(15 Oct. 1870-22 Nov. 1946), farmer. (Jimmie “D. D.” McDonald, sp. also Jimmy) Born at the Glen, Williamstown, GC. Parents: Parents: D. D. Mcdonald the eminent contractor and his wife Ann (Annie) Cameron. He was the brother of Donald Robert (known as D. R.), Allan P., and John Angus Mcdonald, all of them in the present dictionary. He attended primary and secondary school at Williamstown, then worked with his brothers John Angus and D. R. in railway construction. Angus H. McDonell wrote that “Jimmy D. D. was D. R.’s construction superintendent.” (letter 21 Nov. 1989 to present author). James was also employed with an Ottawa construction company, but after the death of his father in 1910, he returned to a successful career of farming at Williamstown. Having the gift of the narrator, he “frequently delighted his friends with stories of railroad and camp life.” If transcripts existed of those conversations, they would be of immense value for documenting the more intimately human side of the GC success story in construction management. On 24 Jan. 1898, he was married to Annie MacDonald of St. Andrew’s West. His death came at Ottawa General Hospital, following an operation. (nine children, eight surviving him) Burial was at St. Mary’s cemetery, Williamstown. Roman Catholic.

     His daughter Grace (Mrs Bruce McCourt), who was born at the Glen, Williamstown, 13 Feb. 1915, and died at Hotel Dieu Hospital, Cornwall, 29 June 2002, had a long career as a nurse, and was the last to die of his children; her obituary (Glengarry News 21 Aug. 2002) is itself a valuable record of a useful life and the passing of a generation in a leading GC railway contractor family.

Glengarry News 13 Dec. 1946 (QF) * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 22