Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/124

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102
MacDONALD
MACDONALD

church of Berlin, Conn., tlie same year. He was successively pastor of churches in New London, Conn., Jamaica, N. Y., New York city, and Prince- ton, N. J., continuing in the latter charge from 1853 until his death. He delivered a course of lectures on homiletics in Boston university in 1874. Dr. MacDonald was a constant writer for the religious press, and contributed an able defence of the historian Gibbon to the " Bibliotheca Sa- cra." His other publications include *' Credulity as illustrated by Successful Impostures in Science, Superstition, and Fanaticism " (New York, 1848) ; " A Key to the Book of Revelation " (1846) ; " His- tory of the Presbyterian (Jhurch of Jamaica, Long Island " (1847) ; " My Fatiier's House, or the Heaven of the Bible " (1855) ; '• Book of Ecclesiastes Ex- plained " (1856) ; and " The Life and Writings of St. John," published after his death (1879). — His brother, Moses, congressman, b. in Limerick, Me.. 8 April, 1814 ; d. in Saco, Me.. 18 Oct., 1869, was educated at Bowdoin, studied law, and in 1837 was admitted to the bar. He was in the Maine legisla- ture in 1841-'5, was sj)', aker the latter year, and in 1847-'9 state treasurer. He was elected to con- gress as a Democrat in 1850, served till 1855, was collector of customs at Portland in 1857-61, and after the latter date returned to his profession, which he continued to practise until his death.


MacDONALD, James Wilson Alexander, sculptor, b. in Steubenville, Ohio, 25 Aug., 1824. Id 1840 he saw for the first time a plaster bust of Washington, which, together with his natural aptitude for drawing, decided him to study sculpture. He went to St. Louis in 1844, where he was em- ployed in a business-house during the day, and at night studied art. His earliest production in mar- ble was a bust of Thomas H. Benton (1854), the first of the kind produced west of the Mississippi. Later he made his earliest ideal work, a bust of Joan of Arc, which he followed by a full-length figure called " Italia." Mr. MacDonald settled in New York in 1865. He has executed a colossal head of Washington for Prospect park, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; a colossal bronze statue of Edward Bates for Forest park, St. Louis, Mo. ; a statue of Fitz- Greene Halleck for Central park. New York ; and a colossal equestrian statue of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon. His other works include busts of Charles O'Conor, James T. Brady, William CuUen Bryant, Peter Cooper, Thurlow Weed, and John Van Buren. Pie has painted portraits and landscapes in oil, lec- tured on art and science, and written analytical criticisms on American artists.


MACDONALD, John, Canadian member of parliament, b. in Saratoga, N. Y., 10 Feb., 1787 ; d. in Gananoque, Ontario, 20 Sept., 1860. His fa- ther, John, came to Saratoga from Perthshire, Scot- land, a few days before the birth of his son. The latter attended'school at Glenn's Falls, and. after en- gaging in business in Ti'oy, N. Y., removed to Gana- noque, Canada, and became a partner of his brother Charles, who had established himself in that place in 1810. In 1838 he was appointed a member of the legislative council of Upper Canada, and at the time of the union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1840 he was called to the legislative council of the united provinces, of which he was a member until the removal of the seat of government from Kings- ton to Montreal. He was for some time a colonel of the Leeds militia, held local offices in Gananoque, and, together with his brother Charles, paid for the building of the first church that was erected in that town. — His son. Herbert Stone, Canadian jurist, b. in Gananoque, 23 Feb., 1842, was edu- cated at Gananoque grammar-school and at Queen's university, where he was graduated in 1859. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1863, and engaged in practice in Brockville. In 1867 Mr. Macdonald was appointed deputy judge of the counties of Leeds and Grenville, which appoint- ment was revoked in 1869. At the general election of 1871 he was sent in the Conservative interest to the legislative assembly of Ontario, but resigned in autumn, 1873, on being appointed a junior judge. In 1878 he was appointed a senior judge, and in October, 1885, he became revising-officer for sev- eral electoral districts. In 1873 he had charge of the Orange incorporation bills, which passed the legislature, but were reversed by the lieutenant- governor and never became law, and the same year went on a lecturing tour through Ireland.


MACDONALD, John, Canadian merchant, b. in Perth, Scotland, 27 Dec, 1824. When a mere youth he came to Canada, and was educated first at Dalhousie college, Halifax, and then in Toronto. He served mercantile houses in Canada and in Ja- maica, W. I., and in 1849 engaged in business on his own account in Toronto, becoming one of the wealthiest merchants in the country. He entered public life as a member for west Toronto in the legislative assembly of Canada, was re-elected in 1865, and served till 1867, when he was defeated as a candidate for the Dominion parliament. In 1875 he was elected for centre Toronto by acclamation, but was defeated in 1878. Mr. Macdonald has been an independent Liberal in polities. He op- posed the coalition of 1864, and A'oted against con- federation. He is a director in several business companies, chairman of the hospital board, a mem- ber of the senate of the Provincial university, To- ronto, and a visitor of Victoria university, Cobourg. He has long been a member of the general confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been actively connected with the Evangelical alli- ance, the Bible society, and the Young men's Chris- tian association. In November, 1887, he became a member of the Dominion senate, and about the same time gave $40,000 to found a hospital in Toronto. He has published a pamphlet " Business Success."


MACDONALD, Sir John Alexander, statesman, b. in Glasgow, Scotland. 11 Jan., 1815 ; d. in Ottawa, Canada, 6 June, 1891. His father emigrated from Scotland to Canada and settled in Kingston, Ontario, in 1820. Young Macdonald was educated at the Royal grammar-school, Kingston, adopted the law as his profession, and was called to the bar of Upper Canada in 1836. Ten years later he was appointed Queen's counsel, and afterward became a bencher, ex officio, of the Law society of Ontario. As counsel he achieved distinction by his memorable defence of Von Schultz. who raided Canada in 1836 at the head of a small band of marauders. But it was as a politician and statesman that he won his place in Canadian history. He entered public life in 1844 as the representative of the city of Kingston in the house of assembly, and continued to sit for this constituency until the union of 1867, when he was elected to the house of commons of Canada by the same electorate until 1878, when he was defeated. Marquette in Manitoba, and Victoria, British Columbia, afterward returned him, and in 1882 Lennox and Carleton counties chose him as their member. He sat in parliament for the former county, and at the general election of 1887 Carleton and Kingston both elected him. In May, 1847, he was first appointed to office, becoming receiver-general and subsequently commissioner of crown lands in the Draper ministry. Early in the following year the government was defeated by the Reformers, and