San Francisco County
Biographies
JOHN ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL MACDONALD
JOHN ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL MACDONALD, a master plumber and
manufacturer of tinware, of Oakland, was born
February 6, 1849, a son of Donald and Jane (Thomson) Macdonald. His father was
born in Scotland, near Aberfeldy, in 1808, and his
mother about 1817, at Milnathart, Scotland; both are
still living. His grandfather Thomson was over eighty years of age at his
death. His father, through the greater part of his life, has been a hotelkeeper
at Blair Athole. Of their family of eleven children,
five are living; the oldest son died in 1886, at the age of forty-three years;
Thomas Thomson Macdonald is bookkeeper for Hamilton & Miller, proprietors
of a planning mill in San Francisco; he came to California about 1885 and is
now aged twenty-six or twenty-seven; the other three are still in the old
country.
Mr.
Macdonald, whose name heads this biographical outline, arrived in New York at
the age of fifteen years, in September, 1864, in company with his uncle, Peter
Thomson, and remained at Cooperstown some six months. He arrived in California
April 16, 1865 coming from New York by way of Panama. The first two or three
years he spent in his uncle Thomson’s store in San
Francisco, selling gents’ furnishing goods. Then he went to learn the plumber’s
trade of Robert Dalziel (now Dalziel
& Moller) of Oakland, and remained with him four
years as apprentice and journeyman. After that he continued two or three years
longer as journeyman for other parties, and then entered business on his own
account, in July, 1875, locating on the east side of Broadway between
Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets. A year afterward he moved to his present
place above Seventeenth street, the lot extending back
to Telegraph avenue and his establishment having two fronts. Here he erected a
shop, to which he has made additions from time to time. In 1885 he sold out his
business, rented his factory and followed farming two years in Tulare county, raising mostly wheat and stock. Finding, then, that
his old business was more profitable and congenial, he returned in 1887 to
resume it at the old stand, where he has since prospered.
In
politics he has taken a keen interest for many years. He was elected to the
City Council, on the Citizen’s ticket, in March, 1889, and took his seat April
1 for two years. He favors public improvements, more especially if provided for
by direct taxation, believing that the yearly interest on a large issue of
bonds would itself make a sufficient improvement fund. As questions come up he
gives them careful consideration and acts in accordance with his convictions of
the tendency toward good municipal government. In 1869 he was a member of the
old Oakland Guard, as a private; was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant
of Company A, and was in command when the company was merged into the Fifth
Infantry Battalion in 1879. He again joined Company A, and was promoted to
Sergeant and First Lieutenant. He resigned and soon afterward joined the
Oakland Light Cavalry, and remained with it two years. After entering
agriculture he resigned his place there and was elected an honorary member. He
was also an active member of the Volunteer Fire Department before it became a
paid institution, belonging to a hook and ladder company.
Mr.
Macdonald was married in Oakland, August 25, 1875, to Miss Mary A. Cavasso, a native of California and of French parentage,
and they have three children: Donald Peter Thomson Macdonald, born June 6,
1876; Esther Jane, February 2, 1878; and William Isidore,
January 2, 1880,--all natives of Oakland. Mrs. Macdonald was born in Mariposa,
California, August 25, 1854, a daughter of Isidore Cavasso. Her mother, whose maiden name was Esther
Guillaume, was a native of Paris, France, and died in Oakland, in 1875, aged fifty-one. The father survived until December, 1889, aged
sixty-five. He was a native of Nice, and of Italian descent. Mr. Macdonald is a
member of Oakland Lodge, No. 188. F. & A. M., and Oakland
Lodge, No. 35, A. O. U. W.
Transcribed
by Elaine Sturdevant.
Source: "The
© 2006 Elaine Sturdevant.