Mendocino County Biographies

Alexander C. McDonald (deceased)

Transcribed by: Pat Howard

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
	Whose portrait appears in this history was 
born in New Jersey, October 5, 1814. When he was but a child his father died. 
Alexander then lived during his boyhood with his grandfather, Jacob DeGroot, 
after which he went to New York and engaged in merchandising. He came to 
California in the year 1847, as Sergeant-Major in Col. Stevenson�s New York 
Regiment, and served during the Mexican war; was honorably discharged in San 
Francisco. He then located at Sonoma, where he engaged in merchandising, and 
while living there married Mrs. Anna Scott nee Anna Smith on the 7th of April, 
1850. In the fall of 1859 he moved to Mendocino county and bought the property 
now known as the �Mountain House,� located about eight miles from Cloverdale on 
the road leading to Ukiah City, where he kept public house, also raised cattle 
and sheep, until his death, which was April 4, 1880. Mrs. Anna McDonald was born 
in Missouri on the 1st day of April, 1833, and died at the �Mountain House� 
February 15, 1877, leaving eight children as follows: Mary H., born 1851; Alice, 
born 1853; George H., born 1855; Richard, born 1858; James A., born 1864; 
Lillian, born 1866; Flora, born 1868; Anna, born 1871.
 
SOURCE: History of Mendocino County, California - San Francisco, Cal. Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1880 Pp. 513


ALEXANDER C. McDONALD.� Prior to the discovery of gold in 
California and before the even greater riches of the state in other resources 
had been discovered, the exigencies of war brought to this part of the world 
a young sergeant-major in the New York regiment of Colonel Stevenson. 
This gallant soldier, whose services in the Mexican war are memorialized in 
the records of his country, was an easterner by birth and of Scotch and Dutch 
descent, the former lineage appearing in the family patronymic of ^McDonald, 
while the name of his maternal grandfather, Jacob DeGroot, shows the Hol- 
lander extraction. Born in New Jersey October 5, 1814, it was this grand- 
father who reared Alexander C. McDonald when the death of the father left 
him an orphan in very early life. Upon starting out in the world for himself 
he went to New York City, where later he acquired business interests of con- 
siderable importance. Without doubt all of his life would have been passed 
in the east had it not been for the outbreak of the Mexican war, which fired 
his patriotic devotion to country and led him to enlist in the service of his 
native land. When the regiment was ordered to the southwest he accom- 
panied them in the long marches and took part with them in the trying 
campaigns, finally receiving an honorable discharge in San Francisco. Mean- 
while he had observed conditions in the west very closely. The possibilities 
of the country attracted him. Its remoteness and isolation from the friends of 
his youth did not daunt his high courage, but on the other hand appealed 
to his love of adventure and his interest in the development of a frontier 
community. 

The development of a mercantile business at Sonoma occupied the atten- 
lion of the young war veteran during his first years in California. It was in 
that town, April 7. 1850, that he was united in marriage with Mrs. Anna 
(Smith) Scott, who was born in Missouri April 1, 1833, and died in Mendo- 
cino county February 15. 1877. Eight children were born of their union. 
The eldest, Mary, is the wife of M. H. Peck, of Cloverdale. Mrs. Alice P. 
Byron, the mother of two children, also makes Cloverdale her home. George 
H., now of Pendleton, Ore., married Lydia Walker and they are the parents 
of ten children. Richard and James A. are residents of Cloverdale. Mrs. Lil- 
lian White, of Fort Bragg, is the mother of two children, and Flora, Mrs. 
G. T. Cooper, of Nevada, also has two children. Anna is the wife of W. H. 
Cooper, of Nevada, and the mother of one child. It is Mrs. White, of Fort 
Bragg, who furnishes these facts in regard to the life of her honored father, 
who from his arrival in Mendocino county during the fall of 1859 until his 
death, April 4, 1880, was intimately identified with business and ranching 
interests of the county and was widely known as the proprietor of the Moun- 
tain house, eight miles from Cloverdale on the Ukiah road, and also as the 
owner of the Mountain House ranch and the Creamer ranch, both devoted 
to the raising of cattle and sheep. 

History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In 
One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper