(fl. late 19th century), stock farmer. (D. A. McDonald, Big Dan) D. A. McDonald, who had a farm at Glen Nevis, GC, on Lot 14 in the 7th Concession of Lancaster Township, not far east of the church, is said to have made money as a railway contractor in the U. S. In the years 1887-1889, he had a fine herd of purebred Holsteins on his farm at Glen Nevis, believed to be GC’s first Holstein “herd of any consequence.” Some, at least, of these cattle are believed to have been imported from Michigan. In 1892 the eminent GC contractor (later MLA) Donald Robert Mcdonald, who was building a stock farm for himself at Williamstown, bought Holsteins from D. A. McDonald. The exceptionally large and fine barn (the largest perhaps in GC at the time) which D. A. McDonald built at Glen Nevis was destroyed by fire in 1949.

     The Cornwall Freeholder 4 Feb. 1887 (cited DTL, Standard Freeholder 2 Feb. 1946) reported that D. A. McDonald, of Au Sable, Mich., proprietor of the stock farm at Glen Nevis, had broken his leg recently in the lumber woods of Iosco County, Mich. A correspondent from Rogers City, Mich., writing under the initials J. A. McD., in the Glengarrian (Alexandria) of 14 Feb. 1890, reported that D. A. McDonald from Lancaster Township (presumably the same man who had the farm at Glen Nevis) now had 5 lumber camps in operation on the Au Sable and Ocqueoc Rivers, employing about 300 men and 60 teams of horses. The writer praised the accomodations and victuals in the camps, and noted that there were quite a few GC men working in them.

     The GC Registry Office records show that on 3 April 1890, Donald A. McDonald, of Au Sable, Mich., described as a trader, sold to Angus F. McDonald, also of Au Sable, Mich., and also described as a trader, the whole of Lot 14, 7th Concession of Lancaster Township, and parts of Lot 11 in the 7th Concession and of Lot 16, 4th Concession, Lancaster Township. It is by no means unlikely that a painstaking trawl through the land registry pages would turn up other GC properties Donald A. owned. However, the above-named properties were certainly those which formed the basis for the farming activities which attracted attention to him in the 1880s. So many years later, and on the basis of the poor evidence that survives, it is difficult to draw more than speculative outlines for the history of his little-less-than-spectacular intervention into the GC farming world. However, one point to consider is that the lumber trade was notably full of dangers for investors, being inclined to violent ups and downs, and it may be that notwithstanding the optimistic newspaper report just cited, problems in the lumber business ended his GC farming, just as cash from the lumber business–unless the initial cash was from railway contracting after all–made it possible in the first place.

     D. A. (Big Dan) McDonald left GC, and nothing has been discovered about his final years. Recent enquiries showed that some people still remembered his role as a farmer but that it was believed there were no local relatives.

Holstein 3, 5, 40 (QF) and sources as stated above