Macrae Macdonald | 1866 -- 1902
Macrae Macdonald's story is perhaps the saddest of all the Macdonald children. He was born in 1866 in Provo, Utah, and went to St. George with his family. He served an LDS Church mission in the southern states of the United States, and in 1887 married Helen Lillian Lamb. They were very happy together, but were forced apart by her brothers. Both of the young people were broken-hearted by the forcible divorce. Helen married again and had three children. Again her brothers forced her to divorce her husband. Helen married a third time, but the man drank excessively and abused her and her children so she divorced him.
Macrae seems to have been close to his older brother Graham, and went to Kanab, Utah, to live. There, having lost his wife, his sadness increased. To make matters worse, in his early thirties, cancer attacked his face and throat. He suffered great pain and disfigurement as the disease ate away one side of his face. He was unable to work, but Graham took care of him. He lived alone in a small log cabin until Margretta Siler married him and nursed him with great care and love. The residents of Kanab were surprised that she would marry a sick and dying man.
Macrae and Maggie had a daughter named Ruth in 1899, and he seems to have been happier the last few years of his life. The cancer killed him in 1902 at the age of 36 and he is buried in the Kanab Cemetery.
Many years later, after Macrae had died, Helen Lamb (Macrae's first wife) went to the LDS Salt Lake Temple and was sealed with her three children to Macrae Macdonald. She had continued to love him and wanted to be with him in the after life. She taught her children to revere him and the Macdonald family. One of the three children named their son "Macdonald Johnson" even though they are not blood relatives. Several of them have been in touch with members of the A.F. Macdonald family and consider themselves in many ways part of the family.
Ruth Macdonald, Macrae's only child, grew up and married Lawrence Barnson of Circleville, Utah. They had three sons: Macrae, Demar, and Clifton. They moved to Nevada, and Ruth died at McGill, Nevada, her youngest son eight months old. The boys were raised by their father's people and knew nothing about the Macdonald side of their family.
Clifton McDonald Barnson, the youngest son, lived in Las Vegas, and was contacted by the family about 15 years ago. He has since died. The other two died before making any contact with the family. Macrae Barnson was a professional boxer in the 1940s.