Sonoma County Biography
Mark L. McDonald, Jr.
Although comparatively a young man, Mark L. McDonald, Jr., of Santa Rosa, has a business record which men many years his senior might be proud to possess. As president and manager of the M. L. McDonald, Jr. & Co. fruit-packing enterprise he owes much to his gifts of perseverance and resource, as well as to splendid business judgment.
Through his paternal grandparents, James and Martha (Peters) McDonald, Mark L. McDonald, Jr., is a descendant of southern ancestors, and his father, Mark L. McDonald, was also a native of the south. It was while his parents, Mark L. and Ralphine (North) McDonald, were making their home in San Francisco that their eldest son, Mark L., was born June 6, 1868. His first training was in private schools in San Francisco, after which he attended Litton Springs College and Princeton university, graduating from the latter in the class of 1890. In the meantime his parents removed to Santa Rosa, and thither he returned at the close of his college career. No time elapsed between his college and business experience, for upon his return to Santa Rosa he became an employe in the Santa Rosa Water Company, with which his father was associated, and which had under way the establishment of the first water system in the city. Mr. McDonald remained with the company for about a year and a half, when he resigned to take charge of the mechanical division of the Bureau of Awards of the World’s Columbian Exposition of Chicago in 1893. He discharged the duties of the position with dignity and ability and at the close of the Fair he went to Washington and terminated the affairs of the department, awarding medals and attending to other duties in the settlement of his department in one of the most stupendous undertakings in the nineteenth century.
Returning to Santa Rosa, Mr. McDonald resumed interests in his home town, and has resided here continuously ever since. He is now president of the Santa Rosa Water Works, besides which he is president and manager of M. L. McDonald, Jr., & Co., packers of dried fruit. His interest in educational matters and his ability to serve in the capacity of president of the board of education of this city led to his election to this position June 2, 1908, a position which he has since filled with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of those who placed him at the head of this important department.
In his marriage, which occurred December 16, 1896, Mr. McDonald was united with Miss Isabelle Juilliard, the daughter of Charles F. and Sarah A. (Chilton) Juilliard, and three children, Mark L., III, Juilliard and Marcia Ann, have been born to them.
History of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
May 2010 Pages 354-357
History of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
May 2010 Pages 846-848
Sonoma County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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