Sir William C. Macdonald

A Biography

William Fong

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN:
  9780773578241
• Print ISBN:
  9780773533042

Born into a prominent Scottish family on Prince Edward Island, Macdonald rejected his Catholic upbringing and left home when he was eighteen. After three years in Boston as a bookkeeper he headed to Montreal and began to work as a commission agent. By 1868 Macdonald had become the leading manufacturer of chewing tobacco in Canada, and by 1885 he may have been the richest person in the country.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• A Note on the Sources
• Introduction
• Chapter One Will Ye No Come Back Again? Macdonald’s Ancestry and Early Influences, to 1848
• Chapter Two Macdonald’s Early Career in North America: From Bookkeeper to Tobacco Manufacturer, 1848–1861
• Chapter Three Macdonald the Tobacco King, 1861–1917
• Chapter Four The Island Legacy, Domestic Life, and the End of Captain John’s Dream, 1864–1906
• Chapter Five The Evolution of Practical Education at McGill, circa 1850–1880
• Chapter Six Macdonald’s Early Philanthropy: the Fraser Institute, McGill University, and His Search for Family, circa 1870–1892
• Chapter Seven The Macdonald-Robertson Movement and the Founding of Macdonald College, 1899–1909
• Chapter Eight Macdonald College and McGILL University: Education and Research for a New Century, 1893–1914
• Chapter Nine Tobacco With a Heart: Macdonald’s Personality, Scottishness, Later Years, and Legacy
• Notes
• Index
• Footnote