(born c. 1831; died 1 March 1910, aged 79, or in 79th year), contractor. (date of birth 1821 aso found) Born at St. Andrew’s West, Stormont County. His father was John R. McDonald (same name as that of his son). The description in his Cornwall Freeholder obituary of the career in contracting of the subject of this entry, i. e., the man who died in 1910, may be quoted here, as representing evidence much of which is inaccessible to a later generation, “His first contract was on the Farran Point Canal [near Cornwall]. Later on he went to New York City and built part of the grand reservoir in Central Park. He then went to Lockport, Ill., where he assisted in the building of the drainage canal between Chicago and Joliette [Joliet], Ill., and for a number of years after was a prominent railroad builder, tunnelling being his speciality.” Almost certainly, however, the Cornwall Freeholder obituary goes much too far in saying that he was “in his day one of the most prominent railway contractors of the United States.” He was one of the Glengarrians mentioned by name (“John R. Macdonald, contractor”) in a Toronto World article of 1885 praising Glengarrians.

     In 1897 he settled in California, “ where he acquired a large fruit ranch,” which he operated successfully for about ten years, till his health failed. He died in Cornwall, where he had come in 1908 to live with his sister. Roman Catholic. He was buried at St. Andrew’s West. On his death he left a wife and daughter in San Diego, Calif., and a son in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a “cousin” of Donald R. Mcdonald, who was MLA for Glengarry.

     John R. McDonald was not a Glengarrian, but the Cornwall Freeholder obituary cited him as an example of how the men of GC-Stormont County found farm life too quiet for them and were as much at home in the construction camps of North America as their ancestors were in the camps of war.

     He must be distinguished from several other men of his name who were involved also in railway building,

     The Cornwall Cheese and Butter Board volume of 1920 has a biog. sketch of Allan J. McDonald, who at that time was a farmer on Lots 7 and 8, in the 3rd Concession of Indian Lands, GC. His father “John R. McDonald, railway contractor,” had bought this property about seventy years earlier.

     About 1907-1908, Louis Merpaw and “John R. McDonald, of Glen Brook,” GC, were associated as subcontractors in the construction of the Hawkesbury to Ottawa section of the Canadian Northern Railway, which connected Ottawa, Hawkesbury and Montreal. Then in the early 1920s, Merpaw and McDonald were building bridges at Trois-Rivières, Que., for the firm of McDonald and Dibblee, the McDonald in the Merpaw and McDonald firm name being apparently the previously-mentioned John R. McDonald, of Glen Brook.

     These must be distinguished from another John R. Macdonald (died at his home in South Lancaster 26 Jan. 1917 in his 76th year), who was born on the 4th Concession of Lancaster Township, and was a Fenian Raid veteran. He was the son of Roderick Macdonald. This John R. was probably a skilled workman rather than a contractor. “He was a well-known railroad construction man, having worked on many of the most important lines on the continent. His specialty was rock work.” He lived in the South Lancaster area for the last two decades of his life.

Death notices and obituaries in both CF & Cornwall Standard 4 & 11 March 1910 * Toronto World: see MacGillivray & Ross 651 & Bibliography of Glengarry 16 * John R. McDonald of Indian Lands connection: Stiles 171; Belden Atlas 47 * John R. McDonald of Merpaw connection: DTL interview with Merpaw, Standard Freeholder 9 Feb. 1934; Brault 102 (for Canadian Northern Railway) * John R. Macdonald (d. 1917): his obituary Cornwall Standard 1 Feb. 1917 (Lancaster column, QF)