A.J. McDonald was mayor of the town of Glace Bay for the year of 1917.
Cyril McDonald was born on September 12, 1952. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University and Master of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Atlanta, McDonald pursued a career in photography. He operated Cyril McDonald Photography in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia from 1977 until 1988 which included Shedden Studio. McDonald purchased the business from Leslie Shedden in 1977. During the operation of his photography business, Mr. MacDonald served as photographer for a number of official visits including Pope John Paul II, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and the Governor General of Canada on two occasions. He was also the contract photographer for the Cape Breton Development Company (DEVCO) and Atomic Energy of Canada. McDonald and his wife Elaine married in 1976, and they have one daughter named Sarah-Marie.
Henry McDonalds was mayor of the town of Glace Bay from 1911-1912.
Senator William McDonald was born at River Denys Road, Inverness County in 1837. Following graduation from St. Francis Xavier College he became a merchant and Postmaster at Little Glace Bay. He served as Conservative member of parliament for Cape Breton County from 1872 until 1884 when he was called to the Senate, a position he held until his death in 1916.
Alexa McDonough was born Alexa Ann Shaw on August 11, 1944 in Ottawa, Ontario to Lloyd Shaw and Jean MacKinnon. She attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Ontario, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and psychology in 1965. After graduating she became a social worker and worked for Gerald Regan’s Liberal Party. In 1974, she joined the New Democratic Party (NDP) and on November 16, 1980, she became the leader of the Nova Scotia NDP party and the first woman to lead a major political party in Canada. In 1995, she was voted in as the new leader of the federal NDP party. She retired from politics in 2008.
John McKeen (1847-1902) of Mabou, Cape Breton was the son of William and Christiana (Smith) McKeen and inherited the family home, Clayton Farm, and successful mercantile business after the death of his father in 1865.
Hon. William McKeen was born in Truro in 1789. Shortly after marrying his first wife, Elizabeth MacDougall in 1811, he moved to Mabou where he owned and operated substantial farming, contracting, and mercantile operations. He was the first Custos Rotulorum and the first legislative councillor for Inverness County. He died at Mabou in 1865. At the time of his death he left behind his second wife, Christena Smith and a family of 24 from his two marriages.
James Bryson McLachlan (J.B.) was born February 9, 1869 in Ecclefechan, Scotland to farm labourers, Esther Bryson and James McLachlan. At age 10, McLachlan left school to work in the Coltness Iron Company Lanarkshire mines with his father, but remained home-schooled by his mother who taught Calvinist religious literature. Later, McLachlan would identify as Baptist, and later again Presbyterian and United. Catherine (Kate) Greenshields and McLachlan were wed in 1893 by a Baptist minister and had 4 children before emigrating to Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia in 1902, where McLachlan worked in the Princess colliery. Carrying with him the knowledge and experiences of poor mine conditions and worker wages from Scotland, McLachlan became a local union leader and established himself as a prominent voice for workers’ rights in Nova Scotia coalmines.
Shortly after his arrival, he became a local in the Provincial Workmen’s Association (PWA). He was elected secretary-treasurer of District 26 United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1909; UMWA dissolved in 1915 and re-established in 1919, but McLachlan continued his role as a UMWA officer between 1916 and 1918. During this period, McLachlan moved to a farm on Steeles Hill, Glace Bay, in 1913. McLachlan’s involvement in these unions granted the opportunity for him to play a significant role as a leader in the Cape Breton mining strikes of the 1920’s. This four year struggle fought for employee control, liveable wages, and eight-hour work days. During these strikes, McLachlan was convicted of seditious libel in 1923 and was released in 1924. In 1933, he became president of the Worker’s Unity League, a position he held until 1936.
Beyond union representation, McLachlan formed the first Cape Breton local of the Socialist Party of Canada in 1907 and in Sydney Mines in 1909. In 1916, he was a Socialist candidate for the House of Assembly, and represented Cape Breton’s Independent Labour Party in 1917 and 1918 as president. Until 1936, he was also a member of the Communist Party of Canada. In addition to his political affiliations, he was editor for Maritime Labour Herald until 1926 and the Nova Scotia Miner from 1929-1936. McLachlan died at the family farm at Steeles Hill on November 3, 1937, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Glace Bay with his wife, Kate (d. 1939).
Angus McLellan was the son of Donald McLellan. He lived in Grand Mira and served as Secretary of Grand Mira North School. In 1906, he worked for Dominion Coal Company and in 1919 was appointed Justice of the Peace.
John McLennan was a blacksmith living and working in River Denys, NS.
Katharine McLennan was born in 1892, the daughter of Senator and Mrs. J.S. MacLennan. She served as a nursing assistant with the French Red Cross during World War 1, and upon her return was appointed Honorary Curator of the Louisbourg Museum. Katharine received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from St. Francis Xavier University in 1971 and in 1972 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She died in December 1975.
Charles McVicar was the mayor of the Town of Glace Bay from 1932 to 1933.
The Micmac Association of Cultural Studies was founded in 1973 by the Union of Nova Scotia Indians.
Samuel Augustus Mitchell was born in Bristol, Connecticut on March 20, 1792. Mitchell worked on the "New American Atlas" in 1831. The majority of his work involved the creation of individual maps and he was successful in creating pocket sized tourist maps for various locations in the United States.
Henry was born on February 16, 1826, in Leeds, England. He was the seventh of a family of ten boys and one girl. His father James was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1779 to Robert and Mary (nee Goudry or Goudey). Henry’s father James and his uncle Robert were employed by the General Mining Association which began mining coal in Cape Breton in 1824. Both James and Robert were sent to the Old Bridgeport (now Dominion) area in 1831 when Henry was five years old. Henry began working in the coal mines when he was 12 years of age - in Bridgeport as well as Sydney Mines. However, he and the rest of the Mitchell family left Cape Breton when he was 16 and settled in Pennsylvania. Their reason for leaving is unknown - possibly a downturn in the coal market in Nova Scotia or maybe because of better opportunities in Pennsylvania.
Henry returned to Cape Breton and on October 17, 1846 married Mary Ann Boutilier in the Parish of St. George. Mary was born in Lingan, Cape Breton in 1828, the daughter of John Peter (born October 29, 1772) and Hannah Elizabeth (born July 22, 1784) . Henry's and Mary Ann's first child - James - was born on March 2, 1847, in Bridgeport but tragically died in a mining accident in 1864. The next three of their children were born while Henry and Mary Ann were living in Pennsylvania: Charles - November 19, 1849; Elizabeth - June 18, 1852; Grace - February 14, 1854. Sometime after Grace was born Henry and Mary Ann returned to Cape Breton. Their next child - Martha - was born there on April 8, 1856. Then followed Thomas (April 24, 1858), Mary Ann (aka Nan - May 7, 1860), Henry junior (February 7, 1863), James (September 1864), Fred (December 19,1865), Lucy Ellen, (aka Nellie - August 4, 1867) and Newton (December 27, 1873).
Between the years 1858 and 1883 Henry worked for E.P. Archibald as manager of the Glace Bay Mining Company (GBMC) at Little Glace Bay. During this time he was also appointed Harbour Master at Glace Bay in 1875 and also became involved in various labour disputes leading to his discharge from the company in 1883. After his tenure with the GBMC, Mitchell purchased rights to the Old Bridgeport Mine from the General Mining Association along with his business partner, Newton MacKay.