Andrew McDonald was 37 years old in 1855. He was born in Washington County, Virginia in 1819 and attended Washington College in his hometown, graduating in the class of 1840. He taught school near Lexington, Kentucky and then practiced law in Morgantown, (West) Virginia. While in Morgantown, he served in the Virginia Legislature and was on the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia. [Genealogy website, http://www.geocities.com/'topolyp/mcdonald2.html]
Franklin Pierce (1804-1869)
McDonald carried the petition to President Pierce to remove Governor Reeder.
McDonald went to Kansas in 1854 and in March 1855 was appointed the first postmaster in the town of Douglas opposite the mouth of the Grasshopper (Delaware) river. His office also served Lecompton and in September it was moved there. In January 1855 McDonald and two partners established a steam saw mill at Douglas, advertising "good native lumber, one-inch thick, at $3 per hundred." The firm pointed out that this lumber could be rafted down the Kansas river at nearly all seasons, and that they would run the mill day and night, if necessary, to accommodate the public. [Root, Ferries Kansas River, 293]
During the 1855 Legislative session McDonald was on leave for a good part of the time. He was sent as an emissary to President Pierce by the Legislature to express their desire that Governor Reeder be removed from office. [Cutler, History, Ch. 16]
McDonald was a captain in the Kansas Militia, and conducted at least one unsuccessful raid in 1856:
"Captain McDonald was about to raid Walker's cabin and burn everything belonging to him or any of his connections. Walker picked ten men at once, went directly to his house, sent his family away, cut portholes for his guns...four of McDonald's men wounded, two captured, the rest scattered." [Gleed, Samuel Walker, 262]
At the outbreak of the Civil War, McDonald joined the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He had married Jane V. Gay in 1849. After the war, Andrew and Jane migrated to Florida where he died in May 1896 near the now defunct town of McDonald. [Website, loc.cit.]
