Los
Angeles County
Biographies
J. WISEMAN MacDONALD
Throughout the period of his
connection with the legal profession, covering more than forty years, J.
Wiseman Macdonald has practiced continuously in Los Angeles, achieving marked
success in the field of corporation law, and has also been active in civic,
philanthropic and church work. Of Scotch
and English ancestry, he was born in Mazomanie, Dane County, Wisconsin, January
17, 1866, and is a son of Allan and Eleanor (Wiseman) Macdonald. Born in Scotland in 1827, the father was a
member of a noted clan whose representatives were lords of the Scotch
highlands, the Macdonald’s of Clanranald ranking with
the noblest families of that country.
They espoused the Stuart cause and many of them saw active service
during the Jacobite wars between 1715 and 1745.
In 1854 when a young man of
twenty-seven, Allan Macdonald came to the United States and located in
Wisconsin with the intention of following agricultural pursuits. He acquired large tracts of land and engaged
in farming on an extensive scale until the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861 he gave proof of his loyalty to the
land of his adoption by enlisting in the Seventeenth Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry, of which he was commissioned a first lieutenant, and participated in
a number of the outstanding battles of the war.
The exposure and hardships of military life undermined his health and
were the direct cause of his death on March 8, 1869. Afterward his widow returned with her
children to England, her native country, and there spent the remainder of her
life, passing away in 1891.
Thus it was that J. Wiseman
Macdonald grew to manhood in England and obtained an education in that country. He attended the Grant School, conducted at Burnley, Lancashire, by W. M. Grant, one of England’s best
known educators. Leaving there after the
death of his mother, Mr. Macdonald came to California and in 1891 took up his
abode in Los Angeles. Meanwhile he had
studied law and in 1892 was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of
California. A lawyer by instinct as well
as training, he soon became well established in his profession and in recognition
of his legal learning was chosen lecturer on corporation law in the law school
of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, a post which he filled
with distinction for several years. To
this branch of jurisprudence he has devoted intensive study, acquiring the
knowledge and experience which have made him an acknowledged authority on the
subject of corporation law. He occupies
a suite of offices in the Higgins Building and has charge of the legal
interests of a number of large business organizations.
In San Francisco on June 23, 1902,
Mr. Macdonald was married to Miss Jane Boland, who died in 1919. She had become the mother of three
children: Allan, who was born in 1904
and died in 1932; Eleanor, born in 1906; and J. Wiseman, Jr., born in 1909.
Outside the strict path of his
profession Mr. Macdonald has also become well known. He is a past president of the civil service
commission of Los Angeles and is ever ready to aid his city to the extent of
his ability and means. The poor and the
needy have found in him a true friend but his charities are known only to the
recipients thereof. In religious belief
he is a Roman Catholic and for years has been president of the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul of the dioceses of Los Angeles and San Diego. He was created a Knight of Pius by Pope Pius
in 1924. He belongs to the Knights of
Columbus, also to the California Club and the Los Angeles Bar Association, and
of the last name was a trustee for two terms and was given the LL. D. degree by
Loyola University. Mr. Macdonald is a
man of broad sympathies, of fine intellect and high ideals—qualities which have
won for him the esteem of his professional associates and the general public as
well.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 57-59, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES