William Lees McLaren

Other Events and Attributes:

• FindaGrave Memorial ID: 45702440
• _UID: D1F0B86810FB4486838BBBDD60E8D05CD02B

Notes:

William was the second son of Peter McLaren and Sophia Elizabeth Lees. He received his early education at Trinity College, Port Hope, Ontario. From there he traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland with his brother James to be educated at a boy's secondary school. Upon his return to Perth as a young man, William became the owner and operator of a mica mine located at the northwest end of Otty Lake, in Burgess township. This mine was widely known as simply "McLaren's Mine," and was the basis of operations for William and eventually, his wife Anna Gemmill. At the peak of operations at the mine, whose mica was used extensively for insulation of electrical motors, generators and home appliances, fifty men were employed, all of whom boarded and ate at the mine.
During a ten year period and due to his intense involvement with his mine, William took courses from the International Correspondence School of Mining and Engineering, with headquarters at Scranton, Pennsylvania. His studies further accentuated his fascination with historical artifacts, an attraction that had its beginning in his boyhood.
While he was a young boy, William spent his summers in and around the Perth area, including a cottage located on the Rideau Lakes. At this time (the late 19th century), there were many old Indian relics lying on the surface of the ground. Fascinated by these relics and artifacts, William began a journal (in the possession of the Perth Museum, along with the bulk of his collections) and recorded meticulously every artifact that he found. Many of them are accompanied by his own hand-drawn facsimiles of the artifacts. The journal represents an invaluable record of Indian artifacts that were found in the Perth area.
William's fascination with these artifacts, the material shards of a culture, did not end with his boyhood. His interest, if possible, grew as he aged, and he became involved in the study of the migratory patterns of different tribes, probably in order to determine more exactly the origins of his own artifacts, and to put his collection into some kind of overall perspective.
When William died in 1932, he left behind not only warm and cherished memories in those people who knew and loved him personally, but also a priceless collection of Indian artifacts, a physical reminder of the culture of a people who inhabited this country centuries before any organized settlement. His collection is a very representative and superlative one, surely a reflection of the man himself.

FindaGrave Memorial ID:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45702440

William married Anna Lees Gemmell about 1910. Anna (daughter of Lawrence James Gemmell and Elizabeth Margaret Kellock) was born on 6 Jun 1884 in Perth, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada; died about 1975 in Perth, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada; was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Perth, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]