Mary Elizabeth MacDonald (1832-1914)

Mary Elizabeth, named after both grandmothers, married Donald MacDonald on May 11^th 1855. He was born in 1825 in Achoultiville, Caithness and came to West Earltown with his parents as a young boy.   His mother was Jane Murray “Corrigan” of Rogart whose siblings and parents came to Earltown at various points between 1819 and 1840.   His father was Robert MacDonald of Achoultiville.

Mary and Donald purchased a Sutherland farm¹ on what is now the Peter MacDonald Road overlooking the Matheson Brook valley.  In 1885 Mary was heir to the original Alex MacDonald homestead.  There is no evidence that she and  Donald ever lived there but for many years it was inhabited by their bachelor sons Alex and Robert.

They had a family of 6:

1. Christena who married Dan Henderson of Kavanagh’s Mills and lived in River John.
2. Alexander who lived in the United States in his younger years before taking over is grandfather’s farm at The Falls.   He never married.
3. Robert, never married, lived back and forth between his brothers’ homes and died in 1939.
4. Jane 1864-1934 went to New England as a young woman and married Robert MacCausland
5. Mary Elizabeth 1870-1924, a teacher, was the wife of Alexander S. Douglas, Earltown.
6. Peter 1871-1939 took over the home place.  He married Marion Sutherland “Mighty” of Central Earltown.  They had 7 clever children who went on to succeed in business, teaching, and engineering.

William Baillie MacDonald 1835-1882

William was deeded the north  50 of Alexander MacDonald’s remaining 100 acres.  William established a homestead close to the crossroads at The Falls.  At this point we are uncertain as to whether it was the old house and barn on the Power House Road or the former Stanley Matheson home on the hilltop.

He married a girl three farms upstream.   She was Lillian Sutherland, 1836-1918,  daughter of William Sutherland “Ban” and Marion MacLeod. 

In the early 1870’s, with a growing family consisting of 7 children at that point, they were outgrowing the small acreage.   William acquired a farm at East New Annan opposite the end of the Alex MacDonald Road.²   While there, William took on duties as a sheriff or sheriff deputy with the County of Colchester.  At that time, the main road from Tatamagouche to Truro ran through East New Annan instead of Earltown thus making it a more convenient location for carrying out his duties.

William died on November 25^th 1882. Of his 14 children, 11 were still living and the youngest was only 4 years old. Some of the older boys had already left for the west but there were sufficient children in their mid to late teens to help Lillian keep the farm functioning.  By 1891 the older sons were settled in California and they moved Lillian and the younger children to the west coast.   Lillian spent her last years in Santa Ana, California with her son George.   She is buried in California and William is buried in Murray’s Cemetery at The Falls.

1. Christena   1857-1857
2. Adam 1858-1892     Adam was accidentally killed by a runaway horse in Bardsdale, Ca.
3. John Willliam 1860-1883 was a prospector in Leadville, Colorado
4. Alexander Sutherland 1862-1885 lived in Cripple Creek, Colorado
5. Marion  1864-1864
6. Marion MacLeod 1865-1953 married John Lockhart Card of Kempt Shore, NS.   They married in Newton, Ma., and returned to Hants County where they lived for a number of years before moving to Palo Alto, Ca..   They had six children including Dr. Thomas Card who maintained connections with his relatives in Nova Scotia.
7. Christena 1867-1932 married John Vincent MacNeil of Benacadie Glen, Cape Breton.  Christy met John V. while working in Boston.   He moved to Los Angeles in 1886 and Christy followed him where they married in 1887.   John was a carpenter by trade and established a contracting company that built several of the early commercial buildings in that city.  They were the parents of Father Dan MacNeil who was an early visitor to The Falls exploring his roots.   The MacNeil’s had eleven children and countless descendants in the Western United States.
8. John Sutherland 1869-1944 lived in Santa Ana and was married to Annie Brady and had six children
9. Mary Jane 1871-1940 married John Lebard in Santa Ana and had a family of ten
10. Hugh Murdoch 1874-1913 married Bessie Huff and lived in Santa Ana with a family of six.
11. Danield 1876-1954 married Eva Sangston and lived in Everett, Washington
12. Marguerita Ann 1877-1881
13. George Henry 1879-1966 married Justine Dubois and lived in Ventura, Ca..  They had 3 children

1. _{This farm has been in the Pope family since the 1940’s and it is still inhabited}. ↩︎
2. _{This Alex MacDonald, whose name appears on this road, was not a relative of this family although there may be a distant connection back in Sutherland if one subscribes to the legend that all MacDonalds in Eastern Sutherland descend from a soldier who settled there around 1700.} ↩︎