William Madison McDonald

Duane's take

The official marker's the source here, and I'm just the one bringing it to life. So let's talk about William Madison McDonald. Now, the marker gives him two names.

The formal one: William Madison McDonald. And then the one folks apparently knew him by: Gooseneck Bill McDonald. Born in 1866, near a small community southeast of Terrell called Johnson Point.

His parents were George McDonald, born in Tennessee, and Flora Scott McDonald, born in Alabama; both of them former slaves. Flora died when William was still young, and his father George remarried a woman named Belle Crouch. Young William started school at age seven.

And here's the thing the marker wants you to know: this boy had a reputation. The smartest boy in all the area schools. Not his school.

All the area schools. That's the kind of reputation that follows a person like a second shadow. During his youth, he worked for an attorney and rancher by the name of Captain Z.T.

Adams. Now Adams took an interest in McDonald, lecturing him on business and law while he worked. You can imagine what that combination looked like: a boy with that kind of mind, and a man with that kind of knowledge, passing it along in the way things sometimes got passed along in those days (informally, in the margins of regular life).

McDonald graduated high school in 1884. Not long after, he became principal of the African American high school in Forney. His first wife, Alice Gibson McDonald, was a teacher there.

He remained principal for several years. But the schoolhouse was only the beginning. McDonald became an early leader in Texas' Republican Party, specifically within what was called the Black and Tan faction.

That was a group of whites and blacks who shared leadership roles, and it was no small thing to hold ground inside Texas politics in that era. His political partnership with a powerful businessman named E.H.R. Green gave him a strong voice in state affairs.

Then in 1899, he became the right worshipful grand secretary of Texas' African American Masons. A position he would hold for almost fifty years. Almost fifty years.

Let that settle in. In 1906, McDonald moved to Fort Worth, where he continued as a civic leader and businessman. He died in 1950 and is buried in Old Trinity Cemetery, part of Fort Worth's Oakwood Cemetery.

Throughout his life (from Johnson Point to Fort Worth, from the schoolroom to the Masonic lodge to the halls of state politics), William Madison McDonald was a leader in the struggle for social justice. The marker says he advocated persistence, and civic and moral responsibility, as the steps to equality. Not shortcuts.

Steps. And that man climbed every one of them.

What the marker says

William Madison McDonald William Madison "Gooseneck Bill" McDonald was born in 1866 near Johnson Point, a small community southeast of Terrell. His parents, former slaves, were George McDonald, born in Tennessee, and Flora Scott McDonald, born in Alabama. His mother died when he was young, and his father remarried to Belle Crouch. McDonald started school at age seven and graduated from high school in 1884. He had the reputation of being the smartest boy in all the area schools. During his youth, he worked for attorney and rancher Capt. Z.T. Adams, who took an interest in McDonald, lecturing him on business and law while he worked. After graduating, McDonald was principal of the African American high school in Forney. His first wife, Alice Gibson McDonald, was a teacher there. He remained principal for several years. McDonald was an early leader in Texas' Republican party as part of the "Black and Tan" faction, a group of whites and blacks who shared leadership roles. His political partnership with powerful businessman E.H.R. Green provided him a strong voice in state politics. In 1899, he became the right worshipful grand secretary of Texas' African American Masons, a position he held for almost 50 years. McDonald moved in 1906 to Fort Worth, where he was a civic leader and businessman. He died in 1950 and is buried in Old Trinity Cemetery, part of Fort Worth's Oakwood Cemetery. Throughout his life, McDonald was a leader in the struggle for social justice, advocating persistence and civic and moral responsibility as the steps to equality. (2002)