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This article is about Donald McDonald "Old Mac" an Indian Trader

"The American fur traders, many of whom were descended from respectable New England families, did not consider their dignity lessened by forming marital alliances with the tribe, and the Ojibway women were of so much service to their husbands, they so easily assimilated themselves to their modes of life, and their affections were so strong, and their conduct so beyond reproach, that there alliances, generally first formed by the traders for present convenience, became cemented by the strongest mutual affection. They kindly cherished their Indian wives, and for their stakes, as well as for the stake of the children whom they begat, these traders were eventually induced to pass their lifetime in the Ojibway country. They soon forgot the money-making mania which first brought them into the country, and gradually imbibing the generous and hospitable qualities of the Indians, lived only to enjoy the present. They laid up no treasure for the future, and as a general fact, which redounds to the honor of this class of fur traders, they died poor..."

History

1805 Born in Canada and Hudson's Bay Adventurer by Age 15:

Donald McDonald was born in Canada of Scottish parents in 1803, in about 1790 according to his daughter Mary and a historical account , and 1805 according to the 1850 Minnesota Territorial Census.

"At the age of 15 he left Canada with Captain Miles Montgomery, and went to Hudson's Bay where he traveled, for many years, with the American Fur Company throughout the Northwest."

1828 - 1836 First Five Children Were Born:

"He married an Ojibway maiden, whose father, also, had been a trader for the Hudson Bay Company a French Canadian named Comptois. Mrs Comptois was of the band of Gull Lake Ojibways a subdivision of the larger band known in treaties as the Mississippi band of Chippewa Indians." According to an 1850 Minnesota census five girls were born: Mary 22, Nancy 20, Elizabeth 18, Catharine 16, Margaret 16 and wife Sareah 37 assumed to be Jereat Comptois according to the 1850 Minnesota Territorial Census.

1839 Built a House and Tavern:

Around 1839 Daniel McDonald built a house and tavern on the east side of the Mississippi on property later known as Half Way House. "The tavern was located halfway between Ft. Snelling and St. Anthony on the east side of the Mississippi, on land known as Desnoyer Park. The first steamboat ever to land in St. Paul, the "Glaucus," stopped at that point and put off 6 barrels of whiskey for Donald MacDonald, being afraid to take the liquor any further up the river, for fear it would be seized and destroyed by the authorities at the Fort." (9)

"He was at one time in the employ of both the Hudson and the American Fur Companies; traveled and traded very extensively throughout the Northwest, and claims to have put up the third house on the east side of the Mississippi on ground now occupied by St. Paul. He then laid claim to the land formerly owned by the late Stephen Denoyer, or better known where the old Half-way House now stands, a few miles outside of the city, on the well known St. Anthony road. He sold this land to Denoyer "for a barrel of whisky and two Indian guns," the said land now being worth not less than $500,000! Poor Mac. I did not know him personally, but learn he was a brawny Scotchman large family of children, stepped across the Stygian river to continue again his travels in another world."

Stephen Desnoyer was the first permanent settler in the Midway. He came in the spring of 1843 and located on the bank of the river in Rosetown near the site of the present Town and Country club house. The same year he built on St. Anthony road. Above the door was the sign, “Desnoyer's Halfway House 1843.” It stood on the south side of the road between the present Raymond and Glendale avenues under the wide-spreading limbs of an elm tree that remains to mark the site of this once celebrated resort. Donald McDonald had previously occupied the claim but in 1840 was driven out with the other Midway pioneers. His rights were transferred to Desnoyer for a “barrel of whisky and two Indian guns.”

"Many upstate pioneers of 50 years' or more residence remember Donald McDonald, "Old Mac." A sturdy little Scotch-French Canadian, who drifted into the Northern Minnesota region from the Hudson Bay Company's territory in Canada. He married an Ojibway maiden, whose father, also, had been a trader for the Hudson Bay Company a French Canadian named Comptois. Mrs Comptois was of the band of Gull Lake Ojibways a subdivision of the larger band known in treaties as the Mississippi band of Chippewa Indians. "Old Mac" is best associated in memory with an ancient "plug hat" which, those who knew him well declare, was of an age equal to his own... The McDonald family in early days lived in old Crow Wing, a trading post of the American Fur Company. However, "Mac" broke away from corporation domination and became an independent trader in a small way."

1840 Liquor Dealer and Oxcart Outfitter:

The census of 1840 lists one resident, Donald McDonald, a liquor dealer. William Aitkin's store was the voting place in 1842 and he had at least one employee, John H. Fairbanks. Two years later, Aitkin is said to have left and the store was taken over by McDonald. The following year, Philip Beaupre who worked for McDonald brought a train of oxcarts to Old Crow Wing. The oxcarts went over the Red River Trail from Fort Gary through Crow Wing and down to St. Paul. When the fur trade declined Crow Wing became an outfitting center for the oxcart trains which crossed the Mississippi at the junction of the Crow Wing River and the Mississippi. In 1846 a partnership was formed by McDonald, Morrison and Henry M. Rice and the three established a store. Rice later became a U.S. Senator.

1844 Found Trading with the Indians and his Two Sons Were Born:

"Crow Wing county, located in north central Minnesota, ... Philip Beaupre, now residing near Sauk Rapids, came from Fort Garry, on the Red River to Crow Wing, in spring of 1844. When he came to this place he found Allen Morrison and Donald McDonald trading with the Indians..."(13) "Note: Allen Morrison is found residing near the McDonald's in the 1850 Census."(14) "... Hon. Allen Morrison of Crow Wing, who has been for upwards of thirty years (A.D. 1852) a trader among the Ojibways, and who is the grandson of Waddon, whose murder led to the formation of the Northwest (Fur) Company." (15)

According to the 1850 Minnesota census John was born in 1844 and William in 1848.

1849 Started a Trading Post on Ottertail Lake:

"I suppose that the first thing of interest about a town is the origin of its name. Before there were roads in the wilderness area, the best method of transportation was by water; and as the Leaf Lakes drain towards the Gulf of Mexico and Ottertail Lake toward Hudson Bay by way of the Red River of the North. the early explorer would portage from Leaf Lake to Portage Lake to Donald Lake to Pelican Bay on Otter Tail Lake and be on his way through Canada to Hudson Bay. The first explorers through this area about 1750 were a Frenchman and an Englishman. They met with a band of Indians on the shore of "Lac de la Queue de la Outer", which translates roughly to the Lake of the Otters Tail. This is on record in the archives of Congress, and I would think that it was called that for many years before that as the name derives from the sand bar shaped like an otter's tail where the Otter Tail River enters Otter Tail Lake and now over two centuries later the otters tail sand bar is still there.

About 1849 a fur trader, Donald McDonald, started a trading post on the east shore of Otter Tail Lake and as a matter of course called it Ottertail City. He was still trading with the Indians in the 1880's, when he was 90 years old. He had an Indian wife, who was said to be an Indian princess; and she was known to the early settlers as Aunt Genevieve and was much loved by all, as she was always ready to help in times of need. Many of the early settler's children, as well as Indian children, were brought into this world with the help of this noble Indian lady. But all was not so noble, as I have an account of a court trial where "Old McDonald" was tried for selling "fire water to the Indians."

1854 Built a Log-house on the northeast shore of Detroit Lake:

"In 1854, Donald McDonald, of Otter Tail Lake, Built a log-house on the northeast shore of Detroit Lake, on the little prairie a few rods west of where the Pelican River enters the lake. After trading there with the Indians about two years he returned to Otter Tail." "John Rock, a Pine Point Indian, who was born at Floyd Lake in Detroit Township in 1844, says: McDonald built his store at Detroit Lake on the little prairie, a little west of the Pelican River inlet when he was ten years old. He thinks he traded there about two years."

"Ottertailians love telling the story of how our village got its name. Long before there were roads in this area, the best method of travel was by water. Two of these water highways are the Leaf Lake chain, which drains south to the Gulf of Mexico, and Ottertail Lake, which drains north to Hudson Bay. Because of its strategic position, Native Americans and early explorers often held meetings on the shores of "La Queue de Loutre," so named because of the long sand bar separating the lake from the river, which looked like - and still looks like (Two centuries later) - an otter's tail. In the Mid-1800's Donald McDonald started a trading post on the east shore of Lake Ottertail, which he called Ottertail City."

1857 Land Owner on the Otter Tail River:

On the 27th of May, 1857, the survey of a townsite was made at the third crossing of the Otter Tail River, where the village of Frazee now stands, and the plat was recorded at St. Cloud, as Becker County was at that time attached to Sterns County for recording purposes. It was claimed that the land covered by this townsite was held by half-breed script, but the title was never perfected. The script was undoubtedly "lifted" some time afterward and other land taken with it, and this land reverted back to the U. S. government... The townsite is bounded and described as follows: "Commencing at an oak tree at the southwest corner of said townsite, and running thence north, crossing the Otter Tail River and Detroit Lake, five thousand two hundred and eighty feet, thence running east, crossing the Otter Tail River, two thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight feet, thence running south five thousand two hundred and eighty feet, thence west two thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight feet to the place of beginning." The names of the proprietors were A. P. Aspinwall, F. Campbell, Donald McDonald, George McDougal and D. Shoff.(21)

1859 Assisted Northup Expedition at Otter Tail City:

The Anson Northup expedition with the machinery of the old North Star steamboat passed over this same route. The North Star was dismantled at the mouth of Gull River, on the Mississippi and from there it was all hauled on sleds to the Red River, opposite the mouth of the Sheyenne, where it empties into the Red River. I left St. Paul on February 26th, 1859, and arrived at Sauk Rapids on the 28th, with a span of horses and wagon. There was no snow on the ground so far, but I was here informed that I could go no further than Platt River with a wagon, so I bought a light sled and loaded my wagon onto it. We stopped at Luther's, about half way between Platt River and Swan River than night, where I left my wagon, and loaded our truck onto the sled and made Crow Wing the following night. We arrived at Otter Tail City on the fourth or fifth of March and stopped with old McDonald where we found a part of the Northup expedition. Another part of the expedition had gone ahead to build a bridge across the Otter Tail River at one of the upper crossings, as the river was not frozen over. The snow was deep, some sixteen or eighteen inches. The bridge was built for the boiler and other heavy machinery. Arriving in the woods that surround Detroit Lake on the southeast side we struck the farthest advanced camp where some of the lightest of the freight had been hauled to. Instead of following the old trail around Detroit Lake, we crossed it on the ice straight over to a point of prairie, probably a little less than a mile east of where the court house now stands. There was a log cabin there, a claim shanty of old McDonald's, where I suppose he had traded with the Indians at intervals, but no one was there at the time when we arrived. (22)

Described in the 1860 Ottertail County Census is "Donald McDONALD, age 61; trader; real estate, $500; personal, $500; born in Lower Canada His wife, Genevieve, age 50; mixed blood; born in Minnesota. Their children, Peggy age 15, John 13, William 10; all born in Minnesota." Notice that his wife's name is different than the 1850 census and Peggy a new child was included.

1870 Resided by Otter Tail Lake Buying Furs from the Indians:

On the 1870 Minnesota census only William and John are living at 796 Otter Tail Lake Minnesota with Donald and a Janjava. Could Janjava be the Jareat found in the 1850 census and both the phonetic interpretation of the census taker for the name Genevieve found in the 1870 Otter Tail Census?

"Otter Tail City was then a thriving village. Old Donald McDonald a relic of the Hudson Bay Company was there, still buying furs of the Indians. He was a grotesque looking figure, then nearly eighty years of age, and dressed in a costume half nabob and half Indian, with a high fur hat, military coat, leggings and moccasins he was suggestive of Washington Irving's high military officer at the top, and ragged Indian at the bottom."(26) - Nabob is defined as "A man of wealth or prominence."

Mrs. Duncan McDougal, who lives on the White Earth Reservation a little north of the village of Richwood says: "My father, Donald McDonald, was born in Canada about the year 1790. He came to Otter Tail Lake about the year 1850 or 1851 as near as I can remember, and died at White Earth in 1890, and was about 100 years old as near as I can tell. I was born at Sandy Lake in 1831. My father had a store at Detroit Lake and traded with he Indians for about one year. I was not there with him, but as near as I can remember and find out, it was near where Detroit connects with some other lake. I was not married at the time so it must, I think, be more than fifty years ago. The U. S. land office was opened at Otter Tail Lake in 1859 and was moved to St. Cloud in 1861, at the beginning of the Sioux outbreak. Wm. Sawyer, of Ohio, was the receiver, Major J. B. Clitheral, of Alabama, was the first register, T. Mills the second, and Oscar Taylor the third register." - Mrs. Mary McDougal Foster.

1878 Provided Historical Reference:

"A, J. Underwood in one of his descriptive articles of Otter Tail County told how in 1878, Donald McDonald, the Otter Tail Lake fur trader, pointed out to him the location of the Dickson Trading Post on the north shore of Leaf Lake. At that time there was some chimney stacks fairly well preserved, but covered by vegetation and earth. McDonald believed the post had been established as early as 1778. It was apparently abandoned during the war with the British in 1812. McDonald who knew Colonel Dixon at Montreal… Donald McDonald and his Indian family remained with the Pembina Pillager Chippewa, who had settled on the site of what is now Pleasure Park on Otter Tail Lake. They remained there, and hunted north to Height of Land Lake where the Otter Tail river rises, until following an Indian uprising and the burning of Leaf City, the Indians were driven back to the White Earth Indian Reservation.