(fl. 19th century), contractor. (known as Clayfield Macdonald and as “Alexander Macdonald, Clayfield”) Mrs William A. Anderson, a resident for many years of the East Front, Cornwall, who died aged 66 in 1935, was described in her obituary (Standard Freeholder 15 Nov. 1935) as being the granddaughter of “Clayfield Macdonald” who was “one of the early settlers in Glengarry. He was a contractor and after moving to Texas built the Union Pacific through that state. He was an uncle of John Sandfield Macdonald, first premier of Ontario.” Mrs Anderson herself had been born Maud S. Hamilton in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of James Hamilton. If Clayfield was related in this way to John Sandfield Macdonald, we must assume that he was the brother of John Sandfield’s mother, Nancy Macdonald, and that he was the son therefore of John MacDonald, who is recorded as having a son called Alexander. Clayfield is unlikely to have been an uncle on the other (paternal) side of the family, because John Sandfield’s father was called Alexander, and this interpretation would assume that there were two brothers of the same name–which was, indeed, far from unknown, but must be assumed to involve the less-likely interpretation.

     An undated newspaper clipping in an old scrapbook states that “Mr. John Peckman of this town was committed to Jail on Saturday night last, for having inflicted two wounds with a penknife on the person of Mr. Alexander M’Donald, Clayfield, one of which is said to be of a serious nature, the knife having broken, leaving a portion of the blade in Mr. M’D’s side.“ The injury arose out of a squabble concerning an auction of goods taking place in Macdonald’s store. The place was probably Cornwall, and John Peckman was probably the man of that name who was clerk of the Cornwall Police Board in the late 1830s. It has not proved possible, so far, to verify that Clayfield Macdonald was involved in railway-building in Texas, or even to identify what line is meant in the reference to the Union Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific was one of great rail companies of American history, but even if we set aside the possibility that the obituary writer simply got its name wrong, the reference may apply not to trackage the Union Pacific built but trackage it bought up from other companies and incorporated into its own system, perhaps well after Clayfield Macdonald’s involvement in the construction work. The role and connections imputed to Clayfield Macdonald are important, but he remains a shadowy figure, and the evidence relating to him (esp. in Mrs Anderson’s obituary) needs to be used with much caution.

Macdonald, Sandfields: Clayfield not mentioned, but see John Macdonald family tree pp. 14, [88] * clipping, ASC ii, 111 * Pringle 132, 147, for Peckman * Rhoda P. Ross and Alex W. Fraser, Gravestones of Stormont County: City of Cornwall, Vol. I (1985) pp. 22, 38, 62 for Mrs Anderson