djgagnon: #Montreal #McGill #cdnhistory ...

djgagnon: #Montreal #McGill #cdnhistory

Macdonald College, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec

William C Macdonald, a tobacco manufacturer established, designed and funded this agricultural college. Today it is known as the Macdonald Campus of McGill University.

Macdonald was born on Prince Edward Island, and was the grandson of a Scottish laird. Under the name McDonald Brothers and Company, he and his brother made tremendous amounts of money during the US Civil War …

Most of the tobacco was then grown in the Confederate states, but men on the Union side of the conflict already had a tobacco habit - pipe and chewing tobacco. Macdonald’s Canadian enterprise was able to buy the southern tobacco, process and manufacture it in Montreal, then sell it to the northern states.

His philanthropy to McGill University and other causes began in 1870.

Macdonald College was the finest agricultural college in Canada when it opened in 1907. This was during a time when most Canadians were established on farms and the prairie west was booming. Modern technologies and training adapted to all the varied climate, soil and cultural backgrounds of new settlers from Europe were in demand. Dairy farming was especially important in Quebec and Macdonald College was very involved in this agricultural specialty.

One of my dairy farm cousins from Lachute obtained his one year ‘Aggie’ diploma here. In the 1960s or 1970s, Aggie grads began celebrating by ‘tagging’ the higher elements of the nearby highway bridge over the Ottawa River.

Faced with the wave of Canadian Baby Boomers to educate during the considerable expansion of the school system … in the 1950s and 1960s, part of Macdonald College was used to train and certify school teachers. Both of my parents obtained their teaching certification here.