It is with pleasure that we can record the life history of such men as the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Not that he has been a public man and an office-holder, but a true and loyal citizen, one that his neighbors hold in high esteem, which is greater than riches. He has spent his life from a boy of nine years in Pleasant Valley Township, and has grown up to see the country transformed from a wilderness of wild lands into its present state of civilization, and the City of Daven port from a trading-post into the second city in wealth and population in the State.
Mr. Donaldson was born February 3, 1830, in Albany, New York. At the age of nine he came to Iowa with his parents in October of 1839. After arriving in Iowa he obtained but three winters of schooling, his education being obtained by actual experience. In 1849 he in company with S. S. Blackman and Alex Work went to California, for the purpose of prospecting. He returned in 1852 and began work for his father, remaining with him three years.
In 1867 Mr. Donaldson bought the farm on which he now lives, and all the improvements thereon have been made by im. He was first married to Miss Lucy Martin, December 31, 1856, to whom one child was born, which afterward died. Mrs. Donaldson died in November, 1858, and June 5, 1864, he married Miss Catherine Howe, whose parents were born in Germany and came to America in 1852. He has been a life long Republican and cast his first Presidential vote for Freemont in 1856. He is a man of fine physical appearance, a pleasant conversationalist and well informed on topics of the day.
BIOGRAPHIES