(31 Jan. 1849-1927), sawmill proprietor, one of the founders of Maxville. (Duncan P. MacDougall; commonly known as “D. P.”) Born in Maxville area, on his parents’ farm, which was on Lots 11 and 12 in the 17th Concession of Indian Lands, GC. He was one of twelve children of Peter MacDougall and his wife Christina McEwen, both natives of Scotland. Educated locally.

     About 1869, Duncan P. and his brother Alexander Peter MacDougall established a sawmill on the swampy site of what later became the village of Maxville. The sawmill lot was on the west side of what is now Main Street, Maxville, bounded on the north by what is now Mechanic Street and on the south by what is now the railway right of way. T. W. Munro wrote, “In the spring all that land, that wasn’t covered by mountains of sawdust or ramparts of slabs, was smothered in logs.” The very first building in Maxville is said to have been Duncan P. MacDougall’s house, built just before the sawmill proper was begun. A few small businesses took root near the MacDougall sawmill, but the site of Maxville remained, however, essentially a part of the open countryside until the Canada Atlantic Railway was built through GC in the early 1880s. Thereafter, the village of Maxville swiftly grew, acquiring its name of Maxville in 1880. The name, which appears in the Cornwall Reporter of 27 Nov. 1880 as “Macksville,” but was soon standardized as “Maxville,” was a tribute to the Macs of that neighbourhood–either to the many Macs in general, or principally to the MacDougalls and MacEwans who owned a good part of the land of which the new village was growing. The name is said to have been chosen by the local people at a meeting in the MacDougall brothers’ mill yard. T. W. Munro, in a passage which appears in later sources, and may be taken as one of the founding texts of GC history, wrote, “It was in the MacDougall mill yard, with pine logs for seats and the moon for illumination that the meeting was held when it was decided to give the name of Maxville to the Post Office soon to be opened.” The Maxville columnist in the Cornwall Freeholder of 4 May 1883 reported that “Messrs. McDougall’s saw mill is now running night and day.”

     The mill was destroyed by fire about 5 years after it was begun, then was rebuilt. After Alexander Peter MacDougall left the business, James Rayside became a partner with Duncan Peter MacDougall, the sawmill business being known at this stage as MacDougall and Rayside. Later, the mill was again destroyed by fire at least once (1897). After Duncan Peter MacDougall had given up the lumber business, he travelled to the Yukon with Finlay S. Campbell of Dominionville during the gold rush. In the later part of 1898, when a “News Reporter” from the Glengarry News interviewed Campbell, “recently returned from Dawson City,” Campbell asserted that “He and his partner, ex-Reeve McDougall, of Maxville, had experienced little difficulty in making the trips either going or coming. In fact they were pleasure trips.” (Glengarry News 7 Oct. 1898) After the trip, MacDougall resettled in Maxville.

     MacDougall was Maxville’s first police magistrate. Also, he was chairman of the local school board for over a quarter-century. Earlier a Congregationalist, he was after Church Union a member of the United Church. He was a long-time choir member in the churches he attended. He was a prominent Orangeman, and in politics a Conservative. He was married in 1878 to Janet McEwen (d. 1926) of Roxborough Township. (seven children) Their children included Frank MacDougall and G. H. MacDougall.

     Duncan P. MacDougall was the brother-in-law of the Rev. William Peacock, and he was the uncle of Mrs Ada Johnston, Peter Hugh and John Wilfred Kennedy, Mrs Violet Pollard, and Sir Edward Peacock.

Campbell, Tannis, & Stewart, MacDougalls, 499-505, 583-587 (with portrait), also 332, 378-381 * Munro GN 22 April & 19 Aug. 1938: sketches of the brothers John P. and Duncan P. MacDougall, resp. * Maxville (1991) 4, 90, 94, 295, 630-631, 665 * MacGillivray & Ross 150-153, 334-336, 688 * Maxville (1967)