(1 Feb. 1856-18 Sept. 1935), telegraph operator, municipal official. (Sam Macdonell, Sam the Bailiff) Born at Loch Garry, GC. Parents: Alexander B. MacDonell and his wife Annie MacDonald. If the data and years stated in his obituary are exactly correct, he began to work aged 15 for Duncan A. Macdonald, the postmaster of Alexandria, and remained with him for twelve years as assistant postmaster and telegraph operator (an 1876 directory, when he was about 20, lists him as “McDonald Saml, telegraph operator”), before taking a course at the Belleville Business College, after which he worked in the Great Northern telegraph office in Montreal for three years. A skilled and experienced telegraph operator, he returned to Alexandria, where he began a telegraph office in partnership with Dr Duncan L. McMillan, the son of Senator Donald McMillan. Later, Macdonell took over the CPR telegraph office, Alexandria. Also, he sold CPR tickets, and had his own small stationery business. From 1912 till his death, he was the town clerk of Alexandria. Until near the end of his life, also, he was clerk of the Second Division Court of SDG. He was a well-known and well-regarded man, whose affability and business skills in dealing with the public seem to have impressed contemporaries. His name, Samuel, was unusual among the Glengarrians. He was buried at St. Finnan’s cemetery, Alexandria. He was married in 1886 to Adeline Amelia McMillan (d. 1891), the daughter of Senator McMillan. (two children) A son, Dr Howard Macdonell (name also found as Donald MacDonnell, and Dr McDonald), then recently qualified as a dentist, died aged 22 of typhoid at Swift Current, Sask., 5 Sept. 1910; the body was shipped to Alexandria for burial.

Glengarry News 20 & 27 Sept. 1935 * birth, baptism: St. Finnan’s CRNI, II, 519 * in group portrait with town council, GN 12 Dec. 1984 * Woodburn [189]: the Alexandria section of this directory prints McDonell names as McDonald * Ostrom 9 * fire started by lightning badly damages his telegraph office, stationery store, GN 28 July 1899 *obituary of his son Adair Macdonell, a train service postal official (character sketch, a lavish, warm tribute), GN 26 Dec. 1941 (also Standard Freeholder 26 Dec. 1941) * Dr Howard Macdonell: The Swift Current Sun, 9 Sept. 1910; records, funeral home, Sask., kindly accessed for me by Beulah (Ferridge) Caswell of Sask. Geneal. Soc.