(4 May 1835 or 4 May 1838-13 Aug. 1898), contractor, farmer. (M. Purcell) Brother of John and Patrick Purcell. Born Charlottenburgh Township, GC. Parents: Michael Purcell and his wife Catherine Grant. His education was in GC schools, and he remained at home on the family farm till he became a foreman for his brother Patrick in the construction of the Junction Canal at Cardinal, Ont. Also, he was manager for Patrick in the building of factory foundations in Cornwall, and construction foreman on waterworks in New York City, and worked with Patrick on the construction of St. Peter’s Canal, Cape Breton. Likewise, he was a contractor in building portions of the CPR, the Ontario and Quebec Railway, and the Northern Pacific Railway. See also D. H. McKenzie, an associate in contracting. Cochrane’s biographical dictionary in the 1890s said of Purcell that “Since 1887, he has given his full attention to farming. He is now the owner of four hundred acres, fronting the St. Lawrence.” Michael Purcell died instantly when a train hit a carriage he was driving over a railway crossing a few miles east of Cornwall. He had been a major beneficiary under the will of his brother Patrick, who died in 1891.

     Michael Purcell was a Roman Catholic. He was married in 1874 to Isabella McCaffrey of Dundee, Que. The Cornwall cheese and butter board volume of 1920 stated that an “estate of four hundred acres of the best farming land” surrounded her fine house at Glen Walter, with its “fine view of the majestic St. Lawrence River,” and that Mrs Purcell “personally supervises the conduct of the large interests left by her late husband.” In fact, Michael Purcell’s obituary had called him “one of the wealthiest farmers in Eastern Ontario.” (Glengarry News) Mrs Purcell, who was born 14 June 1849, died 13 Feb. 1932, aged 82, being survived by four children.

     Michael Purcell’s son Patrick Purcell (d. 1944, aged 68) “followed mining and railroad construction work in various parts of Canada and the United States for many years.” (his obituary, Standard Freeholder 11 Sept. 1944) When he died, in the final months of WWII, Patrick’s daughter, Sister Marie Bernard of the Maryknoll Sisters (Edith Purcell), was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in the Philippines. She died aged 97, on 13 Dec. 2001, at the Mother House in Maryknoll, NY.

Glengarry News 19 Aug. 1898 * Cochrane, IV, 175 (portrait, detailed sketch of career) * gravestone of Michael Purcell and his wife, Precious Blood Cemetery, Flanagan’s Point, GC * Stiles 214 (with photog. of house), 287 (son Patrick) * obituary of Mrs Purcell, with tribute, Cornwall Freeholder 17 & 27 Feb. 1932 * personal information * obituary of Sister Marie Bernard, GN 9 Jan. 2002