Mr. McDonell is of highland Scotch ancestry and was born in Ontario, Canada, on the 29th of December, 1843. His grandfather, Archibald McDonell, was a native of Glengarry, Scotland, and on leaving the land of hills and heather crossed the Atlantic to the new world. Locating in Canada he there reared his family, following the occupation of farming in order to provide for the wants and needs of his wife and children. He held membership in the Catholic church. His son, Charles McDonell, was born in Canada and after arriving at years of maturity wedded Miss Ann Stuart, a native of Scotland. She emigrated to Canada with Lord Selkirk and made the voyage up the McKenzie river. In 1849 she departed this life, leaving a family of five children. Charles McDonell survived her for only seven years, passing away in 1856 in the thirty-fifth year of his age. His son, Archibald J. McDonell, is the only surviving member of the family.

In taking up the personal history of this gentleman we present to our readers one who is widely known in Nevada and whose efforts in behalf of the state have been far-reaching and beneficial. He was educated in the public schools of Canada, pursuing his studies in a log schoolhouse. His advantages were somewhat meager, yet at the age of sixteen years he had qualified himself for teaching, and for three or four years followed that profession with good success. On attaining his majority he came to the west, believing that he might have better business opportunities in this newly developed region. Making his way to Nevada, which only three years before had been organized under territorial government, be established his home in Virginia City, and with pick and shovel began work in the mines, being thus employed for a number of years. Gradually he advanced and has filled the positions in connection with mining from the most humble to the most important, acting at different times as mine engineer, foreman and superintendent. He also became president of the San Francisco stock and exchange board, and he is now devoting his time and energies largely to the stock brokerage business under the firm name of McDonell & Ryan, his partner being the Hon. D. M. Ryan, who is now state treasurer. Mr. McDonell is also the superintendent of Sierra Nevada and the Union mines, which are being developed with good results. He is an experienced and practical mining man and in this line of work has no superior. He was connected with the Comstock mine for forty years, and there are few, indeed, among the settlers of Nevada, who have for a longer period been associated with the development of the rich mineral resources of the state or have achieved more creditable success in connection with their work.

Mr. McDonell's friends speak of him as "a perfect gentleman." and he is one of Nevada's citizens of the highest probity of character. He has been a life-long stalwart Republican, and has been honored with a number of official positions, the duties of which he has ever discharged with promptness and fidelity. He was elected and served as county recorder in the years 1875 and 1876, and in 1887 was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature, where he had the honor of being elected speaker of the house for that term. In 1891 he was chosen to represent his district in the state senate and served through that and the succeeding year. In 1892 he was elected as delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis. He took a very active and helpful part in the legislation which cleared away the indebtedness of the state and placed Nevada upon a sound financial basis. He and his associates in that work certainly deserve great credit for what they accomplished, and Nevada acknowledges her indebtedness to them.

Mr. McDonell has for almost forty years lived in the west and is thoroughly familiar with its history, being actively connected with its progress and improvement, while his labors for the extension of its business affairs have been strongly felt. He is a man of strong purpose, of unfaltering determination and of unquestioned honesty, and he certainly deserves great credit for what he has done, having steadily worked his way upward from a humble financial position until he is now accorded a place among the leading business men of the commonwealth.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904