McDonald was born August 2, 1816, in
Johnstown, New York, son of Daniel McDonald (a native of
Edinburgh) and Mary Elizabeth Port, a native of
Ireland. His mother died when he was five, and his father when he was twelve, leaving John and two siblings as orphans. He became a farm laborer, until at age 16 he became an
apprentice in the
glove and
mitten trade in
Gloversville, New York. He left that for
Wisconsin Territory in 1836, spending the winter in
Milwaukee, and the next year moved to the forty-acre farm in
Section 21 of
Summit, Waukesha County, where he settled April 7, 1837, and would live for the rest of his life. In 1840 he married Sophia Brown, a native of
St. Lawrence County, New York. == Politics ==