From Memorial and Genealogical Record of Dodge and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin, publ. 1894 - Page 57-58 EDWARD M. McDONALD, M. D. There are men, and the number is by no means small, who drift into what we are accustomed to look upon as the learned professions in the same way that thousands of other men in the lower walks of life drift into the ordinary bread-winning occupations. Having no special preference for any calling, and without feeling that they have any particular fitness for a certain profession, they find themselves drifting in that direction as a result of associations or environments, and in course of time they find themselves shouldering responsibilities for which they have scant liking, carrying burdens which rest heavily upon them, and laboring in a field which has for them no attraction other than what it yields in the way of annual income. This successful physician whose name heads this sketch impresses even those who meet him in a casual way as a man who has drifted easily and naturally into the medical profession, who realized that he has made no mistake in the choice of a vocation, and feels thoroughly at home in the position which he occupies. This first impression deepens with a more intimate acquaintance, and familiarity with his life leads to the unbiased and impartial view that the unusual success he has achieved is the logical sequence of talent rightly used, together with energy and industry never misapplied. Mr. McDONALD is a product of Utica, N.Y., where he was born May 16, 1857, a son of Michael and Catherine (QUINN) McDONALD, natives of Ireland, who came to America in 1848 and settled at Utica. In 1857 they emigrated to Wisconsin,, and were among the first settlers of Columbia County, where the father still resides, being one of its most substantial and influential farmers. The subject of this sketch was but a few months old when his parents settled in Wisconsin, and in this State he was reared on a farm, obtaining a practical education in the common schools near his rural home. When nineteen years old he was sufficiently advanced to begin to teaching in school, and for four years thereafter he pursued the calling of a pedagogue in Columbia and Dodge Counties. During this time it was the goal of his ambition to become a practitioner, of the "healing art," and in 1879 he began the study of medicine under Dr. EARL, of Columbus, and in the fall of the same year he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago, from which he graduated as an M.D. in February 1883. Immediately thereafter he located at Doylestown, Columbia County, Wis., where for six years he did a successful general practice, but in the fall of 1889 came to Beaver Dam. He entered upon a general practice here, to which he has since devoted himself with increasing success, and he has built up a reputation as a skillful, careful and conscientious practitioner, of which many older physicians might well be proud. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the State Medical Society of Wisconsin, and the Columbia County Medical Society, and while a resident of Doylestown he was president of the last mentioned society. He has represented the State Medical Society as a delegate to the American Medical Association, and has served as health officer and city physician, a position he is filling with marked ability at the present time. He is also physician for the Township of Beaver Dam, and his ability has in various other ways been recognized. In 1887 Dr. McDONALD supplemented his medical education by taking a post- graduate course at the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago, and is at all times a close and careful student and keeps in constant touch with all advancement made in medical thought. The Doctor was married in 1881 to Miss Theresa BURNS, a native of Dodge County, Wis., who died of consumption in 1890, and in 1893 the Doctor took for his second wife Miss Mary E. SULLIVAN, a native of Dodge County. Socially, the Doctor is a member of the Order of Foresters, is a medical examiner for the same, is a member of the Catholic Church, and in politics is a Democrat. Submitted by Carol