(fl. 1870s, was “upwards of eighty years of age” when he died), contractor. He is said to have been the son of Laughlin Macdonald, a U E Loyalist from the area of Saratoga, N. Y., who settled at St. Andrew’s, Stormont County. It has not been possible to verify the claim re his UEL descent. Duncan Macdonald attended primary school at St. Andrew’s. He then learned about the mercantile world as an employee in Cornwall of G. C. Wood, who was a storekeeper there and for half a century the postmaster of Cornwall. Afterwards, Macdonald “began business on his own account as a general merchant, and carried on at the same time an extensive lumber business. Having wound up his business affairs at Cornwall he removed to Montreal, and there began his successful business career as a contractor, which he carried on for a period of upwards of forty years.”

     It was claimed at his death that “As a contractor Mr. Macdonald figured among the first in Canada.” As a contractor, he took his part in building the Intercolonial Railway, and the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway (henceforth in this entry, QMOOR), which was later a part of the CPR, and he was “a member of the syndicate” for building the CPR between Vancouver and Kamloops, and he was a shareholder in the Intercolonial Coal Mining Co. In connection with what appears to have been the QMOOR, he had in 1874 a contract in association with Harry Braithwaite Abbott, brother of the future Prime Minister Abbott. (Rose, i, 740) At the inauguration proceedings at St. Jerome, Que., for part of the QMOOR, one of the speakers was “The contractor, Duncan McDonald,” and Montreal Witness reporter stated that he “spoke to the point.” (Witness 10 Oct. 1876, cf Dictionary of Canadian Biography XII, 502) We may assume he was the Duncan Macdonald of “Macdonald DUNCAN, & CO., railway contractors, 7 Place d’Armes,” listed in Lovell’s Montreal Directory for 1875-76.

     His obituary said, “Mr. Macdonald was sought after to represent the counties [sic] of Stormont, Cornwall and Glengarry in Parliament, but invariably declined however, as he was of the opinion that he could not do himself and his country justice in the double capacity of contractor and member of Parliament.” If Macdonald was not a Glengarrian, he came from just outside GC and no doubt had many GC connections which have now been lost from sight.

     Two publications (both 1879, 22 pp.) by the celebrated engineer Walter Shanly relate to him, Rapport au sujet de l’affaire Duncan Macdonald entrepreneur de la section ouest du chemin Q. M. O. & O. et le gouvernement de la Province de Québec and In the Matter of Duncan Macdonald contractor and the Quebec Government: Report. Copies not seen, but presumably one is a translation of the other.

Obituary, undated clipping but repr. from Montreal Star, ASC ii, 55 (QF) * reported to have railway building contract on Cape Breton, for Intercolonial Co., ASC ii, 136 (clipping, n.p., dated 21 Oct. 1869) * Senior 118 (on G. C. Wood) * Lovell’s as cited p. 489, also Lovell’s 1880-81, 1883-4, 1894-5, for Duncan Macdonald, described as “contractor” and “railway contractor” * Witness 23 Dec. 1875 (mentioned)