James William McDonald: 'One of the finest specimens of physical manhood in all this section'

Recently I wrote about Jim McDonald, who had a fruit orchard empire in Martinsburg for several decades of the 1900s. These were his paternal grandparents, Alice May Stewart and James William McDonald.

Alice, born in 1855 near Bunker Hill, was the youngest of David and Susan Stewart’s five children. The family lived near the old Presbyterian Church on Tuscarora.

Alice’s mother Susan was from the prominent Mong family, a daughter of German immigrant John Mong, who spoke only German and built a home in the Nollville area west of Martinsburg. This family homestead, built in 1804, is on the National Historic Register in Berkeley County.

Mong House

Alice was only 18 when her mother died in the spring of 1873. Five months later, she married James. At 36 years old, he was twice her age.

James, from the Darkesville area, was an enormous …