F. and W. McPherson. William and David were probably brothers, and they were Roman Catholics. Almost certainly, William was the father-in-law of the eminent contractor Lewis A. Grant.

Cornwall Freeholder 12 Aug. 1904, Glengarry News 12 Aug. 1904 (latter only repr. Fraser Obits. 271) * Fraser (1959) 236 (extract from letter from Duncan J. Macpherson) * Lovell’s Montreal Directory from 1883 to 1909 * Ross, Lancaster, 190, 211, 212, 254-255 * A. W. McDougald (GN 27 Jan. 1933 ) * Woodburn 190 * Belden Atlas 31, 54 * William and David McPherson the Lancaster merchants: Elliott 226, 227; Ross, Lancaster, 189 (advert.); chief clerk A. D. McDonell marries, CF 29 April 1881; burglary in their store, Gleaner 18 Oct. 1888; Lewis A. Grant dies, GN 9 Dec. 1904; obituary GN 13 Jan. 1922, repr. Fraser Obits. 276, of Mrs William MacPherson (widow of the merchant?)