It was likely a typically frigid January afternoon on the Bruce Peninsula in 1944 when a local 75-year-old veterinary surgeon, Dr. John McDonald, was making a routine call at the Carson farm near Clavering. Suddenly, he collapsed and died of a heart attack. Here is part one of his remarkable life story and long veterinary practice as compiled by Douglas W. MacDonald.
John was born in Chesley on August 2, 1869. His Scottish-born mother hoped her third child would become a Baptist pastor. (She once censured her own minister for shaving on Sunday.) Instead, Jack, as he was known, chose veterinary college. To finance this, he and his younger brother, Jim, operated the Paisley Brick Company of Scone to raise money. One Sunday evening, their means of livelihood burned down. The two young men were sure it was because they had been playing cards earlier that Sabbath.
In due time, Jack graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in Toronto in 1894 and began practice in Wiarton. He boarded at the St. Alban’s Hotel. One of the proprietor’s daughters, Amanda Ashley, caught his eye and the young couple married on June 25th, 1895. They began saving for a house. Within a few years, they moved into their newly-built, two-storey home on William Street. Four children were born to John and Amanda: Ola, Wilfrid, Alein and Beatrice.
The doctor’s practice covered a sixty-mile territory from Hepworth to Tobermory. “Doc” McDonald made his calls by horse and buggy in summer, and by horse and cutter in winter. On one occasion, he lost his horse which fell through the ice of Colpoy’s Bay when Doc was enroute to White Cloud Island. In time, the vet acquired a motor car. He was the first in town to be equipped with a self-starter—no arduous cranking!
In the early 1900s, lumbering was a booming industry on the Peninsula and the McDonalds wished to share in the prosperity. In 1908 they bought Daley’s General Store in Stokes Bay where seven lumber mills were located. Besides running the store, the family conducted a small beef operation and the doctor continued his practice.
The doctor’s parents and his six brothers and sisters had moved from Paisley to Winnipeg. They coaxed Jack and his wife, Amanda, to join them out West. In 1912, the family sold the store and boarded the Grand Trunk Railway in Wiarton, taking their two horses and a cow in the box car. They settled in Verigin, Saskatchewan, a small, Russian Doukhobor community where he again opened a general store.
Dr. McDonald was active in politics. In support of the local Liberal candidate, he brought in a load of Ontario Spy apples by rail. A polished apple was given to every customer with the promise of a barrel if his candidate won the election. It was not pork barrel politics, but apple barrel politics—and it was successful.
Jack never took to the West like his sisters and brothers. Every night after closing shop, and retiring to the living quarters above, he would crank up the gramophone and play “Home Sweet Home.” In 1915, the family sold out and returned to Wiarton. They bought a square, two-storey, rough cast home, faced it in red brick and added an addition for his office. He then settled into an uninterrupted career which lasted 28 years.
He gave generously of his time and money to both church and civic affairs. He was elected reeve in 1919, 1920 and 1932 and mayor in 1922. Interest in horses led Dr. McDonald to become president of the Wiarton Driving Society. On one occasion, he left his wife, Amanda, in their buggy while he went to start a race with the starter’s pistol. At the sound of the gun, their horse and carriage took off to join the race around the track with Mrs. McDonald vainly trying to pull back on the reins.
Following Dr. McDonald’s sudden death in 1944, the Wiarton Echo wrote that his untiring efforts to bring comfort to animals will be long remembered by district farmers.
The original article from the 1996 yearbook of the Bruce County Historical Society was written by Douglas W. MacDonald and abridged by Bob Johnston.
