Logan County, West Virginia         Biography of the MCDONALD FAMILY

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 550-551
Logan

MCDONALD FAMILY. Among the pioneer families in the
southern part of the state perhaps no one group has shown
greater unity in purpose and enterprise than the McDonalds
of Logan County. As the name indicates, they are of
Scotch ancestry, and they have manifested the Scotch traits
of thrift and forehanded judgment in holding on to and
developing lands and other interests that came to them
by inheritance. Of the present generation two of the
prominent members are Bruce McDonald, of Logan, and
Millard McDonald, of Mallory, and their father, William
Wallace McDonald, is also a prominent figure in the article
that follows.

It was before the Revolutionary war that the first mem-
bers of this family appeared in this region of Virginia.
They settled on Tom's Creek in Montgomery County. The
ancestor of the family now under consideration was Edward
McDonald, who settled and purchased a large tract on
Clear Fork of Guyan in that part of Virginia now Wyom-
ing County, West Virginia.  He located there about
1787, purchased part of the Gordon and Cloyd survey on
Huff's Creek, and these lands are still in the possession of
the McDonald family. Edward McDonald developed a
farm and was extensively engaged in the live stock busi-
ness in that pioneer epoch. All the McDonalds of the
present have been hard workers.

Joseph McDonald, a son of Edward, lived to the age of
eighty years. He was the father of William Wallace Mc-
Donald, who was born at the old home place in Wyoming
County, April 1, 1817. In 1844 he moved to the month
of Huff's Creek, where he first purchased a farm and later
acquired 14,000 acres of land, still retained by his descen-
dants and now owned by the W. W. McDonald Land
Company, which was incorporated in 1913 to handle this
and other property interests. Individual members of the
family have added large tracts to this original holding.
A large part of these lands were underlaid with valuable
deposits of coal, and some of the principal coal operations
in this part of state are on the McDonald property.
These include the Standard Island Creek operations at
Taplin, the Logan Mining Company's operations at Earl-
ing, the Mallory Coal Company on and at the mouth of
Huff's Creek, the Logan-Elkhorn Coal Corporation, the
Long-Flame Coal Company.

William Wallace McDonald died at his home place on
Huff's Creek, August 15, 1902. He had to teach himself,
but was thoroughly well educated and a student and a
thinker all his life. As a young man taught a number of
schools in Wyoming County. His brother Isaac had in-
herited the old homestead, and while William Wallace had
some financial assistance from his father, he was, generally
speaking, the architect of his own destiny. He went in
for high grade live stock, and at one time owned a fine
herd of Durham cattle. He was a liberal supporter of
the Methodist Church, and his home was always open to
the Methodist ministers.  He was a democrat, was in
sympathy with the South at the time of the Civil war, and
at one time was taken prisoner by Northern troops, but
soon released.

The first wife of William Wallace McDonald was
Minerva Dingess, a sister of John and Guy Dingess. Guy
Dingess lived below Logan in Guyan Valley. By the first
marriage there were two children. Charles L., died at
the old home in 1888, at the age of forty-one. His sister,
Mary A., lives with her son. Warren Perry, and is the
widow of Oliver Perry, who died in 1895.

The second wife of William Wallace McDonald was
Parthena Scaggs. She was born in Montgomery County,
and died at the old home in 1873. She was the mother of
the following children: Millard, who is mentioned in later
paragraphs; Bruce; Bilton, who is unmarried, lives at
Logan and is president of the W. W. McDonald Land
Company; Wayne, born in 1864, who was a merchant and
timber man and died in 1900; Ann Brook, born in 1866,
died in California in 1908, and was the wife of C. M.
Turley, of Boone County, now deceased; Miriam Alice,
born in 1868, is the wife of John Robinson, a farmer of
Cambria, Virginia; Marshall, born in 1872, died in 1901.

Bruce McDonald, the second son, was born at the mouth
of Huff's Creek, February 8, 1860. He and his brother
Bilton attended the free schools of their neighborhood, and
after getting all the education they could there they each
taught one term of school. Then, in quest of further educa-
tion, they walked overland to Athens, Mercer County,
where they attended a term of school at Old Concord
Church, a school taught by Captain French, and out of
which has since been developed the Concord State Normal.
After the close of the term they walked home and taught
another term of school at a salary of $18 a month. Fol-
lowing this they left home to attend school again, and this
time they traveled by rafts down the Guyan River to its
mouth, went by train to Hinton and thence walked to the
Concord School. After the second term at Concord the
brothers continued teaching for several years. In the fall
of 1885 Bruce and Bilton entered the National Normal
University at Lebanon, Ohio, and remained there at their
studies for about one year. In 1887 Bilton was elected
superintendent of schools for Logan County, but on ac-
count of ill health was unable to fill out the term and his
brother Bruce took his place. Many people in this section
of West Virginia recall Bruce McDonald as a capable
teacher in various localities. At one time he taught in the
Town of Logan. He and Martin Jones were teachers of the
two-room school conducted in a frame building that stood
on the present site of the splendid high school at Logan.
Bruce McDonald's first official position was as a member
of the school board in the Tridelphia District.

Later, in 1904, he was elected a member of the Legisla-
ture, and served until 1908, and was a member of the com-
mittees on mines and mining and education. He was a
commissioner of the County Court from 1912 to 1919, and
the last six years president of the court. For six years he
was associated in partnership with his brother Millard in
the mercantile business at the mouth of Huff's Creek.
They dealt in a large range of commodities, including
ginseng and timber, which they rafted down the river to
market. On leaving Huff's Creek Buce McDonald moved
to Taplin, where he lived and continued in business tor
fifteen years. He brought his goods up the Guyan Eiver
on a push boat, and at the same time sent large quantities
of timber down the stream by rafts.

Bruce McDonald became a resident of the City of
Logan in 1912. He and the other heirs in 1913 incor-
porated the 14,000-acre estate of their father as the W. W.
McDonald Land Company, Incorporated, of which Bilton is
president, Bruce, vice president, and S. E. McDonald, a
son of Millard, secretary and treasurer. Bruce McDonald
is one of the organizers and is vice president of the
Guyan Valley Bank, and is a member of the board of
directors of the First National Bank. He is a steward and
trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and has helped to build several churches. Fraternally he
is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge and Chapter, West
Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheel-
ing, and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Charleston. He also belongs to the Elks and is a demo-
crat. Mr. McDonald is unmarried.

Millard McDonald, the oldest son of his father's second
marriage, acquired his education in the home schools and as
a young man he married Vicia Buchanan, daughter of
John Buchanan. She was born near Matewan on Big
Sandy. They have four living children: S. Elmer, who
is secretary of the W. W. McDonald Land Company, is a
director of the First National Bank of Logan and presi-
dent of the Merchants and Miners Bank; Lillie May, wife
of H. H. Oakley, who is associated with the Guyan Supply
Company of Logan; Nora, wife of W. D. Phipps, of the
Logan Mercantile Company; and Mabel, wife of Dr. C. B.
Morris, a dentist of Stollings in Logan County.

Millard McDonald and wife are Methodists, and he is a
member of the board of stewards in his home church and,
like his father and brother, has assisted actively in church
building. Millard McDonald was born in 1858. For four
years he was a merchant on Huff's Creek and for many
years has continued his operations as a stock dealer.