MACDONALD, FREEMAN WALTER (1877-1935)

MACDONALD, FREEMAN WALTER, native son and sportsman; b. Blissfield, 1877, s/o John MacDonald and Charlotte Edgar; m. Alice Smith, of New York; d. Long Island, N.Y., 6 Aug 1935.

When he was a young man Freeman W. MacDonald worked as a clerk in the general store of James Robinson of Millerton, whose wife, Grace MacDonald, was his aunt. In 1901 he went to Boston "to study osteopathy." He established a professional practice in the United States and was later described as "a prominent physician and surgeon." He was also an ardent outdoorsman and sportsman. In the period after World War I he was an annual visitor to Blissfield, where he built "Miramichi Lodge, " an "up-to-date mansion of the colonial type," furnished with antiques, and capable of accommodating about fifteen guests. The sportsmen who were attracted to the lodge included some of the baseball greats of the time. The names of Hughie Jennings, Herb Pennock, and Babe Ruth were among those on the guest list for October 1923. One of the guides engaged by the lodge was Frank Munn, who later guided the baseball player Ted Williams and other celebrity sportsmen.

MacDonald also started a commercial fox-breeding ranch in the vicinity of his former home at Blissfield, for which he employed a local manager. There was a strong demand in the fashion industry for silver fox pelts, in particular, at that time, and hundreds of such farms sprang up in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

MacDonald was fifty-eight when he died in 1935 in Long Island, N.Y. His remains were returned to Blissfield, and his funeral was conducted from Miramichi Lodge. He was survived by his wife, Alice Smith.