J. W. McDonald, clerk of the Circuit Court of Houston County, was the eldest child of a family of five children born to the marriage of Daniel McDonald and Elizabeth Wilson. The father was born in North Carolina December 30, 1802, and when but eight years old came to what is now Houston County, where he followed farming, and died May 11, 1864. He was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The mother was born August 19, 1810, and died in October, 1880. She was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. John W. was born October 30, 1831, near Erin, and spent his early life on a farm securing a very limited early education. At the age of twenty-three years he married, and farmed on a part of the home farm until 1878, when he was elected to this office, having held the office a term of two years before this. He was married October 29, 1854, to Nancy A. McAuley, of this county, the result of this union being two sons, William A., a druggist in Erin, and Daniel W., now attending school. Mr. McDonald, his wife and eldest son are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Previous to 1860 he was a Whig, but since then has been a conservative Democrat. He has filled his office since 1878, and is held in the high esteem of his constituents.

Transcribed by Susan Knight Gore

Source: Goodspeed, Weston A, and John Wooldridge. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Montgomery, Robertson, Humphreys, Stewart, Dickson, Cheatham and Houston Counties. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1886.