(Aug. 1829- 27 Jan.1910), lumberman. (D. D. McDonell) Born in GC, probably in Kenyon Township, and in any case he was a Kenyon resident in his early years. His parents’ names have not been found, but they were both born in Scotland. He remained in Canada till he was 28, and seems to have got his first business experience there.

     A Minnesota biographical sketch of 1914 stated, “In 1857 he came to Minnesota, and his business ability was so manifest and his personality so strong, that he deeply impressed the leading lumbermen of the State at that time and became closely associated with them. After a residence of four years in this State he returned to his old Canadian home, where he remained one year. In 1862 he came back to this State to remain, and at once renewed his close relations with the magnates of the lumber trade. After his return to Minneapolis Mr. McDonell spent some time in the employ of other men who were already in the lumber business and conducting it on elaborate scales. They sought his aid in large operations of a confidential nature and found him always ready for the limit of service in amount and high quality. He continued to work in this way to his own advantage and the satisfaction of his employers for a number of years, and then decided to go into business for himself. With this end in view he formed a partnership with Levi Leighton, under the firm style of McDonell & Leighton, and together they carried on a steadily expanding lumber trade which in time grew to great magnitude and became very profitable. After Mr. Leighton retired from the firm, Mr. McDonell gave greater attention to dealing in timber lands and stumpage than to making and selling lumber. He also made investments from time to time in city real estate, and acquired several properties that proved to be very valuable. These are still owned by Mrs. McDonell, and one of them is a block on Eighth Street, between Nicollet and Hennepin Avenues.”

     The Chicago Canadian-American said that having gone into the “lumber business” early in his career he had risen to occupy “a conspicuous place in his adopted city,” i.e., Minneapolis. The biographical sketch aforementioned noted that he had spent a total of 52 years in Minneapolis.

     He was married (evidently, it was his 1st marriage) on 18 Sept. 1884, when he was 55, to Miss Linda S. Lord, who was born in Feb. 1850 in Maine, of a family rooted in America since colonial days. There were no children of the marriage. In the 1900 U. S. census, he and his wife were living in Minneapolis with one servant woman, aged 24, who had been born in Minnesota of Swedish-born parents. Duncan D. McDonell died at his home in Minneapolis. He was buried at Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis. The biographical sketch states that he was a Roman Catholic by upbringing and again at the end of his life, but that “during the greater part of his residence in Minneapolis he attended the Universalist Church of the Redeemer.” A few years after his death, his wife was described (1914) as active in charitable and cultural work, a dedicated and conscientious traveller, and a prominent and active member of the Christian Science Church. She appears, however, to have been dropped from membership of the Christian Science church in July 1915.

     He was survived by sisters whose names are given as Mrs Lewis Grant and Mrs A. A. Grant, but despite the similarity of names it seems unlikely that their husbands were the eminent railway contractors, the Grant Brothers, who have lives in the present dictionary. He was also survived by a brother, John, living in Kenyon Township, GC.

Death notice, Tribune (Minneapolis) 29 Jan. 1910, obituary CF 4 March 1910, copied from Chicago Canadian-American; there was no Glengarry News obituary, unless one has disappeared with copies of the GN lost at this time; also, no will has been located * Certificate of Death, State of Minnesota, 16590 * Minneapolis city directories, 1905-1910 * U. S. Census 1900 * Compendium of History and Biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota , ed. R. I. Holcombe and W. H. Bingham (Chicago, 1914) 440-441, with full page portrait: the most important source, but it is rather general in describing his business career, and it may be guessed it derives mainly from his widow * letter, 26 July 2002, from authorities, Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis