Memorable Manitobans: Duncan D. McDonald (1871-1953)

Duncan D. McDonald Click to enlarge

Merchant, municipal official.

Born at Renfrew, Ontario on 19 May 1871, he came to Dauphin in 1900 where he was a prominent merchant. He was on the Dauphin council for many years and served two terms as Mayor of Dauphin. He was elected Vice-President of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities at the 1914 convention in St. Boniface and in November 1916 at Brandon became its President, serving until 1918.

At the 1922 convention in Portage la Prairie, he undertook the duties of Secretary-Treasurer following John Cardale, a councillor of the Rural Municipality of Blanshard, who had held that office from the Union’s formation at Brandon in 1905. McDonald held this office until 1930. He was described as “an orator of the old school with a scholarly background and a great love for poetry.”

On 9 September 1903, he married Agnes Gibbons (1872-1944) at Renfrew, Ontario and they had a daughter, Agnes Jean McDonald (1907-?, wife of William R. Southworth) and an adopted daughter Nora Muriel Molson (1907-?, wife of M. A. Storey). In 1930, he was involved, along with Dauphin lawyer John N. McFadden, in the founding of Riding Mountain National Park.

For the last several years of his life, he lived with his daughter at Copetown, Ontario. He died on 7 February 1953 while visiting Florida. He was buried in the Dauphin Riverside Cemetery.

See also:

Birth Pangs of a National Park by Charles T. Thomas
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 15, Number 1, Winter 1970

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Riding Mountain National Park Monument (Wasagaming, Riding Mountain National Park)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Riding Mountain Visitor Centre (Wasagaming, Riding Mountain National Park)

Sources:

Ontario birth and marriage registrations, Ancestry.

Birth registration [Agnes Jean McDonald], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

1921 Canada census, Ancestry.

“Mrs. D. D. McDonald dies in hospital on Sunday,” Dauphin Herald, 27 January 1944, page 1.

“The local round,” Dauphin Herald, 27 January 1944, page 5.

Obituary, Western Municipal News, April 1953, pages 105, 117.

We thank Liz Houghtling for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 6 December 2020

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