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Donald McCaig of
Collingwood, Ontario, Canada.
Donald was born to
Scottish parents in Cape Breton, May 15th, 1832. He was taken to
Hamilton in 1836 and then the family moved to Wellington County in
1840. He attended Normal School and taught in Rockwood, Berlin,
Galt, and Ottawa. In 1886 Donald was appointed Inspector of Public
Schools for Algonia and Parry Sound, Ontario.
INSPECTOR & POET
James and Catherine
Taylor McCaig's eldest son Donald (born May 15, 1832) was Inspector
of Schools in Algoma district and is author of a book of poems.
Donald, after finishing his schooling at the little log cabin
school, went on to Toronto, and graduated from the Toronto Normal
School in November, 1858, with the highest honours of his year.
He taught in
Wellington Co until 1864, when he and Alexander McMillan rented the
Rockwood Academy from William Wetherald continuing the high
standards set by their predecessor. They added a large classroom to
the building, extra dormitories, and a stone gymnasium. The number
of students enrolled rivalled that of Dr. Tassie's school in Galt,
and Upper Canada College in Toronto. During his tenure as principal
of the Academy, Donald McCaig did some writing. One of his books,
'The Reply to John Stuart Mill's On the Subjection of Women',
published 1871, gained a fair amount of fame in Canada, the United
States, and England. A few years after he left the Academy, he
published a book of poems entitled 'Milestone Moods and Memories'.
In this volume of nature poems are found some stanzas descriptive of
the area around Rockwood. It is not known why he sold his share of
the Academy to Alexander McMillan in 1871, but he did so, and in the
fall of that year he accepted the position of principal of the
Central School in Berlin (Kitchener). He stayed there until
February, 1872, and later became a teacher in Galt and in the public
schools in Ottawa. In 1886 McCaig was appointed public School
Inspector for the District of Algoma, which at that time stretched
from North Bay and Sudbury on the east, to the eastern boundary of
Manitoba on the west. He was also the Inspector of the schools on
Manitoulin Island. His headquarters were at Collingwood, and in
winter he made his rounds by snow-shoe and dog sled, and in spring
and fall by canoe. He must have been kept fairly busy, for in his
report to the Minister of Education in 1890 he stated that he had
one hundred and eighteen school houses and one hundred and
twenty-seven teachers under his inspectorate. As he became older, he
gave up all the Algoma district inspectorate, and kept only that of
Collingwood, which had by that time become a thriving lake port. He
died July 28, 1905, having completed fifty years in educational
work. While teaching near Guelph as a young man, Donald McCaig
married Ellen Smith, daughter of Alex and Mary (Beattie) Smith, and
they had ten children.
Here we provide a
copy of his book in pdf format
Milestone
Moods and Memories
Poems and Songs
By Donald McCaig (1894) |
