John L. McDonald

MCDONALD, FROST, BRIGGS

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 3/4/2011 at 20:13:37

John L. McDonald, proprietor of Sunny Crest Farm in Estherville township, is one of the representative agriculturists of Emmet county. He was born in Elgin, Kane county, Illinois, on the 1st of October, 1865, his parents being John and Rebecca (Frost) McDonald, natives of Scotland and England respectively. By occupation the father was a farmer. In the family were ten children, of whom John L. is the youngest. The others still living are Mary, now the widow of Henry Allenson and a resident of Minneapolis; G. H., of Pasadena, California; and Nettie, the wife of Archer Johnson, of Palo Alto county, Iowa.

During his boyhood and youth John L. McDonald attended the schools and also an academy at Elgin, Illinois, and on laying aside textbooks at the age of eighteen years began clerking in a dry goods store, where he was employed until 1899. In that year he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, purchasing a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Palo Alto county, lowa, which he operated for nine years. In 1909 he came to Emmet county and bought a tract of similar size in Center township, whereon he lived for two years. On selling that place he purchased the west half of the northwest quarter of section 13, Estherville township, and fifty-five acres in the northeast quarter of section 14, the same township. Here he is now successfully engaged in general farming and dairying and has a well improved place, as Sunny Crest Farm.

Mr. McDonald married Miss Kittie C. Briggs, a daughter of Henry and Sarah A. (Bartlett) Briggs. Her father was killed in the Civil war and her mother is also deceased. The father was buried at Springfield, Missouri, and the mother at Elgin, Illinois, where she made her home. Mr. and Mrs. McDonald have three children: Boyd J., at home; and Marine and Glenn B., now in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

While a resident of Palo Alto county, Mr. McDonald filled most of the township offices, but has never taken an active part in public affairs since coming to Emmet county. In politics he is a republican and in his religious connection is a member of the Presbyterian church. He is widely and favorably known and well merits the confidence reposed in him.

Source: History of Emmet County and Dickinson County Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1917.