Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/142

 Mcdonald

MacDONALD

of Ireland and settled in South Carolina before the Revolution. James was graduated from Miami university, A.B., 1853, A.M., 1856; taught school, 1853-54 ; was admitted to the bar at Akron, Ohio, in 1856, and practised in Afton, Iowa, 1857- 58. He was elected county judge of Union coun- ty, Iowa, in 1858 ; superintendent of county schools in 1860 ; was secretary of the U.S. senate committee on the District of Columbia, 1861-62 ; clerk in the treasury department, 1862-65 ; circuit judge of Union county, 1868-70 ; district judge, 1870-73 ; a Republican representative in tlie 43d and 44th congresses, 1873-77 ; commissioner of rail- roads in Iowa, 1879-81, and in 1881 he was ap- pointed U.S. senator by Governor Gear to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel J. Kirk wood, and was elected by the succeed- ing legislature, serving to March 3, 1883. He was state commissioner of railroads, 1883-86, and a member of the interstate commerce commission, 1892-94. He died in Creston, Iowa, Feb. 28, 1894. McDonald, Charles James, governor of Georgia, was born in Charleston, S.C., July 9, 1793. He removed with liis parents to Hancock county, Ga., where he attended the school kept by Dr. N. S. S. Beman (q.v.). He was graduated

from South Carolina college in 1816 ; studied law under Noel Crawford, and began the practice of law in Milledge- vilIe,Ga.,in 1817. He was solicitor-general of the Flint circuit, 1822-25 ; judge of the circuit court, 1825-30 ; a representative in the state legislature, 1830-34 ; state sena- tor, 1834-39, and gov- ernor of Georgia for two terms, 1839-43. He outlined a policy that lessened the financial distress incident to the panic of 1837 ; recom- mended a resumption of the state and county taxes; vetoed the bill reducing the taxes one per oent., and when the legislature was about to ad- journ after rejecting a bill to add twenty-five per cent, to the tax budget and leaving $110,000 of expenses unprovided for, he closed tlie state treasury to all warrants except those for appro- priations actually made and lie held his ground until the tax bill was passed. He was de- feated for re-election in ia50 by Howell Cobb ; was a delegate to the States' Rights convention at Nashville in 1850 and was judge of the supreme court of Georgia, 1857-60. He died in Marietta, Ga., Dec. 16, 1860.

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McDonald, Daniel, educator, was born at Watertown, Conn., June 28, 1785 ; son of James and Huldey (Foot) McDonald ; grandson of Daniel and Sarah (Bostwick) McDonald and great-grandson of Louis McDonald, who was born at Inverness, Scotland, in 1708, and came to America, wliere he became colonel of the colonial militia of New York. Daniel McDonald attended the academy of Cheshire, Conn., where hewasan assistant teacher, 1808-13, and was for a time a student at Middlebury college, Vt. He took orders in the Protestant Episcopal churcli in 1810 and was rector of St. Peter's, Auburn, N. Y., 1813-17 ; of St. Paul's, Waterloo, N.Y., 1822-26; principal of the academy and theological school at Fairfield, N.Y., 1817-21 ; principal of Geneva academy and professor of Latin and Greek lan- guage and antiquities at Geneva (afterward Hobart) college, 1821-30, acting president 1825-26, and professor in the General Theological semin- ary (Geneva branch), 1823-25. He was married, first, Oct. 9, 1807, to Percy Talmage of Cheshire, Conn., and secondly, Oct. 11, 1811, to her sister Phebe Talmage. He was president of the Christian Knowledge society. New York. Colum- bia conferred upon him the degree S.T.D. in 1821. He died in (Jeneva, N.Y., March 25, 1830.

McDonald, David, jurist, was born near Millersburg, Ky., 1803. His parents removed to near Washington, Daviess county, Ind., in 1817, and he received a very limited education at the school of the Rev. Cyrus Mclntire. He became a " New Light " preacher in 1820, was married in 1828 to Mary R. Miller of Lawrence county. 111., and in 1830 left the ministry to engage in the practise of the law, and incidentally in teaching school. He was a representative in the Indiana legislature, 1834; prosecuting attorney for the 7th judicial district, 1834-38 ; circuit judge, 1838-52 ; professor of law in Indiana university, 1841-52 ; and was the defeated Whig candidate for judge of the supreme court in 1852, although recovering 5000 more votes that any other candi- didate on the ticket. He practised law in In- dianapolis, 1853-64 ; became a member of the M.E. church in 1854 ; and declined the presidency of Indiana Asbury university and the honorary degree of LL.D., offered by the Indiana uni- versity in 1856, on the ground that he had not re- ceived a collegiate education. He was judge of the U.S. district court for Indiana, 1864r-69. He was the author of : McDonald's Treatise, and of opinions in " Bissell's Reports of the U.S. Courts for the Seventh Circuit." He died in Indiana- polis, Ind., Aug. 26, 1869.

MacDONALD, James fladison, clergyman, was born in Limerick, Maine, May 22, 1812 ; son of Maj. John MacDonald. an officer of the war of 1812. He matriculated at Qowdoin in the class