(died 28 Aug. 1939, aged 59), businessman. (D. J. McDougald) Born in Alexandria, GC. Parents: John A. McDougald and his wife Annie (Nancy) Chisholm. He was educated at Alexandria and at the separate school and high school in Cornwall. A highly successful businessman, he is said to have begun with the modest role of a timekeeper on railway work at the Crow’s Nest Pass. Duncan J. McDougald died suddenly at his home in Toronto, following a heart attack. Roman Catholic. He was married to Margherita Emelie Murray. (three children) They were the parents of John A. (Bud) McDougald. For other family connections, see the entry for his brother A. W. McDougald.

     Duncan J. McDougald’s obituary in the Glengarry News reported that he “compiled a most complete family history, profusely illustrated, which will prove of great historical value.” The scrapbook or scrapbooks in this family history were restored and the materials remounted in the 1990s. The history remains in private possession, but if it ever comes into public use, the estimate just cited from the Glengarry News of its value will be well substantiated. The Glengarry News obituary also reported that in late years he had returned to Glengarry almost monthly.

     He was the head of D. J. McDougald & Co., bond dealers (founded 1918), and was vice-president of Trusts and Guarantee Co., president of Eastern and Western Land Co., president of Pine Lake Lumber Co., director of Canadian Breweries Co., and director of Cosgrave’s Dominion Brewery. He was chairman of the board of St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto. By 1924 he was a director of the CNR. (Cornwall Freeholder 21 Feb. 1924) In 1935 he was appointed one of the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto. In 1937, he was awarded the Cross “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice” by Pope Pius XI. (Standard Freeholder 12 May 1937) He was a man of wealth, though it seems he suffered a severe setback with the onset of the Great Depression, and his company disappeared at this time. His son John A. McDougald remembered that he did not drink, but that his “home was run like a gentleman’s house,” where guests had whatever drinks they wanted, alcoholic or non-alcoholic. He was the chief executor of the will of his brother-in-law John McMartin, and his son John A. McDougald was long and deeply involved as a businessman in the management of the McMartin family’s Hollinger business interests.

     In the years 1917-1919, McDougald was the successful leader of the Victory Loan campaign in SDG (“the right man in the right place”–Cornwall Freeholder). He was one of the promoters in the 1930s of the restoration and beautification of the well-known St. Andrew’s West Cemetery, burial place of Simon Fraser and John Sandfield Macdonald. (Standard Freeholder 27 June 1938) About 1929, he gave a piper’s challenge cup (the McDougald Memorial Trophy) to the SDG Highlanders regiment in memory of his father. In 1939 he gave the regiment “a valuable collection of pictures, both photographs and oil paintings,” of prominent men from the three United Counties. The 31 pictures, which were collected by McDougald “over a number of years,” featured, among others, the pioneer Bishop Alexander Macdonell, Simon Fraser, John Sandfield Macdonald, Judge Pringle and Premier Whitney. In the spring of 1934, while visiting in the GC area, he bought maple syrup from John S. McDonald of Glen Roy (one of “The Farmer” Macdonalds), to be shipped to the author Rudyard Kipling. (Glengarry News 27 April 1934)

UTA: obituaries (portraits), reports on funeral, from Toronto press * Glengarry News 1 Sept. 1939; obituary Standard Freeholder 30 Aug. 1939 is incomplete in microfilm copy * SDG Bond Drive, Cornwall Freeholder 6 Dec. 1917 (his letter), 21 Nov. 1918 * appointed University of Toronto Board, GN 2 Aug. 1935, SFH 27 Sept. 1935, with portrait * SDG regiment gifts: Boss 76; Standard Freeholder 31 March 1939 as repr. GN 7 April 1939 (QF) * J. T. Saywell, ‘Just Call Me Mitch’: the Life of Mitchell F. Hepburn (1991) 150 (contributor to provincial Liberals) * his daughter, Mrs Nan Pollitt, defends her uncle, Dr W. L. McDougald, in the controversy over Dr McDougald’s financial dealings with Mackenzie King, Globe & Mail 7 Jan. 1977 * Peter C. Newman as in life of John A. (Bud) McDougald