Group honors Chatham’s first mayor 155 years later

When it comes to municipal politics, the name Alexander Douglas McLean may not be familiar to many local residents.

But the name of Chatham’s first mayor stuck in the mind of Dr. Bruce Warwick, a founding member of the Chatham-Kent Cemetery Restoration Project volunteer group.

Warwick spearheaded a group effort to have a headstone placed on McLean’s unmarked grave in Chatham’s Maple Leaf Cemetery, 155 years after his death.

“Everybody was important in their day to somebody,” he said. “So, to see them forgotten bothers me.”

Whether it be the first mayor or a regular citizen, “they helped build the community that we enjoy today,” he added.

Over three decades doing cemetery restoration work, Warwick said he’s heard stories from local historians, including Jim and Lisa Gilbert, John Rhodes and others, about Chatham’s first mayor, who was born in Montreal and came to Chatham in 1842 to open a law practice.

When he started looking into McLean’s history, Warwick learned McLean died at Chatham in 1868, not long after serving as Chatham’s first mayor in 1855-56.

McLean was buried in the old St. Paul’s cemetery on Water Street in Chatham. But in 1880, Warwick’s research found, the E&H Railway announced they would run tracks through the middle of the graveyard.

That prompted McLean’s son, AD McLean Jr., also a lawyer, to make a quick trip from Montreal to buy a family eight-grave plot, No. 523, in the Old Ward A of Maple Leaf Cemetery on Aug. 16, 1881, Warwick said.

McLean Jr. had his father’s remains moved to Maple Leaf Cemetery, but somehow a cemetery stone was never placed on his new grave.

“Unfortunately, no record was kept and for more than a century and a half, Chatham’s first mayor rested in an unmarked grave,” Warwick said.

McLean’s wife, Matilda, died in 1909 and was buried in the family plot along with relatives and a few unknown people who may have boarded with Matilda, history shows.

After hearing about McLean over the years, Warwick began looking through old cemetery records to find the McLean family plot.

The project was a group effort, Warwick is quick to point out.

Smyth Memorials staff, for example, helped make the monument affordable by selecting the stone, doing the graphics and placing it at the grave, he said.

“It was exciting to do,” said Smyth employee Dawne Milne.

Warwick also called on old friends Les Mancell, a mentor in all forms of genealogy and research, and Trish Nigh, an invaluable contributor to the CK Cemeteries Preservation Project ckcemeteries.ca.

Local historian John Rhodes, a Chatham-Kent This Week columnist, was “the spark” to move the project along with his many articles about McLean, said Warwick.

Municipal staff, including cemeteries supervisor Collin Mardling and corporate initiatives and communications manager Amy Wilcox, also played important roles, he said.

Warwick also praised Mayor Darrin Canniff for appreciating the significance of recognizing Chatham’s first mayor.

Canniff thanked Warwick for spearheading the project, a “great partnership” between the municipality and the community.

“It’s so important to preserve the history of Chatham-Kent and this is a great example,” the mayor said.

McLean’s journey to the mayor’s chair began when he arrived in Chatham in 1842, went into business and participated in local politics. He built a home at 310/312 Wellington St. and married Matilda Diana (Jones).

Chatham officially became a town when Kent County was formed in the same year. For the first five years, Chatham had a reeve as the head of its council, until the mayor’s post was created in 1855.

In Aug. 15, 1855, the Western Planet newspaper reported council has elected AD McLean, Esq., as the town’s first mayor.

He was re-elected in 1856, with council calling him a “fit and proper person to fill the office again,” the newspaper reported.