February-19-1960.

Dear Robert & Ruth:

While we were spending a happy Christmas holiday with you ,I distinctly remember both of you expressed an interest in the background of the family -McDonald. As I am Scotch(and you, Robert, only three quarters Scotch) the name should be spelled MacDonald but the change was made years ago ,in both the MacDonald and Mackinnon families, as a matter of more convenient writing of the names.

I have often thought of your interest since last we met and have come to the conclusion that it is an entirely normal and healthy interest. Accordingly-herewith is an attempt to summarize it in short form.

First of all let me state the MacDonald, MacKinnon and (Highland Scott families (or Clans) go away back to the dawn of history in Scotland and even preceded written history. Natives they were for generations and generations. Before I go further let me say while none of them, as far as I know, were men or women of any recorded historical interest yet- none of them were either scalawags or jailbirds.

We will start with what little I know of my grandparents on my mother's side-and that is very little. I might say I know practically nothing of them as they were both dead when I was born. But my mothers' father was a John MacKinnon who married a Miss MacDonald in Scotland. He is reported to have spent some time in the Scottish army during the Napoleonic Wars. Sometime after these were over he was married and emigrated to Canada and was given a hundred acres of land in the township of Drummond, Lanark County , Ontario then called Upper Canada to distinguish it from Lower Canada-later called Quebec) I have, somewhere in my files, a deed from George IV of England conveying the land to him. There is a tradition in the family that he received this for his services in the army during the Napoleonic Wars. I cannot vouch for the truth of this.

In Drummond township they hacked out a homestead and raised their large family. In later years, some way some how this was extended to 640 acres and came down through the family to me ,after mother's death, when you, Robert, were a handsome little fellow with me in Arnprior, Ontario. This occurred in the depth of the severest financial depression in history-the years 1929 to 1933. This downturn resulted in the shrinkage of my then Net Worth to the extent of about $90,000.00 with corresponding shrinkage in the former net income from such sources(and that was a lot money at that time) Prices were so low and the demand so small that hardly any farmer anywhere could wrest an income from his acres or his efforts, regardless of his skill and experience-neither of which I had to the extent of one ounce. Through the political contacts and schemes of a next door neighbor a heavy drainage project was diverted away from his acres to those I inherited. This resulted in heavy assessments against our property. However I rented the farm and buildings to him as my only source, after spending a couple of thousand dollars rebuilding the barns, sheep sheds Etc. He made one crop on the place and stored the unthreshed straw in the barns, then hired a traveling threshing machine to extract the grain crop. The very first day they operated it a spark from the engine set all the barns on fire. There was no insurance as none could be secured for the reason no family lived in the house on the place. As stated above I was not and am not a farmer of any kind of experience. The barn losses, together with the shrinkage in my Net Worth, my income, and the absolute necessity of having some funds available to feed and clothe my six children, made me shrink from keeping up the drainage assessment payments with the result that I lost the farm. Every farmer, at that time, had more farm than he wanted and could not be induce to buy any more.

Now let us go back to the MacKinnon great grandparents of yours on my mother's side. They were the parents of three sons and three daughters-(in order of age) Alexander, Catherine, Emily, Donald, Mary, John and Christina.-my forever remembered mother. Alexander, Catherine, Emily and Donald remained on the farm until their deaths at quite and old age for each. John MacKinnon taught school for some years and then went(with his old maid sister Mary)to Almonte, Ontario, where he opened a grocery store until his death in his late eighties. Aunt Mary died of a heart attack some years before this. While she was alive she, for a number of years, engaged in dressmaking for the so-called stylish women and girls of the town. In fact, after her death, there were discovered in her bureau drawers bolts of unused silk material rusted out with age.

My mother was the only one of the entire family who consented to enter the field of matrimony. All the others were either old bachelors or old maids and, in my opinion, proud of it -just why I will not venture to explain. Robert will, I am sure, remember my mother quite well.

Let me interject here that the MacDonald and MacKinnon families (the forefathers) were neighbors in Inverness Shire, Highlands of Scotland for centuries. This being done we will now proceed to the MacDonald side of the family(or clan).Sometime look up the history of the MacDonald and MacKinnon families (clans) and I feel sure you will find many reasons for being very proud of them. Any good library can furnish you with the history of the Highland Clans of Scotland. You will find them listed among them.

The only one of my grandparents that I know was my dear, old grandmother MacDonald who spent the last years of her life in our home in Arnprior. I distinctly remember the day of her death when I was about twelve years old. In the hub-ub of the occasion I was sent for the doctor about one mile away, and I had to hurry -about hip deep through the heavy snow of the night before. (it was just about this date in February) You must remember we had no telephones in Canada at that early date and I doubt if any were in use in the United States. The doctor came after considerable delay BUT she had passed away before he could be of any use at her then advanced age of 76 years.

She spoke only a few words of English. As a result our home conversation was ,practically all, in Gaelic which I spoke quite well, of course, but have since entirely forgotten as I no longer heard a word of it.

Before her marriage her name was Margaret Scott(and no relationship is claimed with Sir Walter Scott-the great poet and novelist)) He was a Lowland Scotchman and, as such, was considered a foreigner among the Highland clans.

She married one John MacDonald in Scotland and had the following children in her first family:(In order of Age): Ann, John I, John II, my father, Frank, Angus, Alexander and Bella. John I(#1)was named after his father; my father John II(#2) was named after his uncle John Scott who was a professional soldier and ,as such, was sent to Australia-a land then so far, so new, so undeveloped and the trip there so long and so hazardous in the sailing ships of that day that they had NO hope of ever seeing him again. However ,after spending some years in Australia, he DID actually return this time to Canada and became Commissary General for Canada with the British Army with headquarters in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Shortly after retirement from the army he died in or around Alexandria, Ontario where he awaits the resurrection in a cemetery in the neighborhood of that small town-but still among the Scotch men.

Right here I am, perhaps, a little ahead of my story. The father of the above children died in Scotland, and their mother( Margaret Scott MacDonald) married another John MacDonald. There were, of course, many MacDonalds in that part of Scotland at that time-and ,I venture to say, even now. Of THIS family two were born: James and Duncan MacDonald. I am not sure if they were born in Scotland. I feel they were born in Canada after emigration.

It may be well to direct your attention, here, to the fact that the latter two brothers were only half brothers to those of the first family. Their family and all left of the first family emigrated to Canada ABOUT the year 1850 and settled in MacNab Township-a short distance from Arniprior -just a little village at that time. Someway, somehow they hacked a homestead there out of the bush and lived on it until the children were quite grown up. Then they began to wander away as so many children do. The oldest of the family was Ann,who when the family fortunes in Scotland were satisfactory, attended a lady's college in the City of Inverness and showed its influence in her speech, attitudes, outlook and manners for the rest of her days. I knew her well ,of course, and liked her very much indeed. She married at a rather late age (for the time)to another MacDonald-a farmer -and lived in the Township of Glengarry and near Alexandria. She had ,as I recall, five children: Alexander, Bella, John, Mary Ann and Jenny. I do not accurately recall the names of the children of the first four. However, I remember Jenny very well as I had many contacts with her and HER children. She married a Mr. Rawson-from London, England, and was the mother of two daughters. Margaret-the eldest-married a Mr. Joseph Joy and now lives at #1227 Sherbrooke St-West Montreal ,Quebec when not at their other home at the Seignory Club Near Montibello, Quebec. The remaining daughter, Mary, married a Mr. Keyes who, unfortunately, passed away some years ago leaving her with about four children and now living at 734 Outremont, Montreal, Quebec. This is, probably, the place to say that, after the death of ANN's husband, she and the rest of the family moved-one by one-to Montreal where all of them spent the rest of their lives.

Of Margaret MacDonald's first family the oldest-ANN-is spoken of above. John I(#1) and Alexander (called Sandy)lived and raised their families in Braeside, Ontario, where they spent their last years in the employment of Gillis Brothers-large lumber mills. John married a Miss MacGillvray-of Glengarry-and they gave birth to Mary, Annie and John James MacDonald. Mary never married but passed her last days as housekeeper for a Father Burke in his parish near Pembroke, Ontario. Annie Married a Mr. Thomas Dodd and they had three sons: Gregory, Gordon and Frank Dodd. The first is married and lives in Ottawa, Canada; the second is married and lives in Islington-near Toronto, Ontario. Frank lives in Lachine, Quebec. John James Married a girl from Braeside, Ontario and moved to or near North Bay, Ontario where, I believe ,he died because of an accident. I believe they left some issue but I am sure just how many as I have had no contact with the widow for many, many years. It may be well to say here that Mary died of cancer of the stomach. Robert will remember all the Dodd boys very well. Their mother died of a heart attack in her sleep some few years ago. However the father, Thomas Dodd is still alive and has remarried at about 83 years of age.

Next comes my father-John II(#2) who married Christeena MacKinnon in 1875 or 1876 but we will go into that later.

Alexander(Sandy)MacDonald was the father of Margaret, Lawrence, Joseph and Minnie MacDonald. Margaret married a Mr. Richard Dorion and was the mother of large family of boys and only two girls . I know of three sons still alive; Harold, who lives with his wife(without issue) here in Detroit, Mack who lives near Ottawa in Quebec province and Rev. Desmond Dorion in charge of a parish at Langeburg, Sask-western Canada. Mary, the only living daughter, is married to a Mr.Felix Convey-the only Catholic undertaker-in Arnprior and ahs a family of three boys and one girl. Angus MacDonald, after learning the carpenter trade, left for the United States and landed at last in Galveston, Texas, where he lost his life in a violent storm on the Gulf of Mexico. He never married. Their sister, Bella, also left for the United States and spent many years in Cincinnati, Ohio. When I was about twelve years of age she made an extended visit among us in Arnprior but returned. She never married. Many years afterward I spent an afternoon with her there while on my way from Chicago to Newport News, Virginia. She, too, of course has gone the way of all flesh many years ago. So far I have said not a word about Frank. He married and lived in Callendar, Ontario(est of Pembroke). He and his wife died at relatively early age and left orphans quite a family of girls. The last I heard from any of them was several years ago when they were in Buffalo, N.Y.

Now we come to my immediate family. As stated above my father-of revered memory-was John MacDonald II (#2) and my mother also of most revered memory- Christeena MacKinnon. They had only three children of whom I am the oldest and only survivor. then came Catherine (Cassie_ and Margaret Isabelle(Maggie Bella-as we called her), Catherine taught school for a few years and until she contracted tuberculosis from Margaret(daughter of James MacDonald-Chicago) who spent a vacation at our home during a year when she had the disease. Margaret Isabella also taught school for a few years or until she joined the Sisters of Mercy of Halifax, Nova Scotia. When she joined the order she taught German,French and Chemistry in their home college near Halifax. She was known in religion as Sister Mary Ethelbert. However she, too, had the germ of Margaret MacDonald. It developed while she was teaching and, of course, she was compelled to retire from teaching. She spent the rest of her days in a hospital conducted by their order in the City of Halifax. Cassie and Margaret died within seven weeks of each other.-Cassis in early January and Sister Mary Eltehlbert in late March of the Same year. As soon as circumstances permitted, after Cassie's death, I went to Halifax and spent a couple of weeks in the hospital with her. Her tenure of life was so uncertain that I had to leave. After all mother and father were in much distress at home after Cassie's death and the prospects of the same early fate for Margaret made things much worse. I still distinctly remember her last farewell greetings waved to me from her hospital window. She lived only a few weeks after that.

NOW a few words about myself-your father. I was graduated from the High School in Arnprior; then I went to the Model School for teachers in Renfrew, Ontario. When graduated from there I taught school for a few years at Ashdod, Ontario and Mt. St. Patrick, Ontario. After a vacation I went to work for the Ottawa Citizen in their circulation department. Did not stay there long as I was offered a better job with the Montreal Herald along the same lines. I had in charge the circulation in all Montreal -east of St. Lawrence Main Street, Lachine, Cote St. Paul, Pointe St. Charles Etc. during the Boer War years in South Africa. When things settled sown after this I went to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario where I soon became accountant for the chief engineer(W.Z. Earle) in charge of construction of the Algoma Central & Hudson Bay R.R. and allied activities. This was about the year 1900 or 1901. After a couple of years there another deep depression took hold of the economy and work on the railroad slowed up for considerable time. Nearly all the engineers were discharged and me among them. the chief bridge engineer -a Mr. Stone- prevailed on me to go to Chicago with him. He was not there long until he secured a position with the Chicago & Eastern Illinois R.R. Shortly after our arrival I, too ,succeeded in getting a position in the head office of Nelson Morris & Co., meat packers, with distribution points in many U.S. Cities as well as abroad. After time spent here I was sent for training (in branch office accounting & credits)to a branch in South Chicago. When they felt I knew the job they sent me to Newport News, Virginia, in charge of accounts and credits for that Southeastern section of Virginia north of the St. James River. I spent about three years there when they sent me in charge of their office in Newark, N.J. However I distinctly disliked their Jewish manager who insisted in overstepping his boundaries and into my credit decisions. I resigned but this was not accepted. Instead they then transferred me to Birmingham, Alabama. I did not stay there long either . Birmingham was just beginning to boom as a result of opening up of the nearby coal mines and the steel mills there and in vicinity. Of course, naturally, the Morris business boomed with the city and the office work and responsibilities accordingly. However the home office in Chicago had not yet wakened up to just what was happening. The result was I nearly worked myself to death there. At that time we were required to take complete inventory every Friday, check it our in detail, prepare detailed Profit & Loss statements. Balance Sheet Etc. weekly. This made it necessary for me to have the inventory promptly after five each Friday, and proceed from there with the detailed reports. The result was I started to work (as I did each day) at 8.00A.M. work all that day, all that night and all day Saturday without any sleep . Would sleep some Saturday nights and get back to work Sundays in time to finish all reports and get them off to arrive in Chicago at the next target date and next Tuesday morning. I could not stand many months of that and I stayed only four of them .However the home office would not hear of any additional help for me and I was too far away for them to be acutely alive to the changed conditions. I resigned DEFINITELY by wire when I was just fagged out. Was soon succeeded by two men in the office when they wakened up.

Immediately I went to work in the state head office of the Standard Oil Co, of Kentucky-a subsidiary of the Great Standard Oil co before the "break up" under the terms of the U.S. Courts. With them I was Cashier in charge of all Alabama, part of Tennessee, part of Georgia, part of Florida and part of Mississippi. Aside from me there was a staff of about 22 others in the office. I was, of course, unmarried at this time so, after a couple of years experience, they wanted to send me to Bombay, India, where I would have had to stay at least three years before getting six months leave of absence with pay and paid transportation to and back from the United States. This I refused to do. I was just about as far away from home as I wished to be in Birmingham. The result would be no more offer of promotions for me. That was the way of international corporations in those days and, I venture to say, it still is.

Someway, in the course of the Standard Oil clearing up my past record in anticipation of my transfer to Bombay-the Ar,our & Company southways on the "look-out" for accountants with packing house experience their divisional auditor came to see me and prevailed to go with them. I agreed and was sent to their Atlanta office for training in THEIR accounting methods and reports(much better than Morris-by the way) I was not long there when they sent me to Macon, Georgia as assistant to the accountant and credit man there. I was not long there either before I was sent in charge of their office in Valdosta, Georgia to handle the accounts and credits for the southeastern section of Georgia as well as parts of North Florida and Southeastern Alabama.

After spending a couple of years there they wanted to send me to Key West, Florida in charge of that office where most of our business was with ships of the U.S. Navy and other passing ships Etc.(The more experience one had the further they sent him from the home office) However, at that time, there was no rail road in or out -no safe water to drink or use as the rain water had to be captured or stored.(Since World War II a pipe line has been extended from Homestead, Florida to key West where there is plenty of safe water now) That certainly did not appeal to me. When I refused they wanted me to go to Marseille, France,-the toughest city in France and along the Mediterranean, and all because I knew their system, spoke some French and read it much better.

All these offers of promotion were only putting me further and further away from home so, naturally, I objected. Instead I resigned from Armour Entirely and paid $1,200.00 cash for a partnership interest in a ONE MAN C.P.A. degree. In a year or so my partner left for Los Angeles where he has, long since, passed away. I kept the office open until July 1914. As I had not been home for a long time I decided to take a vacation there. While there I met your mother-Gertrude Wilson-of revered memory whose mother lived nearby and came to help mother several times weekly. After six weeks courtship we were married. I may say here that she had, of her own volition, left the Order of St. Joseph in St. Paul, Minn. only six months before. The day we were married we left on our honeymoon -headed South for Atlanta.

We spent about a week in and around Detroit in the Hotel Washington-a very respectable hotel in those days. However, the first World War had broken out shortly before with the result that the economy of the country received a severe shock and knocked the price of the cotton crop of the South all to pieces-and this-at that time-was the mainstay of the economy of that part of our country. This would ruin the South and what practice I had at the same time. This situation disturbed me very, VERY much indeed and it was hard for me to decide just what to do. However, we did decide to go South, and were even on a street car heading for the station, when I made up my mind to stay longer in Detroit and further "size up" the situation we were in. While times, even in Detroit, were very tough indeed we finally decided to stay here. As I had about $3,000.00 "in the kitty" we decided to go into business so I bought a grocery-(and ice cream)store at #663 Third Avenue feeling that IF we did not make a go of it we would, at least, have a roof over our heads and could eat up the groceries Etc. as long as they would last. We bought the place in early October and kept it open until December(early)when, one night, a customer stood back watching me until all the other customers were served. Then he ventured the opinion: "I gather the impression that grocery is just NOT your business" and, in this, I fully agreed with him. Then he expressed curiosity as to just what my line of activity had been. I replied that I had been a public accountant and had my C.P.A. degree to prove it. This "struck a bell" with him and he asked me, at once, if I would accept an engagement. After consulting your mother and having her agree to take care of the store I accepted. I spent about TWO weeks on that job at $20.00 per day IN CASH and that was more than we took in GROSS many days of the week in the store. Besides there was no getting up about six each morning and staying open until 11.00 P.M. and later every day and open practically the same hours every Sunday. That "did it." I decided that, after all, accounting was to be my line , so we decided to sell the place and move into an apartment down in the city.

Then and there I decided to go down into the heart of the city and try to talk some C.P.A. to take me in as a partner-and BY GOSH- I succeeded in talking a Mr. Bloomfield into taking me in WITHOUT any CASH investment-nothing but my "sweet" personality and experience. He did not have much practice but I set to work-I JUST HAD TO. Shortly after joining up with him I succeeded (as a result of my municipal experience in the South) in landing the audit of the City of Bay City covering a FOUR YEAR period. As a result of this I got the job of installing a system of accounts for the Board of Education there -and a few other engagements as well.

Your mother and I moved "bag and baggage" to Bay City and stayed in a residential hotel for several months. During this period Lucretia was about to bestow the blessing of her presence on this troubled world. As a result your mother went to her home THEN in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, to wait out the event with Her mother who had many years experience as practical nurse. I went up there, of course, and was present to welcome the newly born into my arms. When I saw all would be well, I returned to Bay City where the mother and child joined me at the residential hotel mentioned above.

After "cleaning up" my engagements there we returned to Detroit and resumed residence in an apartment.

As I felt I had now considerable money "in my jeans" as a result of the Bay City work, added to what I had saved before, we decided to look around for a house to buy. After looking over several places ver y well(with Lucretia in our arms) we decided on the THEN relatively NEW VILLAGE of Highland Park. On September 18^th, 1915, we bought #87 Portage - five rooms-bath-full basement-coal furnace heat-for $4,150.00. John, Gertrude and Frances were born while we lived there. As that place had only two bedrooms, and it would have cost just TOO much to make extensions we decided to look elsewhere. We did not have far to go. We soon found just what we needed and bought #5 Grove avenue where all of us spent so many years. Paid $12,040.00 August 20-1920.

However I decided to let Bloomfield go HIS own way and I would go mine. Accordingly I opened my own office in October, 1916, at #505 Penobscot Building where I remained until October 1924 -shortly after your mother's unhappy demise. I worked real hard and extended my practice until I had up to eight and, occasionally, ten men on my staff. I had some very good engagements as, for instance, American Commercial Car Company, Albert A. Albracht & Co(builders of the Penobscot Building extension with ONE fee in excess of $13,000.00) ; Bryant & Detwiler Co; Board of Education, Highland Park; Board of Education, Hazel Park; Board of Education, Hamtramck; City of Hamtramck-where we made the first budget for the city on its conversion from Village to City status, installed an up to date municipal system of accounts, kept the general accounts of the city for one year and trained its first controller in the use of the system.And among others the Graham Printing Company; Gabriel Steel Co; R.C.Mahon & Co.; E.D. Jackson Construction Company and others. My Gross fees went up as high (and higher) than $49,000.00 per year.

Things were going just fine until your mother took suddenly VERY ill of acute appendicitis just after our return from a day spent at one of the lakes near Pontiac on July 4^th, 1924. Of course we did not have any idea this was the case until we brought her to the Highland Park Hospital next morning. The doctors soon discovered that she actually had peritonitis for which AT THAT TIME there was no known cure. She suffered (under drugs) for just one week and passed to her eternal reward on July 12th ,1924. Of course, neither I nor her elder children, at that time, can ever forget those fatal dates.

After this severe blow I tried to keep all of you children together, at any cost, by hiring housekeepers -one after the other- and one more incapable and unreliable than the other. I tried to keep up my practice as well. But there appeared to be no end to my accumulating worries. I soon felt that I ought to consult our doctor relative to my physical condition. He advised me that IF I did not want to follow the mother within a relatively short time I should, IF POSSIBLE, give up my practice and start over somewhere else-preferably in a smaller community where proper help might be more available and where I could, personally, devote more attention to all of you.

As my mother was ,then, about 78 years old and my father about 80 they could not and would not be of any help to me in Highland Park. They were practically helpless themselves in their home in Arnprior. They would NOT permit anyone to take care of them there and would NOT go elsewhere to be taken care of. As an attempt at solving my problems, and obeying my doctor's advise as well, I decided to move to Arnprior home (with all of you) and things DID go quite well until the death of my mother in December 1929 and father's death in January 1930. Had a very satisfactory help nearly all this time. There is just ONE thing I must say right here: In spite of all the difficulties of those years ,up to that time, I will always remember them as, AFTER ALL, among the happiest years of my life . Then all of you were mere youngsters and I much younger than I am this day-February 23rd-1960.

A month or so after mother's demise the clouds from Heaven fell about us in the way of the severest depression in history that lasted from late 1929 to late 1933-as detailed elsewhere in this review. There was no hope of me getting anything worth while in Arnprior. There did not appear to be any hope, in the way of a decent future, for any of you children as you grew older.. For this reason solutions were improvised, from time to time, with the final results with which each of you is familiar-each in his or her own way.

Thank God again, again and AGAIN that I met my present dear wife, Marie, Bleonore Bernadette. She has ,indeed, been a blessing from Heaven for each and all of us. IF she should survive me I do HEREIN specifically ask each and all of you to make her remaining years just as happy as our Heavenly Father will permit you. I will not rest easy in my grave if you do otherwise.

Forever yours,

John A. McDonald