Introduction

Biography

William was the son of Jo­seph Mc­Don­ald and Ma­ry Wil­son. He mar­ried twice: to Re­bec­ca M. Ste­ven­son (1841) and Fran­ces Jor­dan (1859).

He be­came a Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal pas­tor at age 19, and joined the Maine Con­fer­ence in 1843. In 1855, he trans­ferred to the Wis­con­sin Con­fer­ence, and in 1859 to the New Eng­land Con­fer­ence.

For fif­teen years he ed­it­ed the Ad­vo­cate of Chris­tian Ho­li­ness.

Works

McDonald wrote a num­ber of books on re­li­gious sub­jects, sev­er­al bi­og­raph­ies, and ed­ited or co-ed­it­ed sev­er­al mu­sic col­lect­ions, in­clud­ing:

• Wesleyan Min­strel, 1840
• Western Sac­red Harp, 1855
• Tribute of Praise, 1874
• Beulah Songs, with Lew­is Hart­sough (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Na­tion­al Pub­lish­ing As­so­cia­tion for Pro­mo­tion of Ho­li­ness, 1879)
• Songs of Joy and Glad­ness, with Jo­shua Gill, John Swe­ney & Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Bo­ston, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Mc­Don­ald & Gill, 1885)
• Songs of Joy and Glad­ness No. 2, with Jo­shua Gill, John Swe­ney & Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Bo­ston, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Mc­Don­ald & Gill, 1890)