Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthSeptember 28, 1884
Place of BirthMelancthon, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs Julia McManaman, mother, Melancthon, Ontario
Trade / CallingFarmer
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number693021
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion174th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at EnlistmentMelancthon, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentJune 4, 1916
Age at Enlistment31
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJanuary 3, 1942
Age at Death57
Buried AtSaint Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Melancthon, Ontario

McManaman, James

James McManaman was born on 28 September 1884 in the township of Melancthon, Ontario. His parents Thomas McManaman and Julia Connors were both born in Ireland, immigrating to Canada with their parents to settle with a number of Irish families in the Melancthon area to farm. Thomas and Julia married on 30 January 1872 in Melancthon. Farming in the area, children born to the couple were Felix (1872-1919), Thomas (1874-1946), Henry (1876-1919), Catherine Agnes (abt 1877-1882), John (1878), Bernard (1879), Martin (1882), and James.

At some point after the 1911 census James moved west. He signed his attestation papers with the 174th (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) Battalion in Winnipeg on 4 June 1916, giving date of birth as 8 September 1884, his occupation as farmer, place of residence as Melancthon, and his mother Julia in Melancthon as next of kin. Elsewhere in his service record it indicated that he had been living in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and working as a labourer. Previous military service was given as three years with the 36th Regiment (Niagara) and active militia as the 79th Cameron Highlanders of Canada. Back in 1887 a case of the measles had left James with defective vision in both eyes and he was discharged from service as medically unfit on 19 December 1916 in Winnipeg, rank of Private.

By the time of the 1921 census James was living in northwestern Ontario, found working on an Alligator boat on Long Lake in the Lake of the Woods/Kenora census area. Invented by John Ceburn West of Simcoe, Ontario, the Alligator was a steam powered warping tug, a craft designed primarily to move sawlogs and later used to move pulpwood through chains of inland lakes to main rivers and lakes where log drives commenced. This unique craft could travel over land and water, thus named Alligator. Little is known about James’ life after 1921. A James McManaman, labourer, was listed in 1935 and 1940 Voter’s lists as living in the village of Shelburne, Ontario a couple of kilometres southeast of Melancthon.

James died suddenly on 3 January 1942 in the village of Weston, Ontario, now a neighbourhood in Toronto. At the time he was living at the Eagle Hotel on Main Street. His niece Alice McManaman of Toronto was listed as informant on his Ontario death record and place of interment as Melancthon. Although his obituary gave St John’s church in Melancthon as the location of the requiem mass for James, the church was Saint Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church. Along with his parents Thomas (d 1907) and Julia (d 1922) and some of his siblings, James is likely interred in an unmarked grave in the Saint Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church Cemetery in Melancthon.

By Judy Stockham

James’ obituary provided by David Blakey, Facebook’s Obituary Lookups Canada.


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