De Witt Duane McDonald, son of Anson D. and Hannah (Macomber) McDonald was born in Wright, Schoharie County, NY December, 15, 1827. He removed in infancy to Quaker Street and has since lived there. His educational facilities were limited to those afforded by the common schools, and even those he was unable to attend regularly, even the winter terms, after he was thirteen years old.
At that tender age, when most boys are yet treated like children and have no thought of the stern duties of life, young McDonald left home and began the battle of life in the humble capacity of a farmer's boy of all work. He grew from boyhood to manhood, still doing his daily labor behind the plow, hoe in hand or in the fields of grain ready to be garnered and became in all respects a practical and well informed farmer; but it was not as a farmer that he was destined to make a place and name for himself among his fellow men.
At the age of twenty he entered the service of R.P.U. Wilber, in Quaker Street to learn the trade of shoemaking. He soon mastered all of its details and came to be considered a thorough and skillful workman. He remained in Mr. Wilber's employ until the latter's death (1856) and after that event in the employ of Messrs. Edwin G and Wesson K. Wilber until the reorganization of the firm when he became a member (partner) of it. It only remains to us in this connection to call attention to the sterling qualities of the man who from a poor lad, hardly educated and without means or influential friends has made his way against adverse circumstances to the head of a large manufacturing business and won the esteem and confidence of all who have known him boy or man.
August 3, 1853, Mr. McDonald married Rebecca Weaver of Quaker Street, a daughter of Jacob and Deborah Coffin Weaver who bore him eight children.
In 1872 the shoe factory passed into the proprietorship of Mr. McDonald and William H. Davis the firm name being McDonald & Davis. Mr. Davis retired in 1875 when Mr. McDonald and his son Seward McDonald become owners under the firm name of D. D. McDonald and son.
Thirty to thirty five men found constant employment in this factory making heavy boots and shoes for men and women. Twelve hundred cases were manufactured yearly. In connection with the factory, they also had a retail boot and shoe store and a general grocery and flour and feed store.
The products of McDonald & Son were mostly sold in Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Delaware, Otsego, Greene and Ulster counties though large shipments were sent to Ohio. Mr. McDonald also owned a store at Quaker Street Depot (Delanson).
Source: History of the County of Schenectady, N.Y., from 1662 to 1886 By George Rogers Howell, John H. Munsell
Dewitt was a charter member of the 1st Christian Church of Quaker Street 1859
The shoe and boot factory located in the current building known as Wolfe's Market at the corner of 395 and route 7.
Children ;
Ellen McDonald - died age 3
Jacob McDonald - died age 7mo
William Henry Seward McDonald find a grave #31600194
Caroline Ada McDonald Wilber find a grave # 31600159
Caroline and Lewis A Wilber operated Quaker Street Station general store
Ellen McDonald Mead
Maude W McDonald Reynolds
Frances N McDonald Hoag
June 16 1892 Quaker Street Review
A beautiful Scotch granite monument was erected in the Grove cemetery last week on the lot of the late Dewitt D. McDonald. The monument was furnished by the monumental company at Esperance. It is a find piece of work and one of the best in the cemetery.
At that tender age, when most boys are yet treated like children and have no thought of the stern duties of life, young McDonald left home and began the battle of life in the humble capacity of a farmer's boy of all work. He grew from boyhood to manhood, still doing his daily labor behind the plow, hoe in hand or in the fields of grain ready to be garnered and became in all respects a practical and well informed farmer; but it was not as a farmer that he was destined to make a place and name for himself among his fellow men.
At the age of twenty he entered the service of R.P.U. Wilber, in Quaker Street to learn the trade of shoemaking. He soon mastered all of its details and came to be considered a thorough and skillful workman. He remained in Mr. Wilber's employ until the latter's death (1856) and after that event in the employ of Messrs. Edwin G and Wesson K. Wilber until the reorganization of the firm when he became a member (partner) of it. It only remains to us in this connection to call attention to the sterling qualities of the man who from a poor lad, hardly educated and without means or influential friends has made his way against adverse circumstances to the head of a large manufacturing business and won the esteem and confidence of all who have known him boy or man.
August 3, 1853, Mr. McDonald married Rebecca Weaver of Quaker Street, a daughter of Jacob and Deborah Coffin Weaver who bore him eight children.
In 1872 the shoe factory passed into the proprietorship of Mr. McDonald and William H. Davis the firm name being McDonald & Davis. Mr. Davis retired in 1875 when Mr. McDonald and his son Seward McDonald become owners under the firm name of D. D. McDonald and son.
Thirty to thirty five men found constant employment in this factory making heavy boots and shoes for men and women. Twelve hundred cases were manufactured yearly. In connection with the factory, they also had a retail boot and shoe store and a general grocery and flour and feed store.
The products of McDonald & Son were mostly sold in Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Delaware, Otsego, Greene and Ulster counties though large shipments were sent to Ohio. Mr. McDonald also owned a store at Quaker Street Depot (Delanson).
Source: History of the County of Schenectady, N.Y., from 1662 to 1886 By George Rogers Howell, John H. Munsell
Dewitt was a charter member of the 1st Christian Church of Quaker Street 1859
The shoe and boot factory located in the current building known as Wolfe's Market at the corner of 395 and route 7.
Children ;
Ellen McDonald - died age 3
Jacob McDonald - died age 7mo
William Henry Seward McDonald find a grave #31600194
Caroline Ada McDonald Wilber find a grave # 31600159
Caroline and Lewis A Wilber operated Quaker Street Station general store
Ellen McDonald Mead
Maude W McDonald Reynolds
Frances N McDonald Hoag
June 16 1892 Quaker Street Review
A beautiful Scotch granite monument was erected in the Grove cemetery last week on the lot of the late Dewitt D. McDonald. The monument was furnished by the monumental company at Esperance. It is a find piece of work and one of the best in the cemetery.
De Witt Duane McDonald, son of Anson D. and Hannah (Macomber) McDonald was born in Wright, Schoharie County, NY December, 15, 1827. He removed in infancy to Quaker Street and has since lived there. His educational facilities were limited to those afforded by the common schools, and even those he was unable to attend regularly, even the winter terms, after he was thirteen years old.
At that tender age, when most boys are yet treated like children and have no thought of the stern duties of life, young McDonald left home and began the battle of life in the humble capacity of a farmer's boy of all work. He grew from boyhood to manhood, still doing his daily labor behind the plow, hoe in hand or in the fields of grain ready to be garnered and became in all respects a practical and well informed farmer; but it was not as a farmer that he was destined to make a place and name for himself among his fellow men.
At the age of twenty he entered the service of R.P.U. Wilber, in Quaker Street to learn the trade of shoemaking. He soon mastered all of its details and came to be considered a thorough and skillful workman. He remained in Mr. Wilber's employ until the latter's death (1856) and after that event in the employ of Messrs. Edwin G and Wesson K. Wilber until the reorganization of the firm when he became a member (partner) of it. It only remains to us in this connection to call attention to the sterling qualities of the man who from a poor lad, hardly educated and without means or influential friends has made his way against adverse circumstances to the head of a large manufacturing business and won the esteem and confidence of all who have known him boy or man.
August 3, 1853, Mr. McDonald married Rebecca Weaver of Quaker Street, a daughter of Jacob and Deborah Coffin Weaver who bore him eight children.
In 1872 the shoe factory passed into the proprietorship of Mr. McDonald and William H. Davis the firm name being McDonald & Davis. Mr. Davis retired in 1875 when Mr. McDonald and his son Seward McDonald become owners under the firm name of D. D. McDonald and son.
Thirty to thirty five men found constant employment in this factory making heavy boots and shoes for men and women. Twelve hundred cases were manufactured yearly. In connection with the factory, they also had a retail boot and shoe store and a general grocery and flour and feed store.
The products of McDonald & Son were mostly sold in Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Delaware, Otsego, Greene and Ulster counties though large shipments were sent to Ohio. Mr. McDonald also owned a store at Quaker Street Depot (Delanson).
Source: History of the County of Schenectady, N.Y., from 1662 to 1886 By George Rogers Howell, John H. Munsell
Dewitt was a charter member of the 1st Christian Church of Quaker Street 1859
The shoe and boot factory located in the current building known as Wolfe's Market at the corner of 395 and route 7.
Children ;
Ellen McDonald - died age 3
Jacob McDonald - died age 7mo
William Henry Seward McDonald find a grave #31600194
Caroline Ada McDonald Wilber find a grave # 31600159
Caroline and Lewis A Wilber operated Quaker Street Station general store
Ellen McDonald Mead
Maude W McDonald Reynolds
Frances N McDonald Hoag
June 16 1892 Quaker Street Review
A beautiful Scotch granite monument was erected in the Grove cemetery last week on the lot of the late Dewitt D. McDonald. The monument was furnished by the monumental company at Esperance. It is a find piece of work and one of the best in the cemetery.
At that tender age, when most boys are yet treated like children and have no thought of the stern duties of life, young McDonald left home and began the battle of life in the humble capacity of a farmer's boy of all work. He grew from boyhood to manhood, still doing his daily labor behind the plow, hoe in hand or in the fields of grain ready to be garnered and became in all respects a practical and well informed farmer; but it was not as a farmer that he was destined to make a place and name for himself among his fellow men.
At the age of twenty he entered the service of R.P.U. Wilber, in Quaker Street to learn the trade of shoemaking. He soon mastered all of its details and came to be considered a thorough and skillful workman. He remained in Mr. Wilber's employ until the latter's death (1856) and after that event in the employ of Messrs. Edwin G and Wesson K. Wilber until the reorganization of the firm when he became a member (partner) of it. It only remains to us in this connection to call attention to the sterling qualities of the man who from a poor lad, hardly educated and without means or influential friends has made his way against adverse circumstances to the head of a large manufacturing business and won the esteem and confidence of all who have known him boy or man.
August 3, 1853, Mr. McDonald married Rebecca Weaver of Quaker Street, a daughter of Jacob and Deborah Coffin Weaver who bore him eight children.
In 1872 the shoe factory passed into the proprietorship of Mr. McDonald and William H. Davis the firm name being McDonald & Davis. Mr. Davis retired in 1875 when Mr. McDonald and his son Seward McDonald become owners under the firm name of D. D. McDonald and son.
Thirty to thirty five men found constant employment in this factory making heavy boots and shoes for men and women. Twelve hundred cases were manufactured yearly. In connection with the factory, they also had a retail boot and shoe store and a general grocery and flour and feed store.
The products of McDonald & Son were mostly sold in Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Delaware, Otsego, Greene and Ulster counties though large shipments were sent to Ohio. Mr. McDonald also owned a store at Quaker Street Depot (Delanson).
Source: History of the County of Schenectady, N.Y., from 1662 to 1886 By George Rogers Howell, John H. Munsell
Dewitt was a charter member of the 1st Christian Church of Quaker Street 1859
The shoe and boot factory located in the current building known as Wolfe's Market at the corner of 395 and route 7.
Children ;
Ellen McDonald - died age 3
Jacob McDonald - died age 7mo
William Henry Seward McDonald find a grave #31600194
Caroline Ada McDonald Wilber find a grave # 31600159
Caroline and Lewis A Wilber operated Quaker Street Station general store
Ellen McDonald Mead
Maude W McDonald Reynolds
Frances N McDonald Hoag
June 16 1892 Quaker Street Review
A beautiful Scotch granite monument was erected in the Grove cemetery last week on the lot of the late Dewitt D. McDonald. The monument was furnished by the monumental company at Esperance. It is a find piece of work and one of the best in the cemetery.
Family Members
Siblings
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