 |
Alexander McArthur
|
Businessman, ornithologist, explorer.
Born at Nairn, Scotland on 5 June 1843, brother of Peter MacArthur and Duncan MacArthur, he was educated in Nairn and while working as a clerk in a law office, then he served as the secretary of the Nairn Literary Institute. He emigrated to Canada and was employed in Montreal and Toronto by the Hudson’s Bay Company and as a bank clerk. He moved to Red River in the fall of 1869. His brother Peter (an entrepreneur in his own right) was already in the West and was arrested by Louis Riel along with John Christian Schultz.
McArthur, like so many other young immigrants, set out to make his fortune in the West by becoming a general merchant. He owned a sawmill on the Winnipeg River for a time and sold lumber in Winnipeg. He was one of the founders of the Winnipeg Board of Trade, in 1873, and was typical of the businessmen/scholars who founded the Manitoba Historical Society. He was involved in various business enterprises in the city but was ruined, along with many others, by the collapse of the real estate boom in 1882. An avid birder, he had a huge collection of bird specimens which he was forced to sell along with his extensive library, because of his financial difficulties, in 1886.
He wrote several papers for the Manitoba Historical Society and led an unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole to study the birds of the Arctic. He died unmarried at Winnipeg on 21 August 1887 while preparing a second attempt to travel overland to the North Pole. He was buried in the St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery.
His articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:
The Causes of the Rising in the Red River Settlement, 1869-70
MHS Transactions, Series 1, No. 1, Read 10 October 1882A Prairie Tragedy: The Fate of Thomas Simpson, the Arctic Explorer
MHS Transactions, Series 1, No. 25, Read 23 December 1886Our Winter Birds
MHS Transactions, Series 1, No. 28, Read 27 January 1887
See also:
MacArthur Family Letters 1854-1934 edited by Valdene Mae Medd and Edna Alexandra Medd (1992).
Alexander McArthur, Dictionary of Canadian Biography XI, 538-39.
Death registration [Alexander MacArthur], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Alex Macarthur,” Manitoba Free Press, 22 August 1887, page 1.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, December 1999, 288 pages.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 11 November 2025
Memorable Manitobans
This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.
Search the collection by word or phrase, name, place, occupation or other text:
Custom SearchBrowse surnames beginning with:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | ZBrowse deaths occurring in:
1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025
Send corrections and additions to this page
to the Memorable Manitobans Administrator at biographies@mhs.mb.caCriteria for Memorable Manitobans | Suggest a Memorable Manitoban | Firsts | Acknowledgements
Help us keep
history alive!
