(1807-14 Jan. 1887), contractor. (called “Big Alec” or “Big Aleck” or “big Alex,” ” sp. McDonnell also found; probably also known as Alexander L. McDonell) Born in GC. His grandfather on his mother’s side was a U E Loyalist who came to Upper Canada from the Mohawk Valley. His grandfather on his father’s side was an emigrant of 1786 to GC, presumably to St. Raphael’s. Alexander’s father was probably Angus Roy Macdonell or Macdonald, called Angus Roy the Mast (d. 14 Jan. 1858), a prominent Ottawa Valley lumberman whose headquarters were at Fitzroy Harbour on the Ottawa River. After terminating his lumbering activities in the Ottawa Valley, Angus Roy seems to have joined his sons in contracting in the United States. He died at the home of a son in Hamilton, Ontario.

     For about fifty years, Alexander McDonell, the subject of the present article, was a contractor on public works in Canada and the United States. On his death, the Toronto Globe reported, “Among his many works have been, notably, locks at Lockport, Erie Canal, the feeder locks, and other locks on the Welland Canal. He also had contracts in the construction of the Grand Trunk, Great Western, Intercolonial, and Canadian Pacific Railways.” The Ottawa Daily Citizen obituary stated, ” Mr. McDonell was well and favourably known as one of the oldest of the successful contractors for the past half century. His operations having extended on the Erie Canal, at Lockport, N.Y., with the late John Brown of Thorold; the Welland Canal, Great Western Railway bridges, and dredging at Hamilton; also the Toronto branch of the Great Western, and, in partnership with his nephew, John J. McDonald, section 5 of the Intercolonial Railway; afterwards sections 3, 6, 9 and 15 ballasting the latter; and in later years contract 'B' on the Canadian Pacific Railway. [troubled grammar of preceding sentence thus in source] Mr. McDonell lived for some 19 years in Hamilton, during which time his niece, Miss Kate McDonald, now Mrs. Gray, wife of Henry A. Gray, C.E., of the Public Works Department, kept house for him. About five years ago Mr. McDonell gradually began to fail in health, and for the past two years has been almost constantly confined to his rooms at his brother's in Toronto.”

     Alexander McDonell was described in obituaries as being of “splendid physique” and “handsome personal appearance,” standing several inches over six feet tall, and of a genial, helpful disposition. He died “at the residence of his brother, east wing Parliament Buildings,” in Toronto, that is to say, at the Ontario legislative buildings. He is described in his obituaries as “an extensive contractor” and “the well-known contractor.” He was evidently not one of the major contractors, but a reliable man, whose services were steadily in use. He was the “Alex. McDonell, one of Canada’s oldest contractors,” who is mentioned casually, in 1886, in the entry for his nephew-in-law, Henry Alfred Gray, civil engineer, in Rose’s biographical dictionary.

     It is not clear which of the three other Macdonells listed living at this time in the East Wing, Parliament Buildings, Toronto, was his brother. See also the entry for Donald William Macdonell, sergeant-at-arms. It is tempting to guess that because the sergeant-at-arms was based in the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, that he must have been the contractor’s brother, and that the press must have erred in reporting the contractor’s death as being in Toronto, and that the contractor must in fact have died in Ottawa, but the evidence is undisputable that it was in the Toronto legislative buildings, not the Ottawa ones, that the contractor died.

     Alexander McDonell the contractor was a Roman Catholic. It is not clear whether he ever married.

The Toronto Mail, & Toronto Globe, 15 & 17 Jan. 1887, Ottawa Citizen 15 Jan. 1887 (QF these sources) * his death, CF 14 Jan. 1887, cited DTL, Standard Freeholder 10 Jan. 1948 * his Ontario death registration * Toronto city directory 1886, p. 576 * information kindly supplied by Helen Whyte, Ottawa Branch Ontario Genealogical Society * Rose, i, 363 * Angus Roy the Mast: death notice, The Daily Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.), 16 Jan. 1858; one-page biog. note by Mgr Ewen J. Macdonald, in papers of Hugh P. MacMillan (copy probably also in papers of Mgr Macdonald, Archives of Ontario); there is a photocopy collection of corresp. of Angus Roy and his sons, Archives of Ontario