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James A MacDonald

A good introduction to our grandfather, James MacDonald, the

Patriarch of our branch of the MacDonald family tree, is the last few

paragraphs of his obituary printed in the Campbellton Graphic on June

6, 1913.

“The late James A. McDonald was one of the best-known lumbermen around this section.

Born and brought up in the country, he was in lumbering work all his life, raising himself

from one of the small jobbers into the largest operator on the Restigouche and the premier

of all lumbermen. He was a man of high spirit, kindly and generous to a degree, ever ready

with heart and hand to assist the poor and the needy and one whom this town could hardly

spare.”

James MacDonald was born Dec. 29, 1865 in Flatlands, NB and died June 4, 1913 in

Campbellton. He started off as a young man in the logging business and, as stated above, he

built up a very large operation having as many as 200 teams of horses in the woods on an

average winter. Since lumbering was a seasonal operation, all of the horses were brought to

Campbellton at the end of the season and were kept in 3 different locations in the town. The main stable was behind what is now known as the MacDonald block. The block with the following streets forming the

perimeter, Minto, Lansdowne, O’Leary and Duke had very few homes on it other than the White House and the duplex

on O’Leary. There were about 100 horses kept there. The other 100 horses were split equally between the Duncan

farm (the most western farm that made up Campbellton) and Sommers, which was the farm east of William Street.

Much has been written about the responsibilities of a ‘jobber’ who took on the task of

hiring a crew of men to cut timber in the Restigouche River basin during the winter months

and get it to the sawmills in the spring. A jobber had to build camps to house and feed the

men and to provide all provisions, equipment and horses for the operations – see the

document ‘Logging on the Restigouche’.

Jim MacDonald was a well-known jobber with probably the biggest operations on the

Restigouche. When Jim was active, there were two large sawmills near Campbellton – one at the present site of the mill in Atholville and the other at Cross Point. Each mill employed over 1000 men and Jim supplied logs to either one or both of the mills.

Actually it was Jim’s ingenuity that devised the scheme of organizing the ‘Corporation Drive’,

the largest drive in the Maritime Provinces where all the logs cut in the Restigouche River

basin during the winter were released to be driven down the main River to the sawmills in

Campbellton area. As boss of the Corporation drive, he and his men were trusted to take over

from all the jobbers after their logs were delivered to the main Restigouche River. More is

said about the Corporation drive in the document titled “Logging on the Restigouche”.

James had a fishing cabin on the Matapedia River. It was located about a mile upstream from

the Matapedia Hotel. It disappeared during the 1960’s, about 50 years after his death. Most

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likely a large tree fell on it and from what a grandson remembers it was a very small cottage,

just 2 rooms, a bedroom and a combination living room, eating area and kitchen. There was

no bathroom, of course.

As was the custom, when they finished Grade 8 in school, Jim’s two older sons – Cliff

and Wesley – worked with their father in the woods helping him to run their large operations.

The boys would be about 13 or 14 when they started and would know the operations well

when their father died suddenly in 1913. At that time the lumbering was being carried out at

the ‘Forks of Kedgwick’. The picture

on the right shows some of the

buildings at what was known as the

‘depot’ where supplies were kept at the

Forks.

The supplies for the lumber

camps at the Forks would have come

by train – the old INR to Kedgwick -

and then carted down to the river,

loaded onto scows and taken over to

the Forks, only 5 or 6 miles away. During the winter months supplies would be brought in by

Portagers – probably a steady stream of them - and then of course someone in the camp

would occasionally shoot a moose for fresh meat.

James married Frances Jane Wyers [born Dec.19, 1871] on April 8, 1888 when she

was just 16 and he was 22. They had 12 children, 3 girls and 9 boys:

1. James Clifford

2. Stella Marian

3. John Wesley

4. Bertha Myrtle,

5. W. Scott

6. Nita Helen

7. Fred Roberts

8. Ronald Wyers

9. George Whitfield

10. Howard Hugh

11. Robert Burns

12. Robert Bruce

An account of each of the children is given in a separate document.

The picture at the top is of James MacDonald when he was about 46 or 47. With his

family all around him he died at the age of 48 of a bleeding ulcer. The obituary that appeared

in the local newspaper gives some details. It is scanned in below but the copy is difficult to

read and so it has been transcribed.

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Transcription of the obituary. In

Campbellton paper dated June 6, 1913.

CAMPBELLTON LOSES ONE OF HER

MOST RESPECTED CITIZENS

Death of Mr. James A. McDonald, the Well

Known Lumber Operator Causes Intense

Sorrow in Town

’The moving finger of time writes and

having writ, moves on’

Campbellton is today mourning the loss of

one of her best known and most respected

citizens, James A MacDonald, who died

Wednesday morning shortly after five

o’clock at the early age of 48 years. Mr.

McDonald had been ailing for nearly three

weeks with stomach troubles, and latterly

his condition gave his family and friends

grave anxiety. Cancer of the stomach was

feared and after consultation with the

medical men here, a specialist, Dr. Martin

was hurriedly called from Montreal who

arrived here Monday. Mr. McDonald’s

condition was not hidden from his friends.

The verdict of the Montreal man was

eagerly waited for grave fears were

entertained for his recovery. Hoping against

hope however, they clung to the knowledge that he had a fighting chance, and brethren of the

McDonald fraternity, of which he was a member, were constantly in attendance.

Notwithstanding all that skill and attention could do, Mr. McDonald gradually became

weaker and Wednesday following a hemorrhage he quietly passed away, having borne his

suffering with calm and resigned patience.

He leaves a wife and ten children, many of them young, eight sons, Clifford, Wesley, Ronald,

George, Burns, Bruce and Fred [Howard mistakenly omitted] and two daughters, Stella and Nita

to whom the sympathy of the entire community is rendered.

The deceased was a member of various societies who will attend at the funeral today but the

body will be taken charge of by the local lodge of Freemasons and buried with Masonic

ritual.

There follows a whole paragraph about flowers and those who gave them and then continues.

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The late James A. McDonald was one of the best known lumbermen around this section.

Born and brought up in the country, he was in lumbering work all his life, raising himself

from one of the small jobbers into the largest operator on the Restigouche and the premier of

all lumbermen.

He was a man of high spirit, kindly and generous to a degree, ever ready with heart and hand

to assist the poor and the needy and one whom this town could hardly spare. A true estimate

of the character of the man can easily be obtained from the sorrow expressed by the large

number of employees who could always look up to him. A man whose word was his bond

and whose every action was for the good of the community which ever accorded him the

highest respect. Let us call to remembrance the great and the good.