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Note: My grandfather, John H. McDonald, was almost entirely unknown to me until I visited Walla Walla in 1994 and researched his life, finding a great deal of information about him. He came west with his family when he was young, settled in the Eureka Flat area outside Walla Walla, and went to school there and in town. He served in the Philippines Insurrection around the turn of the century, reporting later to his daughter Ruth that it was so hot you could fry an egg on the streets . He studied on his own and passed the bar exam, and worked as a lawyer, a newspaper editor and owner of a publishing company, and as the owner and manager of movie houses. He was elected to the Walla Walla Elks Club in 1902, became Exalted Ruler in 1908, and again in 1920, and his funeral was arranged by the Elks Club. He married my grandmother, Isabel C. King, in Gresham in 1907. They became acquainted while she nursed him at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland during an illness. Their only child was my mother. They divorced in 1923 and saw one another again only once when he visited in Southern California.
The cemetery lists his middle name as Harold, but this is in error according to his draft registration card of 1918. At this time he was living with his wife and daughter at 238 Fulton Street in Walla Walla, age 42, born Feb. 29, 1876, white, native born citizen, self-employed as president and manager of a motion picture theatre at 21 W. Main. The registrar�s report depicts him as tall, of medium build, with dark blue eyes and light brown hair and classifies him as 46-4-10 �C�.
�ELKS HAVE PLANNED MANY STUNTS ... John McDonald Will Sing a Fine Song... ... Apropos of an announcement made several days ago, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John McDonald, who is also a buck, will sing that touching little ditty, �You can drive a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.� The elevator boy in the Ransom building [where McDonald had his attorney offices] says that John has been practicing under the able direction of Signor Otto Rupp and can render the song in a way that will bring tears to the eyes.� [Front page, Walla Walla Evening Bulletin for Wednesday, October 16, 1907]
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