36 Facts About Marshall McDonald

Marshall McDonald was an American engineer, geologist, mineralogist, pisciculturist, and fisheries scientist.

Marshall McDonald is best known for his inventions of a number of fish hatching apparatuses and a fish ladder that enabled salmon and other migrating fish species to ascend the rapids of watercourses resulting in an increased spawning ground.

From 1854 to 1855, Marshall McDonald studied natural history under Spencer Fullerton Baird at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC He then attended the University of Virginia and Virginia Military Institute, from which he graduated in 1860.

Marshall McDonald served as an assistant professor of chemistry at the institute under Stonewall Jackson and continued to teach intermittently throughout the American Civil War.

Marshall McDonald joined the Confederate States Army in 1861 and was commissioned as a lieutenant and engineer officer.

Marshall McDonald served as an inspector general on Stonewall Jackson's staff, then served as staff officer for Major General Martin Luther Smith and as an engineer officer for Lieutenant General John C Pemberton.

Marshall McDonald was taken as a prisoner of war by the Union Army at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863.

Marshall McDonald was appointed as the Fish Commissioner of Virginia and invented the fish ladder during his tenure.

Marshall McDonald was named for the Marshall family, many of whom were friends of his father.

Marshall McDonald's father was a prominent community leader in Romney and served on the board of trustees of Romney Academy, an academy that Marshall McDonald likely attended, and its successor institution, the Romney Classical Institute.

From 1854 to 1855, Marshall McDonald studied natural history under Spencer Fullerton Baird at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC Marshall McDonald entered the third class of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, in 1855, where Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was one of his professors.

Marshall McDonald resumed his studies at the Virginia Military Institute graduating in July 1860.

Marshall McDonald served as an assistant professor in chemistry under Jackson at the Virginia Military Institute from fall 1860 until the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, and taught intermittently throughout the course of the war.

Marshall McDonald then served as inspector general on the staff of his former professor, Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson.

Marshall McDonald was promoted to the rank of major in command of engineers on the staff of General Braxton Bragg.

Marshall McDonald's father was one of the first Hampshire County residents to volunteer to fight for the Confederacy in 1861 and was commissioned as a colonel in command of the 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment.

Marshall McDonald served as both instructor and chair of chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and metallurgy.

Toward the end of his tenure at the Virginia Military Institute, Marshall McDonald occupied the chair of geology and mining engineering.

In 1875, Marshall McDonald was involved in fish farming and became the administrator of the Virginia state fish hatchery at Wytheville.

Marshall McDonald was appointed as the sole Fish Commissioner of Virginia shortly thereafter.

Marshall McDonald continued to instruct at the Virginia Military Institute until 1879, when Spencer Fullerton Baird offered him a position with the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries.

Marshall McDonald accepted, and submitted his resignation from the Virginia commission to Governor Fitzhugh Lee.

Marshall McDonald was appointed to an assistant's position within the United States Fish Commission, where he was a special agent under Baird, responsible for compiling and publishing fishery statistics related to the 1880 United States census.

In 1885, Marshall McDonald was appointed Chief Assistant Commissioner of the Fish Commission.

Marshall McDonald continued in that capacity until January 1888 when President Grover Cleveland appointed him to replace Dr George Brown Goode as the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries.

Marshall McDonald's appointment was widely recognized as an "excellent" choice because of the breadth of his experience, his organizational and leadership abilities, and his sense of duty and responsibility to the American people.

In 1893, Marshall McDonald warned Oregon's Governor Sylvester Pennoyer of "the disastrous outlook for the future of the salmon fisheries of the Columbia".

In 1871, Marshall McDonald devised automatic hatching jars which revolutionized the field of fish farming and were widely utilized by the United States Fish Commission, several state commissions, and commissions in Europe and Japan.

Marshall McDonald perfected his design of the cod box in 1888.

Early in his career at the Fish Commission, Marshall McDonald was awarded gold medals and diplomas from international fishery exhibitions in Berlin and London, and a silver medal from the Societe d'Acclimation in Paris for his inventions and improvements in the field of fish farming.

Marshall McDonald received a "special medal" from the Societe d'Acclimation for a fish ladder he devised for the River Vienne in southwestern France.

Marshall McDonald was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and served as a vestryman at Lee Chapel, which he was partly instrumental in building.

In 1890, Marshall McDonald applied for and acquired membership in the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution through the organization's District of Columbia branch.

General George Washington appointed Colonel Angus Marshall McDonald to serve as a lieutenant colonel in command of Virginia revolutionary forces.

Marshall McDonald served on various revolutionary committees throughout the war.

Marshall McDonald was formally elected to the society on January 27,1890.