OBIT: McDONALD, Eliza Ann; 7 Dec 1906; Ebensburg, Cambria Cnty., PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ _________________________________________ Cambria Freeman Ebensburg, Pa. Friday, 7 Dec 1906 Volume 40, Number 49 Aged Citizen Passes Away Death of Miss Ann McDonald Notes the Departure of One of Ebensburg's Most Respected Residents Miss Eliza Ann McDonald, the last survivor of one of Ebensburg's oldest families, born in Ebensburg on the second day of July, 1821, and the county seat's oldest native-born citizen died here at her home on High street at 9:30 o'clock Tuesday morning in the eighty-sixth year of her age. Eliza Ann McDonald was a daughter of Owen and Eliza Parsons McDonald who in the early days of Ebensburg, in the year 1815, rode into Ebensburg on horseback on their honeymoon, they having been married in Loretto by Father Demetrius Gallitzin, the "Prince Priest of the Alleghenies" and pastor of St. Michael's, the only Catholic Church in this section of the state. Once here the parents of the deceased decided to remain and take up housekeeping and Mr. McDonald sometime later engaged in the mercantile business on High street. He also built the Cambria House, later known as the Foster House which was for so many years one of Ebensburg's old landmarks and for a time conducted this hotel. He also acquired considerable real estate in and about the town. Eliza Ann McDonald was the fifth of a family of nine children to be born to Owen and Eliza Parson McDonald and she received her early education in the historic "Old Academy" in Ebensburg which stood on the Courthouse square. Later she completed her education in Mt. St. Mary's Academy at Emmittsburg, Pa. When she was a young woman, owing to an epidemic, which resulted in the death of a couple members of the family, her father moved, with his family, from Ebensburg to Pittsburg where he again engaged in the mercantile business. The family remained in Pittsburg only two years, returning to Ebensburg where Mr. McDonald again engaged in business and continued until his death which occurred August 20, 1842. For some years until 1857 Mrs. McDonald and her daughter, Eliza Ann McDonald, lived in what is now the Webster Griffith property on High street and later, while the present McDonald brick residence was being erected on High street, they resided in what is now the H. H. Myers property. Late in the year 1859 the present handsome McDonald brick residence was completed and Mrs. McDonald and her daughter removed to it, the elder lady dying there September 26, 1881, in the eighty-ninth year of her age. Eliza Ann McDonald has since continued to occupy the brick residence, except during recent years when she would frequently spend the winters in Baltimore or Pittsburg and return to her Ebensburg residence during the summer. In the death of Miss Eliza Ann McDonald, Ebensburg sustains a signal loss and there will be many poor people who will feel keenly her absence from the community. She was scrupulously honest and conscientious and was all her life a faithful communicant of the Roman Catholic faith and a benefactor to its churches and charitable institutions as well as those of other denominations. She was possessed of considerable real estate in Ebensburg at the time of her death and until recent years owned very valuable property in Pittsburg which she recently sold. Miss McDonald was informed some days ago by her pastor, Father O'Neill, and by her physician, Dr. T. J. Davison, of this place, that she could not recover and her dissolution was not far distant. To this fate she was perfectly resigned and took a philosophical view of the situation. In summing it up she said, "If it is God's will that I die, I am content," and being thus resigned, she lingered on each day, losing some of her vitality until death ended her mortal cares. Miss McDonald leaves no nearer relatives than cousins, Mrs. Mary V. Shoemaker of Ebensburg being one of these. The funeral took place at 9 o'clock Thursday morning from the Church of the Holy Name in this place, where a solemn high mass of requiem was celebrated, the Rev. Father O'Neill former pastor of the church and the Rt. Rev. Msgr. John Boyle of Johnstown were present. Interment was made in St. Michael's Catholic cemetery in Loretto where the remains of the members of the McDonald family, who preceded her to the grave, were buried and where the family burial plot was erected when St. Michael's cemetery was the nearest Catholic cemetery to Ebensburg.