Sacrifice of his life: Findlay McDonald

Findlay McDonald won the election for Sheriff, in 1896, with a vote of 922 against A.S. Huffman’s  905 votes. One of his first major events was when he arrested a man who called himself Robert Granville, May 5, 1897. The populous strongly suspected the man to be John Strader, alias Frank Morgan, wanted in Gallatin County for killing Deputy Sheriff Allen during an attempted arrest. He had exchanged several shots with Deputy Fisher and Dan Berry during a break in of the Berry's house on May 10, according to the May 12, 1897 Citizen Call. 

Sheriff Fransham arrived from Gallatin County and though not certain he was the same man, took pictures of the prisoner in the Granite County Jail, to show to person’s that were known acquaintances of Frank Morgan/John Strader. When arrested he had two six-shooters strapped on him “in self improvised scabbards” made from the boot tops of a sheep herder working for Davis and Williams, a few miles south of Garrison, who the day before had been robbed and roughly handled by Granville and his associate. The sheep-herder identified him, as one of the men who held him up and gave a good description of the other who escaped. It was determined by all, the man by whatever name, was a rough one and probably wanted for other crimes, if he was not the person who killed the deputy. At a hearing before Justice Berry of Drummond, he waived examination and was bound over to the next term of district court. 

Findlay was defeated by George Metcalf, for Granite County Sheriff, by one vote and the election results were contested in 1898. The case was set for a hearing on December 7, with D.M. Durfee as Findlay‘s attorney and W. Brown, the attorney for Metcalf. The election results were found to be correct and Findlay turned his office over on January 1, 1899. He ran again for Sheriff, on the Democratic ticket in 1904 and won, against Republican J.D. Kennedy, by a plurality of 161 votes. Findlay, was not the Democratic nominee, for sheriff in 1906; Robert McDonel, was and he lost to J.D. Kennedy. 

The year 1911, saw the former Sheriff Findlay McDonald, summoned by death. He died on Sunday March 5, 1911, after being an invalid for almost three years. On July 22, 1908, Findlay risked his life to stop a run away team in Drummond and was dragged for a number of blocks and severely injured. He saved the life of the lady driving the team, but “it may be said that it was at the sacrifice of his own life”. 

Findlay, the son of John R. McDonald and Margaret McPherson McDonald, was born in Glengary County, Ontario in 1859. He was fifty one years, ten months, and nineteen days old, at the time of his death. Raised on a farm, he attended school in Alexandria, then moved to Saginaw, Michigan and worked in lumber. After a couple of years he moved to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and again worked in the lumber industry. Next his interest turned to mining, with a move to Leadville, Colorado. Then after about three years he returned to his native land in Canada, and married Miss Mary McDonald, at St. Fenian’s Catholic Church, in Alexandria. They came west to Butte, on April 8, 1886, and arrived in Granite in 1888. 

He was responsible for helping to organize and was the first President of the Granite Mining Union, when it was founded in 1888. The next move was to Black Pine, with employment as the mine foreman, until 1896, when he was elected Sheriff of Granite County. His obituary states that he was re-elected in 1900 and 1902, being at the time of his death, the only sheriff serving three terms, which as stated above is not correct. Survivors were: his wife Mary, daughter Catherine (married to Arthur Lindstadt Jr., at that time a druggist in Butte). 

The next news article, found March 27, 1914, was: “Mrs. Findlay (Mary) McDonald has taken over the Royal Café in the Doe Block. Mrs. McDonald enjoys a wide reputation for excellence in the hotel business and no doubt will have a large patronage at her new location.” Previously, Mary McDonald, had operated the Stephens Hotel dining hall when Findlay died and apparently decided to expand.

Born in Alexandria, Ontario, in April of 1861, as Mary McDonald, she married Findlay and arrived in Philipsburg in 1889. She died July 4, 1927, from pneumonia and the funeral was held from her daughter, Mrs. A.W. Lindstadt’s, home on July 6. Survivors were: daughter Mrs. A.W. Lindstadt, four grandchildren: Catherine, Jean, Marian and Lois Lindstadt; three brothers: and one sister. She was interred next to Findlay in the Philipsburg cemetery.