Like his brother Vince, Jim was an outstanding athlete. He was a Baggage Man, Operator and Station Agent on the Grand Trunk Railway in several towns including Aurora and Cheltenham, from 1903 to 1913. He went west to claim free land near Roblin, Manitoba. His wife, Margaret Todd hated the farm and apparently returned to Scotland. He came east in the early 1950s and I remember playing baseball with him on our homemade ball diamond. He returned to the west and died in 1958 in Roblin, Manitoba, where he is buried with his sisters Mary Ellen and Isabel. Uncle Orm went out to settle his affairs.
The principal of the Keene Public School, Mr. T. J. Wallace wrote the following letter of reference for him:
June 8th, 1903
To whom it may concern:
Mr. Jas McCarthy has been known to me his entire life and I consider him one of the very best young men of our community. While he is a general favourite he has occasion to be so, having won it by his honest, manly, sober and gentlemanly behaviour. He is fitted for a position of trust as he is honest and strictly reliable, abstains from intoxicating liquors and is trustworthy in every sense of the term. His temperament and gracious manner will win friends for him anyplace. His business capabilities are above (those of) the ordinary young man. Of these things I am in a position to speak, and I give him this reference because it is due him.
(signed) T. J. Wallace
