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Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical
Vol 3
John Kenneth MacDonald


John Kenneth Macdonald is a representative of one of the old families of western Canada, and a member of the bar of Alberta province, practicing his profession at Edmonton. He was born in Drayton, Ontario, in 1874, and comes of Scotch ancestry in the paternal line, while his maternal ancestors were natives of England. He is a descendant of John Macdonald of Garth, who was one of the famous bourgeois of the Northwest Fur Corn- pang and who founded Rocky Mountain House, while he was also present at the founding of Fort George and Fort Augustus, the latter being subsequently renamed Fort Edmonton. Donald Macdonald, the father of the subject of this review, was born at Cobourg, Ontario, in 1832, and was there married. In 1882 he came to western Canada, spending about ten years in Assiniboia, and in 1895 he established his home in Edmonton, arriving here during the pioneer epoch in its history. He passed away in this city in 1909, at the age of seventy-seven years, and the mother's death occurred at Vancouver, British Columbia, in January, 1922.

John Kenneth Macdonald attended the public schools of his native town and the Collegiate institute at Cobourg, Ontario, and in 1884 he came to the Northwest Territories, where he remained for some years, after which he returned to Ontario to complete his schooling and to take up the study of law. In 1892 he returned west and a year later came to Edmonton, where he has since resided except for five years spent in Regina in the service of the government of the old Northwest Territories. In 1904 he was made acting deputy attorney-general of the Northwest Territory and was retained in that capacity until Alberta was created a province, at which time he came to Alberta in the same capacity, remaining with the government service two years, after which he entered into private practice in Edmonton.

Mr. Macdonald was married at Cobourg, Ontario, on the 1st of January, 1912, to Miss Therese Fraser Holland, a daughter of Henry F. Holland, deceased, barrister and police magistrate. Mr. and Mrs. Macdonald have three children: Alan Fraser, whose birth occurred in 1910"; Lorna Louise; and Bruce Fraser, who was born in 1917. Mr. Macdonald is a member of All Saints Episcopal church and fraternally is identified with the Knights of Pythias. The nature of his recreation is indicated by his connection with the Edmonton and Mayfair Golf & Country Clubs.


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