Donaldson after the Black Hills
After Donaldson returned from the Black Hills, he again faced unemployment. For a while, Donaldson managed to take advantage of his experience, giving favorably reviewed lectures on the expedition. In July of 1875, Donaldson was even invited to accompany members of Congress on an excursion to consider a canal along the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. However, it was quickly apparent Donaldson needed a more stable career, and he believed his experience as a Black Hills correspondent might provide one.
On August 1, 1875, Donaldson purchased the seven-year-old Alexandria Post from Joseph Gilpin and within a few years built its circulation to over 550, which was remarkable considering Alexandria itself only had a population of 800. While Aris was the editor, his sixteen-year-old son, Fred, was listed as publisher on their August 13, 1875, inaugural issue. During this time, Aris also worked as an attorney and the Donaldsons’ last child, Floy Jane Donaldson, was born on November 4, 1876.
Becoming a newspaper editor proved an advantageous decision. By August of 1880, the Minneapolis Journal reported Donaldson had torn down his old dwelling on the corner of Sixth Avenue and E Street to build a ‘handsome’ new residence. But that fall, the family suffered a harsh blow when Emma, after a lengthy illness, died on October 4.
Front page of the Alexandria Post Nov 30, 1883.
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Donaldson Family plot in Kinkead Cemetery, Alexandria, Minnesota (Nov. 2025) Aris' marker in center with Sarah on left and Emma on right.
Death
Aris himself died just over three years later in the early morning of November 27, 1883, at the age of fifty-two. His death was unexpected as he had been in good health. In mid-July Donaldson had attended the annual convention of The Editorial Association in Saint Paul. He even went on an associated four-day excursion to Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, and Winnipeg, Ontario after the convention ended.
However, the previous day, Donaldson received a telegram saying his niece was coming to spend a few days with his family before continuing on to the Dakotas. Her train arrived at 3 am and Donaldson unfortunately overslept. Rushing from his house, he was greeted by the train’s whistle. Worried about his niece being alone at such early hour, Donaldson, despite being overweight and out of shape, ran several blocks to the railway station. He reached the station, but a heart attack sent him stumbling back onto the platform and he died a few minutes later. His death, like much of his life, reflected his regard for family.
The Alexandria Post, Alexandria, Douglas County, Minnesota - Friday, November 30, 1883, page 4, col. 3.
In Memoriam.
The village of Alexandria received a severe shock Tuesday morning, the 26th inst., by the announcement of the sudden death of Prof. Aris Berkley Donaldson, editor and proprietor of the ALEXANDRIA POST. It seemed incredible as the previous day he was in his office and on the streets attending to business with his usual vigor. During the day he received a telegram stating that a niece, enroute for Dakota, would be on the train which arrives here at 3 o'clock A. M., and proposed to make them a visit of a few days. With his usual hospitality, Prof. Donaldson insisted on meeting her at the train, personally. Oversleeping, he was obliged to hasten, as the train whistled just as he was leaving his home. He entered the depot then turned and went out at once, and within four minutes was lying dead upon the platform. Tuesday morning the coroner took the testimony of parties who saw him, and gave as a verdict: "Death from heart failure."
The deceased was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, February 20th, 1831, graduated with honors from the Ohio Wesleyan University, and taught in that state for twenty years and as principal of the Zanesville schools for a number of years. During the late Civil War he served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, after its close he returned to Ohio and was admitted to the bar. In 1868 he was elected to the chair of Rhetoric and English Literature in the State University of Minnesota, a position he held for years. The Prof. accompanied the Custer expedition to the Black Hills as special correspondent. In August, 1875, he purchased the ALEXANDRIA POST, and from that time until the present has remained in our midst.
Prof. Donaldson was for many years an honored member of the M.E. church, coming to Alexandria several years ago when the church was small and weak, he at once identified himself with its interests, and continued a prominent member of the same, holding at the time of his death several important offices. As a man he was of a retiring disposition, always feeling that some one else could probably do better than he, and yet when persuaded by his brethren to accept any trust his tact and devotion always made him successful. A little over a year ago he was elected Supt. Of the Sunday-school. To say that under his care the school prospered, is not enough, it was brought to to a perfection, never before known in the history of this church. On Sunday Nov 18th he was unanimously re-elected for the coming year. On opening the school last Sunday he referred to the past year and expressed the lope that the coming one might be as successful or more so than any before. So little can we tell what awaits us. The last Sunday that he spent on earth was the 26th anniversary of his wedding day. He is gone, and while it would be too much to say that he had no faults, it is not too much to say that he was a sincere Christian, that the church has lost a true brother, the temperance cause and ardent supporter, the county and state one of it ablest men, and the family an honored, loving, indulgent father.
The following relations of the deceased have arrived:
Fred H. Donaldson (son) and wife of Minneapolis; R. S. Donaldson (brother) of Stewart, Minn.; J. H. Donaldson (brother) and wife of Minneapolis; Mrs. F. A. Morrison (sister) of Glencoe, Minn., Mrs. Mary J. Finney (niece) Buxton, Dakota.
Aris Berkley Donaldson's obituary in the November 30, 1883 Alexandria Post
Aftermath
One of the defining characteristics of Donaldson’s life was the closeness of his family, including the ties between his mother and Aris’ younger siblings. Donaldson’s mother had died a few years earlier on December 1, 1879, while living with his youngest brother, James H. Donaldson in Minneapolis. Living to the age of 89, she had managed to see eight generations of her family. James died on May 28, 1885, after two weeks in the Saint Peter State Hospital, then called the state’s hospital for the insane. Mother and son were buried in Lakewood Cemetery on the southeast shore of Bde Maka Ska. Aris’ other youngest siblings, Amanda Frances Morrison and Robert Safford Donaldon, lived in Stewart, Minnesota until their deaths on October 10, 1899, and September 13, 1900, respectively.
Family ties were equally strong in Donaldson’s immediate family although they struggled in the aftermath of Donaldson’ death. Fred, his oldest son, who had left Alexandria in 1879 to start a printing business in Minneapolis, returned to publish the Alexandria Post to support his mother and siblings. Ida, their oldest daughter, had married Dr. C. R. Ward of Fargo, but the couple returned to Alexandria in March 1888 because of Ida’s poor health so she could live close to her mother.
Although Emma’s illness was never identified, it may have been tuberculosis, as her younger brother, Joseph, died of ‘consumption’ on March 18, 1890, while visiting relatives in Ravenna with his mother. His body was brought back to Alexandria to lie next to Emma’s.
After Donaldson’s death, Susan initially lived with Fred and his family in Alexandria, but when Floy later taught art in Bemidji, she moved there to support her daughter. Susan died there on February 7, 1911. Floy had attended the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts, and Columbia University. She traveled widely across North America and Europe, studying with a number of prominent artists and taught art at Central High School in Minneapolis, as well as at schools in Alexandria, Bemidji, and Lead, South Dakota. For five years, Floy taught at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to California in 1922 to head the art department at the Santa Ana junior college and high school.
Floy Jane Donaldson in 1929 Santa Ana Junior College yearbook.
A further testimony of the Donaldson family closeness is that all three of Aris’ and Susan’s surviving children ended their lives close to one another in California. Fred had moved to Santa Monica prior to 1920 where he worked as a newspaper printer. Floy and Ida, by then a widow, followed and lived together a short distance away in Santa Ana. Fred died on November 9, 1926, Floy on February 6, 1929, and Ira, despite having earlier moved back to Alexandria be with her mother because of her poor health, outlived her husband and siblings to die on October 29, 1942.
And every family obituary mentioned Aris had once been a professor at the University of Minnesota…