(1837-4 Sept. 1921), businessman, postmaster. (commonly known as “Curly’; D. A. Macdonald, Duncan “Curly” Macdonald, Duncan Curly; name often includes identification of him as postmaster, as in D. A. Macdonald, P. M., or Duncan A. Macdonald (Postmaster)) Born on Lot 30 in the 8th Concession of Charlottenburgh Township, GC, in the area of Munroes Mills. Parents: Alexander Macdonald and his wife Isabel Macdonald. Important over many years in the affairs of Alexandria, he is said to have settled there in 1858. He is also said to have attended school at Alexandria, in “classes held in the Sacristy of the old church,” but if so, this may have been before 1858, and not while he was already an adult as some statements suggest. While a young man he worked for an Alexandria merchant (Aleck McDonald, called Alex the Merchant) then in late 1863, he bought the stock of another Alexandria merchant (O. L. Allan) who was retiring and set up in business on his own as a general merchant in Alexandria. When the telegraph reached Alexandria in 1871, by way of a line run north from Lancaster, the telegraph office was established in Macdonald’s store. He operated the telegraph office for many years.

     He was also postmaster of Alexandria for nearly half a century, from 1 Jan. 1873 till his death. His obituary in the Glengarry News noted as remarkable the fact that he had been allowed to remain undisturbed in office despite the changes of government over those years. The post office was, presumably, during the earlier years located in Macdonald’s store. The government built a post office for the town in 1903, then after it was burned out in 1906 it was rebuilt, only to be destroyed again by fire in March 1921, some months before Macdonald’s death. In 1905, apparently in connection with there then being at last a suitable office for such an official through there now being a government-owned post office building in Alexandria, he was appointed the customs officer for Alexandria. (Glengarry News 8 Sept. 1905)

     His predecessor as postmaster was Angus S. Macdonald (Shoemaker), who had resigned. On 16 Dec. 1872, the future Senator Donald McMillan wrote in a hot-tempered letter to the prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, “Has Duncan A. McDonell [sic] been appointed to the Post Mastership here? if so it is a dreadful blow to the Conservative interest in the Co, for he is just the man of all others whom D. A. and his grit friends would like to see get the office.” (D. A. was Donald A. Macdonald, “Donald Sandfield.”) McMillan notes that Duncan is a friend and relative of his own, so he is only serving the party’s interest in opposing the appointment. More suitable for the position, McMillan thought, would be Hugh McDonald, merchant (presumably Hugh R. Macdonald), George Harrison, Esq., merchant, or James McPhee, merchant. (McPhee was probably McMillan’s future son-in-law; see note at end of entry for Senator McMillan) The insuperable objection to Duncan, McMillan thought, was that of his being too pliant a follower of D. A. Macdonald. “The Telegraph office was got into his Store through D. A.’s intrigues,” McMillan declared, and the evil outcome has been “many” people believe ”that for any secrecy where D. A. is interested it might Just as well be in his own office.” Someone has annotated the letter, saying “I can dismiss the man if you wish but it would not look well.” Duncan Macdonald was a man of integrity, and there is no reason to suppose he would have misused his public position as postmaster in the ways McMillan evidently feared. A belief of that time that some postmasters did so was, however, a part of the background to this extraordinary letter. Indeed, there were even allegations in that generation that some postmasters stopped or delayed the delivery of opposition newspapers.

     Macdonald also operated an ashery, and was extensively involved in the lumber business. “He had several mills throughout the district and much square timber was sent by him in rafts to the Ancient City of Quebec.” Some of his lumbering operations were in association with J. T. Schell. The 1903 special edition of the Glengarry News stated that Macdonald was then “a member of the lumbering firm of Macdonald & Schell, and has personal supervision of the firm’s saw-mill, situated at the station here, the operation of which materially assists in promoting the prosperity of the community.” He was interested in the grain trade, and when the railway came to Alexandria, both he and his near namesake the D. A. Macdonald already mentioned separately built large granaries at the Alexandria station. (Cornwall Freeholder 18 Aug. & 3 Nov. 1882 ) In 1890 he built and began to operate a cheese factory in the Johnstown area of Alexandria. (Glengarrian 4 April & 13 June 1890)

     He lived in a large, fine stone house in Alexandria, once owned by Col. Angus Macdonell but extensively rebuilt after a fire. It was quite rightly called, in his wife’s obituary (1934), “one of the show places of the village.” In fact, among GC buildings, probably only the Bishop’s Palace was a more handsome residence. From 1923, Macdonald’s house was owned by the Knights of Columbus.

     Active in municipal politics, he was reeve of Lochiel Township and in 1880 warden of SDG. When Alexandria was incorporated as a village in 1883, he became its first reeve. It was during one of his several periods as Alexandria’s reeve that the village got its first waterworks and electric lighting systems. Somewhat surprisingly, given the aversion so many Canadians of his time had to trees, he got shade trees planted on Alexandria’s streets. Educational causes attracted him, perhaps especially in his later years when he gave “a great deal of time and thought to educational matters,” and at the time of his death he was the chairman of the Alexandria High School Board, where he emphasized high standards for the school. Roman Catholic. He is buried in St. Finnan’s cemetery. (two children surviving him)

     J. G. Harkness, who must have known him personally, states that he “was a man of striking appearance and he and his wife were very active in the social life of their time.” The Glengarry News obituary pays tribute to their “truly Highland hospitality.” At St. Mary’s Cathedral, Kingston, Macdonald was married on 9 July 1872 to Georgina Hamilton Macdonell (Georgina A. Macdonell), the sister of John A. Macdonell (Greenfield), the lawyer and historian. She was active in the Red Cross and IODE in WWI. After her husband’s death, she travelled extensively. She died in California, 1 Jan. 1934 (her obituary, Standard Freeholder 17 Jan. 1934, from GN )

     Macdonald was the nephew of James Macdonell of Athol and George Macdonell of Athol. This connection involves some difficulty about the spelling of Macdonald and Macdonell as names not always consistently separated in these men’s lifetimes. The future Senator McMillan in the letter quoted above assigns Duncan to the Macdonells. Duncan’s name, when given as Macdonald and just with the initials, duplicates of course that of another eminent Alexandrian of the time, D. A. Macdonald the postmaster general and lieutenant governor, and again the subject of McMillan’s letter. Angus H. McDonell in a biographical sketch of the athlete Joe Corbett preserves a few anecdotes about Duncan A. Macdonald, who employed Corbett for his telegraph office. (GN 22 June 1983) After Macdonald’s death the acting postmaster was the trouble-bound Peter Ferguson, who already, as Macdonald’s subordinate, had served in the Alexandria post office over many years.

Glengarry News 9 Sept. 1921 (QF) * GN supplement 1903 pp. [10: good line-drawn portrait, 20] * NAC, post office history cards (RG3D3): list of postmasters * Ostrom 116, 120, 287 (interesting and valuable history of Alexandria post office) * Harkness, 264-267, 275, with portraits 261, 273, which don’t indicate what Harkness meant by the striking appearance * MacGillivray & Ross 107, 256, 343, 432, 460, 461, 488 * O. L. Allan: Lovell 1857 10; GN supplement 1903 [20] * Donald McMillan as cited above to Sir John A. Macdonald, Archives of Ontario, Sir Alexander Campbell Papers * death at Alexandria (1892?) of his son Alexander, remembered DTL Standard Freeholder 15 Jan. 1949 * Knights of Columbus buy his house, GN 9 March 1923, CF 23 March 1923; also on this house, GN 28 Sept. 1928 * Alexandria electric lighting inaugurated, GN 24 Jan., 1896 * buys 100 acres timberland, 16-5th Kenyon, GN 1 Feb. 1901 & MacGillivray & Ross 461 * donates marble slab for gristmill date plate, GN 18 July 1902 * post office fires, GN 16 March 1906, 4 March 1921