McDONALD, OLIVER P.

MCDONALD, SHANOR, CHAPIN

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 1/13/2004 at 22:38:59

Biography reproduced from page 98 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Oliver P. McDonald is one of the active and progressive business men of Kossuth county, where he is well known in connection with various commercial enterprises. His influence has been constructive and expansive and his activities have always been dominated by high ideals of personal and commercial honor. Mr. McDonald is a native of Illinois, born in Dwight, November 5, 1861. His father, William McDonald, was born in Pennsylvania and received his early education in that state. He was married there to Miss Mary R. Shanor, and in 1856 removed to Illinois, locating at Dwight. There he engaged in general agriculture until 1868, when he came west to Iowa, locating in Kossuth county, where he took up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Portland township, which he improved and cultivated until his death, in 1879. His wife survived him until 1894, in which year her death occurred.

Oliver P. McDonald was reared upon his father’s farm and received his primary education in the common schools of Illinois and Iowa. He learned the rudiments of agriculture by assisting his father in the work of tilling the soil and for several years after reaching maturity he carried on farming on his own account. His brother, John D. McDonald, was for a number of years a dealer in lumber and building material in Burt, and after his death, in 1900, Oliver P. McDonald succeeded to the business and has been prominently connected with that line of activity since that time. He carries a large stock of high grade lumber and building material and his business is increasingly successful. He is also interested in a large coal establishment and in connection with this deals in cement. He is a partner in a local elevator company and his activities have aided materially in the upbuilding and development of the town of Burt. He has extensive interests in real estate and has built three residences in the village. For several years he has been a member of the board of education.

In 1891 Mr. McDonald was married in Humboldt, Iowa, to Miss Ida Chapin, who was born and reared in Kossuth county. Her father, John Chapin, was a native of New York state and established the family in Iowa. To Mr. and Mrs. McDonald have been born four children: Cecil E., who is now a student in the Cedar Rapids public schools; D. L.; John Merwin; and Maxine.

Politically Mr. McDonald gives his allegiance to the democratic party but beyond his service as a member of the school board never seeks public office. Fraternally he affiliates with the Masonic order, holding membership in Kossuth Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and Algona Chapter, R. A. M. He is one of the prominent and successful business men of Kossuth county, and has divided his energies among many different lines of activity but this has not impaired his force in any one direction. He is a man of keen business instinct, straightforward, energetic and alert, but he values other success more than his business prosperity and accounts his wide popularity among his friends as the crowning achievement of his life.