18 Jan 1942
Dan Allan MacDonald, well known farmer of Lakevale, died Jan. 18, at St. Martha’s Hospital, following a brief illness of pneumonia, at the age of 82. He was a son of Allan and Annie (MacPherson) MacDonald, Lakevale. His wife, the former Margaret MacLean, Georgeville, died in 1936. Surviving are five daughters, Mrs. Dennis Murphy, Millis, Mass., Mrs. Frank Sellers, Brookline, Mass., Mrs. D.A. Boyd, Lakevale, Mrs. Robert King, Havre Boucher, Mrs. Edward MacEachern, Cape George, beside a brother, Hugh and a sister, Mrs. Dan MacInnis, Boston. The funeral was largely attended. Solemn requiem high mass was celebrated in St. Columba Church, Lakevale, by the Rev. A.I, MacAdam. The last years of Mr. MacDonald’s life were saddened by the tragedy which robbed him in a moment of three daughters and two grandchildren. The group, returning to Alberta in August 1933, after a happy holiday spent at the old home, met death in a grade crossing accident at Chesterton, Indiana. They included Mrs. Gus Mason, Ponoka, Alberta, Misses Christina MacDonald and Mary Magdalen MacDonald, school teachers, also of Alberta, and Mrs. Masson’s two children, Marie 6, and John Kenneth, 12. Near Chesterton Mrs. Mason’s automobile and others were held up at the railway crossing on a highway detour waiting for a clear passage. Other cars were behind them and one was in front. This one made the crossing after the train had passed. The Alberta bound Masons’s car proceeded to follow but a fast express train running on another track crashed into it. All five were killed instantly. Six days later they were buried in a single grave at Lakevale.