(died 22 April 1910, in his 85th year) and his wife Margaret Stewart (born 11 Jan. 1830, died 6 March 1929, aged 99), witnesses to historical continuity. Alexander Cameron McDonell (A. C. McDonell, Alexander C. McDonell, with name Ossian added, as in Alexander C. McDonell, Ossian; commonly called “Sandy Ossian”) was the son of Alexander McDonell, and was born at Mayfield farm, just east of Williamstown, GC, and died at Mayfield farm. (children: five, two surviving him) He was an elder at St. Andrew’s Church, Williamstown, from 1868 till his death. His father Alexander was an elder in that church from 1853 till his death on 29 Aug. 1871, and Alexander’s father, Hugh, a U E Loyalist, was an elder in that church from 1804 till his death on 30 Oct. 1836. These McDonells were known as the Ossian McDonells, from their house, Ossian Hall. The house is said to have got its name from its connection with Donald McDiarmid, who married Hugh McDonell’s daughter, and was deeply interested in the Scottish poet Ossian, who was said to have lived in the third century.A.D. Mayfield farm was earlier owned by Duncan Cameron and was the place where Sir Roderick Cameron grew up.

     Mrs A. C. McDonell was born in the 4th Concession of Lancaster Township, GC, the daughter of John Stewart and his wife Ann McDonald. John Stewart was the brother of Neil and William Stewart and Mrs Marion Stewart Mcdonald, and Ann McDonald’s brother was married to Marion Stewart Mcdonald. Mr and Mrs A. C. McDonell were married on 23 March 1854 and lived at Mayfield farm, also known as Ossian Hall farm. After the death of her husband, Mrs A. C. McDonell lived at “Thorn Hill” (see entry for A. G. McBean for this connection) and then at the Manse, Williamstown. (children: five,two children surviving him) She and her husband are buried at St. Andrew’s cemetery, Williamstown, but they appear to have no gravestone. One of their children, Mackenzie MacDonell (d. Montreal, 1890, in his 35th year), was the “confidential clerk” of A. G. McBean. Mrs A. C. McDonell was well known in her later years as a link with a very remote past. Both she and her husband were well known for their hospitality, and, in a way that a later generation cannot well understand through not personally knowing the couple involved, appear to have impressed contemporaries with their characters and personalities. Mrs A. C. McDonell’s sister was married to A. G. McBean. Alexander C. McDonell’s first cousin was married to the Rev. John Colin McLaurin of Martintown.

A. C. McDonell: dies, CF 29 April & 6 May 1910, Cornwall Standard 6 May 1910 * Mrs A. C. McDonell: article on, at age 98, dies, Cornwall Standard 9 Feb. 1928, 14 March 1929, Glengarry News 15 March 1929 * Campbell, Tannis, & Stewart, MacDougalls, 164, 169-171 * Campbell (1986), 340 * Centenary 1912 20-21, 77, 96-97 * article (illustr.) on Ossian Hall, Standard Freeholder 3 Jan. 1948 * Dumbrille, U, 27 and B, 33 * MacMillan, Kirk, 85, 417 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 112 (Hugh McDonell) * MacGillivray & Ross 660: Sandy Ossian remembered in Gertrude WOOD’s poem on St. Andrew’s Church * Alexander Fraser (probably Fraser the archivist of Ontario), “Eugene A. Maclaurin,” The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Ontario,” 5: Annual Transactions 1903 and 1904 (Toronto, 1906) 88-92: has material, not wholly reliable, on the McDonells of this family * Holstein 34 & 35 * CF 14 Nov. 1890, cited DTL, SFH 12 Nov. 1949: death of Mackenzie MacDonell