The Life of Samuel McDonald
(1839 - 1898)

Introduction

My father was Charles Gordon MacDonald. He was born in Niagara Falls, Ont. on 27 Sept. 1914. His father was William Calvert McDonald., born in Stamford Twp., Ont. on 2 Aug 1880. His father (my great-grandfather) was unknown to me before I began my family search project. It turned out that this great-grandfather was Samuel McDonald, a Protestant shoemaker from Ireland, born in 1839. Below is a summary of his life. It's not pretty. A gedcom of his descendants can be downloaded from this link.

Arrival

Samuel was born in Ireland in 1839. He was the son of Joseph McDonald and June Warrick. He became a first generation Irish immigrant to Canada. The date and place of his arrival in Canada are not known.

He was not in Stamford censuses of 1851 or 1861. However, he married in Stamford Twp, in 1863/4 so he must have arrived here in the Niagara area in 1862/1863.

1863 Samuel married Eliza Jane Johnston of Stamford Twp. in 1863/4. Jane was the only daughter of Robert and Lavinia Johnston of Stamford Twp. Robert, a distiller, was born in Scotland in 1805. Lavinia's maiden name was Waite. She was born in New York state in 1818.

1865 Samuel and Jane's first son, Joseph, was born 19 July 1865. Joseph McDonald married Priscilla Marsh of Stamford. They divorced in Oregon after having two children (John b. 1887, Dora Lovinia b. 1891). After the divorce, in 1893, Priscilla and the children returned to Stamford. Joseph remarried and had two more children in Oregon: a daughter, Effie A. McDonald born in 1893 and a son, Shirley William McDonald born 19 Jun 1895.

1866 Samuel and Jane's second son, John, was born in 1866. John was killed in an accident while working in a railroad yard in Hagersville, Ont. in 1883 at age 17.

1871 Samuel was listed as a shoemaker in Stamford in the 1871 census. He was illiterate and signed several documents over the years with his mark, an "X".

1878 Eliza Jane McDonald died 21 Mar 1878 leaving Samuel with two boys ages 12 and 13 and a few town lots purchased with his wife's inheritance after her father's death. Jane was buried in the Presbyterian Church cemetery in Stamford. The McDonald burial plot has the largest memorial stone in the cemetery. The stone is now mostly unreadable but it contains several graves. When the stone was still partly readable, there were three burials listed: Jane's, son John's and a baby who was the child of  one Alexander McDonald. A full list of burials in the plot has been sought through Church sources to no avail.

Within six months, on 10 Sept  1878, Samuel married Margaret Calvert, a 28 year old spinster. Margaret was the second daughter of farmer James Calvert and Jane Hughes of Stamford. James had died 30 Sept 1869 leaving his only son William Calvert to maintain his mother, Jane, and two sisters, Anna and Margaret, on the family farm. Upon her marriage to Samuel McDonald, Margaret moved off the farm and into the McDonald home in Stamford.

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