Person:Duncan McRae (12)

BEAVERTON (Correspondence of the Post)

DEATH OF A PIONEER

It is our sad duty to chronicle the death of Mr. Duncan McRae, Sr., of the fourth concession of the township of Thorah, in the county of Ontario, who departed this life at the ripe old age of ninety-six years, on Monday, the 7th of March, The remains were interred in the Roman Catholic Cem., near Beaverton, on Thursday, the 10th inst., the largest ever witnessed in this locality. From early morning the people from a distance were continually coming in large numbers, and although the funeral cortege had be en announced to leave the house at 9 oclock it was close upon 10 o'clock b efore it started in consequence of the crowds which kept coming forward to have the last look at tile well-nown [sic] features of him they had come to see and honor. The pall-bearers were all old and intimate friends of the deceased and his family, viz., Messrs. Lachlin J. Campbell, John Veale, Sr., Murdock McRae, James McCall, William Thompson and Geo.F. Bruce.

The funeral services were conducted in the church by Rev. Father Kiernan, P. P., assisted by the Rev. Father McMahon of Brechin. The funeral service was very impressive. The deceased was an ardent admirer of the Roman Catholic Church, but always friendly with other denominations He had a wonderful memory and loved to dwell on and converse about his boyhood days in old Scotland. He was a man of sterling principle and integrity, and was widely known and highly respected. He will he much missed in the community in which he lived so long. "He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him say more."

The deceased was born in a small Scottish town in Rosshire, Scotland, -being the eldest son of Alexander and Margaret [sic] McRae. In the year 1823 be emigrated to Canada with the rest of the family and for a few years settled in the vicinity of Cornwall, in the county of Glengarry. In the year 1826 the family, with a number of others under the leadership of the late Donald Cameron, commonly called "Squire Cameron", remov ed to the township of Thorah, where the deceased with his three brothers - Finlay, Christopher and William, each received a grant of two hundred acres of land in the first concession of Thorah, where the deceased lived over sixty-five years, and by his industry and uprightness in all his transactions be accumulated considerable property and left the family very comfortable.

He was married to Janet, daughter of the late Francis Hutton, of the township of Ops, in the county of Victoria, and sister of Mr. Thomas Hutton, at present residing in the above township. He leaves a widow, three sons and two daughters to mourn his death. His eldest son, Christopher, and two daughters, Mary, wife of the late Alexander McDonald of the township of Mara, and Margaret, wife of Philip McRae, township of Eckfrid, in the county of Middlesex, died some time ago. Francis McRae, the eldest son, who is a justice of the peace for the county of Ontario, resides on part of the old homestead. Alexander with his mother and two sisters Jessie and Isabella, occupy the old homestead; and Duncan McRae resides on that beautiful farm owned at one time by the late Captain William McRae, situated on the shore of Lake Simcoe. The deceased had a large number of relatives in this vicinity. Among them I may mention Alexander McRae, the popular reeve of the township of Thorah, who has held that position continual ly during the last nine years, is the eldest son of William McRae, brother of the deceased also Philip McRae, justice of the peace of the townsh ip of Mara, who is a son of the late Finlay McRae and brother of the deceased, who held the offices of deputy reeve and reeve continuously for nearly twenty years, and held other important positions of trust at the han ds of the rate-payers...The friends and relatives of the deceased have the sympathy of the whole community in their bereavement. The Canadian Post, Lindsay 25 March, 1892 (Also found on p. 720 of "They came to Mara…")

1. ↑ Census Records
   1852 census of Thorah Twp., Ontario Co., Canada West; p. 14(27).

   QUAY 3 # 25, Duncan McRae, farmer, born Scotland, C[hurch] Rome, age next b'day, 50.

2. ↑ obituary
   The Canadian Post, Lindsay; 25 March, 1892.

   QUAY 3 see notes

3. ↑ tombstone
   St. Joseph R. C. Cemetery, Beaverton, Thorah Twp., Durham Region, Ontario: Transcribed by Whitby-Oshawa Br., Ont. Gen. Soc.

   QUAY 3 stone 90, side 1, "IHS, In memory of Duncan McRae, died Mar. 7, 1892, aged 96 years, Native of Kintail, Ross Shire, Scotland..."

4. ↑ obituary.