Alex. Riggs McCleneghan, P.M., Woodstock, Ontario, was born on October 15, 1823, in Armagh, Ireland. His father belonged to Her Majesty’s 7th Light Dragoons, and came to Canada in 1829, settling in "Little York." Our subject received his education in Toronto private and district schools. He learned the trade of a printer at Toronto, and was afterwards a reporter for the public press for a number of years, also editor and proprietor of various papers. In 1856 he established the Woodstock Times, which he conducted until 1873, when he was appointed Postmaster there.
Mr. McCleneghan was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1856, has been a member of the Municipal Council of Woodstock, was captain in the Oxford Rifles for twenty years, and retired with the rank of major. In 1837 he volunteered to do garrison duty under Colonel McLean, and was in the advance guard when the attack was made on Montgomery’s Hotel, Gallows Hill. He also went with Colonel Chisholm to the Niagara frontier in 1838. At the time of the "Trent Affair" he offered his services to Her Majesty’s Government.
In religion he is an Episcopalian, being church warden and a delegate to the Synod on different occasions. Through him and Colonel John Barwick old St. Paul’s Church, Woodstock, was reopened. In politics he is a Conservative. He is a member of the A.F. & A.M., I.O.O.F., A.O.U.W., I.O.F. and an Orangeman, and has held most of the offices in the gift of these societies.
Mr. McCleneghan has been twice married - first in 1845 to Emma Nott, of Sussex, England, who died in 1849; and in 1852 he married Rosanna Dolmage, of Guelph. He has five sons living and occupying prominent positions; Alexander being a barrister in Winnipeg of the firm of Aikens, Culver, Patterson & McCleneghan; Thomas, assistant Postmaster at Woodstock; Frank, in a lucrative position in Knoxville, Tennessee; Albert in the Imperial Bank, Woodstock, and Warren in the NorthWest engaged in agricultural pursuits.
The above biography was written in 1891.
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