McDILL, James Wilson, senator, born in Monroe, Butler County, Ohio, 4 March, 1834. His father, Reverend John McDill, was a clergyman, of Scottish extraction. The son was brought up in Indiana and Ohio, graduated at Miami university in 1855, and admitted to the bar in Columbus, Ohio, in 1856. In that year he removed to Burlington, Iowa, and in 1857 to Afton, Union County, where he practised his profession. He was chosen judge of Union county in 1860, and in 1861-'5 was a clerk in the treasury department at Washington. He became a circuit judge in Iowa in 1868, a district judge in 1870, and in 1872 was elected to congress as a Republican, serving till 1877. He was appointed one of the first board of railroad commissioners of Iowa in 1878, and served till 1881, when he was appointed to the United States senate, on the resignation of Samuel J. Kirkwood to become secretary of the interior. The succeeding legislature elected him to the seat, and he served till 1883. In 1884 he was again appointed railroad commissioner.

--BEGIN-Alexander McDonald

McDONALD, Alexander, senator, born in Clinton county, Pennsylvania, 10 April, 1832. He was educated at Lewisburg university, and emigrated to Kansas in 1857, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. During the civil war he took an active part in raising troops for the National army, and for a time supported three regiments. He settled in Arkansas as a merchant in 1863, established and became president of a national bank at Fort Smith, and was also president of the Merchants' national bank of Little Rock. On the readmission of Arkansas into the Union, he was elected United States senator as a Republican, serving from 23 June, 1868, till 3 March, 1871. He was a delegate to the Chicago Republican convention in 1868.