MACDONALD 



3557 



MCDOWELL 



MACDONALD, SIR WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER 

 (1831- ), a Canadian capitalist and philan- 

 iropist, who endowed the Macdonald Agri- 

 iltural College and Normal School and also 

 ive liberally to other educational and char- 

 itable institutions. Sir William was born at 

 rlenaladale, Prince Edward Island, and re- 

 jived his schooling at the Charlottetown 

 icademy. In his twenty-third year he left 

 rince Edward Island and removed to Mon- 

 1, where he engaged in business and eventu- 

 lly amassed a large fortune. One of his 

 ?est donations $5,400,000 was to McGill 

 Jniversity, and the endowment for Macdonald 

 Lgricultural College, at Sainte Anne de Belle- 

 ale, Que., amounted to $5,000,000. He en- 

 lowed the schools for manual training and do- 

 lestic science in connection with Ontario Agri- 

 iltural College, and also gave largely to the 

 ''ictoria Hospital at Montreal, and to other 

 laritable institutions. The honor of knight- 

 lood was conferred on him in 1898. 



McDOUGALL, makdoo'gal, WILLIAM (1822- 

 1905), a Canadian statesman and journalist, 

 eminent in the movement for Confederation, 

 member of the first Dominion Cabinet, and 

 first lieutenant-governor of the North West 

 Territories and Rupert's Land. The acquisi- 

 ;ion of the Northwest by the Dominion gov- 

 iment was a hobby of McDougall's, and it 

 fitting that he should have been chosen in 

 as its first governor. On his arrival at 

 boundary of the Territories, on his way to 

 r ort Garry, McDougall was turned back by the 

 ilf-breeds under Louis Kiel, who thus gave 

 le signal for the Red River Rebellion (which 

 ). 



William McDougall was born at Toronto, 

 )nt., studied at Victoria College, Cobourg, and 

 called to the bar in 1847. While still a law 

 tudent he began to contribute to newspapers, 

 id in -the year he began to practice law, also 

 founded a weekly paper, The Canadian Farmer. 

 In 1850 he established The North American, a 

 semiweekly paper of somewhat radical tend- 

 encies. The North American was absorbed in 

 1857 by the Toronto Daily Globe, for which 

 McDougall continued to write until 1870. His 

 work as a journalist won him a seat in the 

 Canadian assembly in 1858. He was commis- 

 sioner of crown lands from 1862 to 1864, then 

 for three years was provincial secretary, and in 

 1865 and 1866 also served as chairman of a 

 commission to develop Canadian trade with 

 the West Indies and South America. Mc- 

 Dougall was present both at the Charlottetown 



and Quebec conferences, and took a leading 

 part in the discussions. After Confederation 

 Sir John Macdonald chose him to be Min- 

 ister of Public Works, but after a year sent 

 him to England to negotiate with the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company for the purchase of the 

 North West Territories. In 1871 he was one of 

 the commissioners to settle the boundaries of 

 Ontario, and in 1873 went to London on a spe- 

 cial mission relating to Canadian fisheries. He 

 continued to sit in the House of Commons 

 until 1882, when he retired from public life. 



MACDOWELL, mak dou' el, EDWARD ALEX- 

 ANDER (1861-1908), an American pianist and 

 composer, whose art is representative of the 

 best music that America has produced. He 

 was born in New York City, and studied in 

 Paris, Wiesbaden and Frankfort. Upon his 

 return to America, in 1888, his compositions as 

 well as his playing, which was always charac- 

 terized by great poetic feeling, became very 

 popular. His compositions have an atmosphere 

 of the woods, and he had a happy faculty of 

 introducing into them touches of American 

 folk-music, notably Indian. He composed an 

 Indian Suite for the orchestra, and the most 

 popular of all his compositions for the piano, 

 Woodland Sketches, likewise embraces Indian 

 themes. He published nearly sixty works, 

 which include almost 300 separate composi- 

 tions. Important among these are the sym- 

 phonic poems, Hamlet and Ophelia, Lancelot 

 and Elaine and Lamia, and the sonatas Norse 

 and Keltic. From 1896 to 1904 he was the head 

 of the department of music at Columbia Uni- 

 versity; the year following his resignation his 

 mind failed, and he died three years later. 



McDOWELL, IRWIN (1818-1885), an Ameri- 

 can soldier who played a prominent but some- 

 what unfortunate part during the War of Se- 

 cession. He was born at Columbus, Ohio, re- 

 ceived his education in France and at West 

 Point, and during the Mexican War received 

 the brevet rank of captain for gallantry at 

 Buena Vista. Shortly after the outbreak of 

 the War of Secession he was made brigadier 

 general of volunteers in the Federal army and 

 given command of the Army of the Potomac. 

 A serious defeat in the first Battle of Bull Run, 

 though due to no lack of skill on his part, told 

 against him, and McClellan was given his com- 

 mand. Later he took part in the battles of 

 Cedar Mountain, Rappahannock Station and 

 Bull Run, but in September, 1862, was relieved 

 from field duty. A court of inquiry investi- 

 gated the charges and acquitted him fully. 



