My Genealogy Hound

ALEXANDER McDONALD is an early settler and a highly respected citizen of Kearney county. He was born at Mullingrey, Scotland, seven miles from Glasgow. His father, William McDonald, was a Highlander by descent, and born in the year 1794, in County Tyrone, Ireland, but lived in Mullingrey, Scotland. He came to America in 1861 and located at Philadelphia, where he engaged in shoemaking, and died in 1877, at the ripe old age of four-score years and one. Margaret (Harkness) McDonald, the mother of our subject, was a native of Ireland, born in 1793. There were eight children in the family.

Alexander was sixteen years of age when he came to America. Previous to that time he had attended school and received a somewhat liberal education. He located in Philadelphia and engaged in a retail grocery and provision business, which he continued for twenty-six years. He enlisted in the Ninety-first Pennsylvania regiment, Company H, February 25, 1864, and was in the 5th corps, 1st brigade, and 2d division of the Army of the Potomac. His first engagements were at Bolivar Heights and Harpers Ferry, where he was detailed on guard duty. After wintering at Warrenton junction, he engaged in the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, at which latter place he was wounded in the left leg and stampeded by the cavalry. His corps had originally three hundred thousand men, but at this time had dwindled down to fifty-five thousand. They were commanded in person by General Grant, who aroused them to their utmost efforts by shouting “Boys, your country and your flag.” Mr. McDonald was given up for dead and lay on the battle-field three days and nights, but was finally picked up and taken to the hospital at Mt. Vernon, where he lay for several weeks, and was transferred to Findlay hospital at Washington, and later on to Satterlee hospital, Philadelphia. His breast-bone was broken and crushed in the stampede of cavalry, but after many months of nursing he was able to be about again. So inherent was his love for his adopted country and its flag that, notwithstanding the fact that he was crippled for life and incapacitated for duty, he announced his intention of reentering the service, and was accordingly sent to Alexandria, where, upon examination of the examining board, he was returned to Moore hospital, near Philadelphia, and finally, on May 23, 1865, was discharged. He receives $16 per month pension, it having been increased gratuitously from $8 to $12, and finally to the latter amount. After the war he continued in the grocery business until 1877, when, in September of that year, he and his son came West and entered as a homestead the southeast quarter of section 11, township 7, range 15, on which he still resides. On arriving, he and son constructed a ten by twelve sod house and made preparation for the family, who came a few months later. The country was very wild at that time, and settlers were few and far between, there being but one within a radius of two miles. Later on he constructed a larger sod house, sixteen by thirty-six feet, and in the summer of 1884 built the present spacious frame dwelling — one of the largest and finest in the county.

Mr. McDonald was married, November 15, 1853, to Mary A. Kirkpatrick, who was born April 29, 1832, in County Tyrone, Ireland, and is the daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Bruce) Kirkpatrick, both of whom were natives of Ireland. Her father was a very rich farmer. The union of Mr. and Mrs. McDonald was blessed with the birth of twelve children, as follows — Margaret J., born July 16, 1854; Anna F., born September 18, 1855; Sarah L. M., born October 14, 1856; William T., born December 26, 1857; Mary L., born January 5, 1861; Samuel A., born January 15, 1862; Mary L. A., born January 22, 1864; Henrietta O., born July 2, 1865; Marion O., born November 6, 1866; Oscar E. A., born March 29, 1868; Laura, born September 2, 1872, and one that died in infancy.

Mr. and Mrs. McDonald are both members of the United Presbyterian church. Politically, he is a republican, having voted that ticket for forty years. He has been postmaster at Harmony for eight years, and his son is mail-carrier from Minden to Kearney.