Alexander Fraser Pirie

Alexander Fraser Pirie
Alexander Fraser Pirie, 1849-1903
Born	October 1, 1849 Guelph, Upper Canada
Died	August 15, 1903(1903-08-15) (aged 53) Dundas, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	journalist, newspaper editor

Alexander Fraser Pirie (October 1, 1849 – August 15, 1903) was a Canadian journalist and newspaper editor.

Pirie was born in Guelph, Upper Canada, to George Pirie (1799–1870), a native of Aberdeen, Scotland. His mother was Jane Booth (1825–1895), born in Lonmay Aberdeenshire to a family from Noss Island in the Shetland Islands.

George Pirie emigrated to Upper Canada with a group of Aberdeen merchants and businessmen. The family arrived in 1838 and joined the Bon Accord settlement located in the vicinity of Elora. He arrived with his first wife, Mary Robieson, and their children. She died not long after her settlement in Canada, and Mr. Pirie married Miss Jane Booth.

In 1848, George Pirie became the publisher of the Guelph Herald newspaper after his attempt at farming in the Bon Accord community. The farm was sold and the family moved to Guelph where he ran the Guelph Herald publishing and printing office on Wyndham Street. The elder Pirie was a staunch conservative and Scottish Canadian poet.

As a young man, Alexander Fraser Pirie assisted at his father's newspaper office. The paper struggled to maintain circulation and relied upon job printing work. Imprint magazine later described these early days in a profile of Pirie:

"He first saw the light of publication day in his father's office, the Guelph Herald, in 1849, and was brought up to the sound of the mallet and planer, the hammering of wooden quoins in the chases and the incessant cry of "Color!" on the part of the man who pulled the lever of the Washington press. The principal event of his early life was stirring the glue and molasses over a hot fire when the foreman decided to cast a new roller, the making of a new roller being at that time regarded as an epoch in the history of all well-regulated country printing offices."

At 21 years of age, after his father's death in 1870, Pirie became publisher of The Herald. During this time he took on the numerous duties of a local newspaper which included the issuing of marriage licenses. At this time he received a letter from John A. Macdonald authorizing him as the local agent for these licenses. However, Pirie had a great desire to work as a journalist in a larger city, and two years later moved on to Toronto. In 1924, The Herald was absorbed by the Guelph Mercury.