Alexander A. McDonald
Burial Details
Obituaries
Basalt Journal page 1 - April 15, 1899
A. A. McDONALD who died April 3, was buried on the 5. The Masonic Fraternity conducted the ceremony and was largely attended by the people from the surrounding towns and country.
Eagle County Blade page 1 - April 6, 1899
A PROMINENT CITIZEN GONE. Sudden Death of A. A. McDONALD, Well Known Mining Man.
Alexander A. McDONALD, of GIlman, died on Monday evening, April 3, 1899, of pneumonia. He was 43 years of age.
Mr. McDONALD was taken ill on the Friday evening before his death, and from the first appearance of pneumonia it was feared that the stricken man could not recover.
Probably no resident of Eagle county was better known throughout the state than was A. A. McDONALD. When the news of his death reached Denver local correspondents of the daily papers received telegraphic requests for the full particulars, which show the interest that was taken in the man. Mr. McDONALD was one of the early settlers on Battle mountain and the history of his life for the past twenty years would read like a novel. His experience has been one of ups and downs to a greater extent than usually fall to adventuresome spirits in the speculative West. Before 1891 the the deceased made several small stakes in mining on Battle mountain. In that year he secured a lease and bond on the Belden group of claims, thought to be a worked-out proposition. In a few months the lessee had the mine on a paying basis, later took up the bond and made a marked success of the venture. The high grade lead ores returned a handsome profit and the owner soon found himself enjoying a stead and large income. About this time when Mr. McDONALD was in the height of his prosperity, the panic of 1893 swept over the country and Battle mountain was stricken with all the rest. Mines began shutting down and men were daily being thrown out of work. But the Belden, under Mr. McDONALD's management came to the rescue. Thirty men on a shift were all sufficient to properly work the property but McDONALD put on 90 and alternated them so that everybody had work and a pay day every month. During the years of his prosperity Mr. McDONALD invested largely in other property. He purchased the townsite of Eagle and a number of ranches in this county.
In 1894, largely through his instrumentality, the proposed removal of the county seat was voted upon, and at the same election the deceased was himself a candidate for representative on the Republican ticket and was defeated by a small majority. About this time adversity began to appear on the roseate hue of Mr. McDONALD's career. His various investments, prodigal liberality in loaning and donating money to friends began to tax his resources and he himself found it necessary to borrow. His credit was almost unlimited. It was no trouble for him to borrow $10,000 if he happened to need that amount. He borrowed as lavishly as he had loaned, all in good faith because he had unbounded confidence in the ability of his Belden property to produce sufficient wealth to square all accounts. But at a critical time the Belden ore bodies began to diminish, the production curtailed, and with his many obligations outstanding the financial collapse of A. A. McDONALD was only a question of time. It came finally. Suits were filed against him, judgments were obtained and his property began to slowly but surely slip from his grasp.
His death found him in straightened circumstances, but still not without hope, and with his iron will and indomitable spirit yet unbroken. When reverses came he did not mourn. He donned the apparel of a miner and went to work again. At the time of his demise he was again interested in a lease on Battle mountain on which he had been faithfully working for a number of months, and was always confident of ultimately making another "sake" and paying all obligations and redeeming his property. Had he been permitted to live to attain another success there is absolutely no doubt but he would have religiously adhered to this intention.
Alexander A. McDONALD, thoroughly a man of the west, was of a princely nature and above all steadfast to his friends. In the days of his affluence he did not change. He seemed as though he could not know that a fellow being was possessed of less money than he without dividing with him. His generous hand was always open and his sympathetic heart was always was always responsive. The deceased leaves a wife and two babies, a girl and a boy, also two daughters now grown, by a former marriage. His only other relatives in this part of the country are his brother, Malcolm McDONALD and family of Leadville. Deceased was born in Canada, though his grandfather was a colonel in the American army in the war of 1812, and his father a native of New York state. He came to the United States at the age of fourteen years, and to Colorado in 1878.
The funeral was held yesterday at Gilman under the auspices of the local Masonic lodge of which order deceased was a ember. The burial occurred at Red Cliff. The obsequies were largely attended and no greater mark of respect has ever been shown a citizen of the county than was manifested at the last rites. People from Leadville and surrounding towns in his county were present and took a sincere part in the last tribute that can be paid one of nature's noblemen.
