Alexander Finlay Macdonald

(1825 – 1903)

Alexander Finlay Macdonald was born September 15, 1825 in Kintail, on an ocean inlet in Scotland.  His father, Duncan Macdonald, a tenant farmer, eked out a scant existence on land that was soured by sea spray and soaked by constant British mists.  His mother, Margaret MacRae, cooked their oatmeal porridge and potatoes over an open peat fire in their cottage and kept the sooted walls clean with whitewash.

“Sandy,” as Alexander was called, was taught to read and write English by the village dominie and read the Bible to his parents on Sunday, thereby teaching English to them in a home where only Gaelic had been spoken.    Sometime in his youth he had a year of studies at the University of Glasgow.  At the age of 17, he went to pork at Perth as a ship’s carpenter.  In this capacity he sailed with ships on many voyages.  On these trips was David Ireland, a companion worker, through whom he met the Graham family of which Elizabeth (Betsy) was the fifth of ten girls and who later became his wife.

ON his way to his home in Kintail after a seven months’ sea voyage, he passed through Perth, and was handed a pamphlet which he put in his pocket without reading.  Later in Kintail he handed the pamphlet to his father as he entered the door and hastened to greet his mother.  A moment later he was surprised by a whack across his shoulders.  “Take that and that for bringing Mormon literature into the home,” roared his father who continued beating Sandy with his walking cane until he was driven from home.  Back in Perth he took passage on a ship leaving for a three years’ voyage that took him to many parts of the world, including America.  But he kept alert to find out all he could about the Mormons.  On his last trip to America he heard of Joseph Smith’s death and the breaking up of Nauvoo.

He was 21 when he arrived back to Scotland, and legally a man on his own.  By this time he was determined to find out all he could about the Mormons.  Upon arriving at Perth he discussed religion with Betsy Graham, his sweetheart, and finding that she was also dissatisfied with her religion, they both joined the Mormon Church in 1847.  They were the first two persons baptized into the Church in the city of Perth.  Alexander advanced rapidly in his knowledge of the Gospel and was soon called o be a missionary in the Highlands of Scotland, working in Inverness.  He was called to be head of the London Conference, headquartered in Liverpool.

He and Betsy were married May 20, 1851.  When they emigrated to America in 1854, they took his reconciled father, now a widower, Betsy’s mother and sister and sailed on the steamship John Wood landing in New Orleans in Ma of that same year.  After traveling up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and being delayed twice because of cholera, they were ready to join with a company of Saints and outfit themselves to cross the plains.  He had to break a couple of steers to pull the ox cart, which was entirely new work for Sandy.  Before leaving they knelt as a family to thank their God for protection on the high seas, for miraculous preservation of their lives in the midst of sickness and death, and that they were finally on their way to “Zion.”

When they arrived in Salt Lake City they were met by a welcoming committee consisting on the main of the people they had entertained in the conference in Liverpool.  Alexander Finlay Macdonald, Jr., was born February 12, 1855, in Salt Lake City, the first of 11 sons (no daughters) to be born to this union.  For the next 25 years, Salt Lake City Provo, Springville and St. George, Utah, were Macdonald homes.  While in Springville, they studied the principle of plural marriage, and in spite of growing negative reactions, he married Sarah Johnson, who died in 1860, bearing him no children.  While living in Springville, he was also married to Agnes Aird and Elizabeth Atkinson in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on October 22, 1864, and in 1870, to Fannie Van Cott.  In Springville, he built a large home for his families, was arrested for polygamy by federal officers and spent six months in jail.  He served as mayor of Springville, was Counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson, and was one of the Seven Presidents of the 51st Quorum of Seventy.  When he finished his jail term, he was called to Provo to take charge of the tithing and help finish the meeting house.

In the early 1870s he was called to St, George to help with carpenter work on the temple, and to manage the Erastus Snow mansion, a sort of boarding hose for the out-of-town temple builders.  During the erection of the temple, some 80 men were accommodated daily at the Snow mansion.  Sandy invested in in farm land nearby Middleton, and his sons and father built homes there.

When the St. George Temple was finished he was called on a mission to Scotland.  He took two of his older sons, Alex Jr., and Aaron, with him, leaving the responsibility of the farm to his wives and younger sons.  On his return from his mission, he was in charge of 170 emigrating Saints sailing aboard the steamship Wyoming.  This tired company arrived in Salt Lake City June 11, 1879.  In the fall of the year another call came from Church Authorities to preside over the Saints in the fast growing frontier of Arizona.  In February, 1880, the Maricopa Stake was organized with Alexander F. Macdonald the first President.

By 1883, Mesa had increased in population until it warranted being made into a city, and when it was incorporated as the city of Mesa, and ecclesiastical affairs in hand, than U.S. Marshals arrived with indictments for the arrest of every man having more wives than one.  To avoid arrest and a fine, the leaders of the Church sent him to Mexico to find suitable colonization lands there as a haven for plural families.  

He made three trips in to northern Sonora, the third of these in November and December of 1884, with a group headed by Apostles Brigham Young, Jr., and Heber J. Grant.  There were 24 persons in this party, one other Stake President besides himself, and representatives from all of the frontier towns in Arizona.  They went as far south as the mouth of the Yaqui River, made friends with the Yaquis, and were invited to settle on some of their lands.  Because the Yaquis were at that time at war with the government of Mexico, the Mormons were accused by the press of collaborating with the Yaquis against Mexico.  Colonization there at that time had to be abandoned.  Copies of the Book of Mormon, however, were later sent to the Yaquis through missionaries and some Yaquis were baptized.  At a conference in St. David, Arizona, later, because of if the illness of Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., Alexander Macdonald was appointed to take his place.  There he met with Apostle Moses Thatcher who notified the Saints of the failure to find suitable lands in Sonora, and that explorations would continue in Chihuahua with Alexander F. Macdonald in charge. He promised that a place would be prepared for them.   

In compliance with this call and with the assurance he would find the needed land as Apostle Thatcher had predicted, he left St. David January 1, 1885, to begin explorations in northern Chihuahua. With him went Christopher Layton, President of the St. Joseph stake, and John Campbell, as interpreter.  W. Derby Johnson, Jr., took them by team to the nearest depot on the Southern Pacific Railroad, where they entrained for El Paso, Texas. The next day was spent with landowners and speculators in Ciudad Juarez looking at maps and locating desirable places. They left at night on the Mexican Central Railway and went as far as San Jose station, what is now probably called Gallegos. There they sought help from Dr. Samaniego, a lawyer of reviewed and practicing physician, from whom they gained valuable help. Not only did he advise them on land purchase procedures in Mexico, but told them where good land purchases might be found and gave them an insight into Mexican an Indian nature. They drove away the next morning in Samaniego’s carriage.  In it they traveled through the Santa Maria Valley, the Corralitos holdings, and decided on purchasing Señor Garcia’s claim in the Janos area. This was but six miles from La Asencion, the official port of entry and near the international boundary, a location Church leaders had specified.  When they reached La Ascension again after their four weeks’ journey, they were surprised to find a camp already set up and William C. McClellan impatiently waiting to be directed to “the place.”

They hastened on to St. David to report the result of the exploration, then Macdonald returned to the site March 1, with Apostle Moses Thatcher. The latter, after looking over the location, advised immediate purchase. Taking locksmith with him, Macdonald went to Ciudad Juarez to complete the negotiations with Señor Garcia. After three weeks of negotiating the deal could not be consummated. Undismayed, McDonald said Lot Smith back with the disappointing news and he himself went on to investigate other prospects. On the heels of this discouragement came an order for leaving the country within 15 days. Macdonald guessed the reason for leaving this: immigrants flocking into the country and making camps along the Casas Grandes River without declaring their intentions, was too much like the stampede that settled Texas earlier in the century include result again in loss of territory to Mexico. Fast, skillful thought and action by Macdonald and George Teasdale, President of the Mexico Mission, were required. Personal interviews in both Chihuahua City and Mexico City brought results, but not until the last day of the time granted for departure.

Patients and negotiating skills were finally rewarded with the purchase of 200,000 acres of land in the valleys near Casas Grandes and in the mountains to the northwest.  “Colonia Diaz” for Porfirio Diaz, “Colonia Juarez” for Benito Juarez, and “Colonia Pacheco” honoring their benefactor, the Governor of Chihuahua, were established and titles to the lands secured.

McDonald shows three lots on the main street of Colonia Juarez and after liquidating his property in Mesa, Arizona built comfortable homes on two of them for his wives Agnes and Fannie. He sold the third lot to John C. Harper with the proviso that he build a hotel on it.

He was appointed First Counselor to George Teasdale and served as President of the Mexican Agricultural and Colonization Company. When the Mission was organized into a Stake, with Anthony W. Ivins as President, Macdonald was released from leadership in ordained a Patriarch. In 1894 he sold one home in Colonia Juarez and moved Agnes into a comfortable log cabin in Colonia Garcia. He was now 71 and continued actively giving blessings as he traveled from colony to colony, sealing for time and eternity couples who are unable to make the long journey to a Mormon Temple.

In February, 1898, while he was away, a trusted Mexican worker murdered, then robbed Agnes who operated the post office and a little store. His wife Lizzie came from Arizona to take Agnes’s his place. McDonald continued to travel in his buckboard drawn by sturdy mules over rough mountain roads doing his part in the colonies until his death on March 21, 1903. He was survived by three wives, Betsy, Lizzie, and Fannie, and 13 of his 26 children. A numerous posterity it carries on the Alexander F. McDonald heritage.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border page 445