A. McLaren

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A. McLaren
OccupationMerchant

A. McLaren was a merchant in Fort William, in the Thunder Bay District of Ontario.

The estate was probated in the Thunder Bay District surrogate court in 1897 and inventoried at $4,725.00 (equivalent to $223,464 in 2025). He died intestate, without a will, and was survived by one child.[1]

General store and civic life

McLaren kept a general store at Fort William, on the site later occupied by the Ogilvie flour mills; its upper storey — for a time known as the Riverside boarding house — housed the press of an early Fort William newspaper, the Fort William Day Book, established in 1877.[2] He took part in the town's civic affairs of the late 1870s, serving on a committee organized in 1879 to establish a Fort William newspaper,[3] and as a member of the club formed to defend the interests of Fort William and the Kaministiquia River against Prince Arthur's Landing.[4]

Newspaper record

  • Photo notice in Fort William Daily Times-Journal, 1956-09-25.[5]
    • Index note: New Broadway church house.

References

  1. Probate record of A. McLaren, merchant, Fort William (1897), surrogate court probate file no. 104. Canadian Regional Historical Wealth Micro-Data Collection, compiled by Livio Di Matteo, Lakehead University.
  2. F. Fregeau."Reminiscences of Early Journalism in Fort William."[book].Papers of the Thunder Bay Historical Society.1911–1912.p. 86.Link.(Rights: public_domain | Access: open)
  3. P. McKellar."Fort William's Early Newspapers."[book].Papers of the Thunder Bay Historical Society.1913.pp. 215–217.Link.(Rights: public_domain | Access: open)
  4. Peter McKellar."Papers of the Thunder Bay Historical Society."[book].Thunder Bay Historical Society.1913.p. 205.Link.(Rights: public_domain | Access: open)
  5. Fort William Daily Times-Journal, 25 September 1956, p. 3