Donald "Cross" was born in Glenturret, Scotland on April 10, 1830

He died in Mabou on March 6, 1904

The following is the obituary of my Great Grandfather.

On Sunday, the 6th instant, at Mabou, in the person of DONALD MacDONALD (Cross), a venerable Scotsman passed peacefully away to his eternal reward. Born at Lochaber, Scotland, in the year 1830, when but a little boy four years old, he came to Nova Scotia with his parents Angus and Ann MacDonald, who, after landing at the Strait of Canso, proceeded to Mabou where they settled with their family in 1835, Donald then being the youngest.  On July, 19 1857 he married Flora MacDonald, daughter of Finlay MacDonald, of South-West Mabou, and first lived on the old homestead adjoining the town of Mabou, but later on, to the original homestead he added a large adjoining farm on which he made his home up to the time of death.  Their married life was long - extending over forty-seven years, it was fruitful, for they were blessed with two sons and three daughters, it was singularly happy.  A typical Highland Scottish country gentleman, he delighted in everything Scottish and seventy long years absence from auld Scotia could not lessen his love for that bonnie, bonnie land far, far across the sea - that land so dear in the true Scot's heart.  Rugged honesty, sterling uprightness and integrity, characterized all his dealings with his fellow-man.  True as steel and of a happy, home loving, religious temperment, it was little wonder that he made hosts of friends.  He had prospered in life, for besides owning at Mabou one of the finest farms in Inverness County, he owned another large farm at  Mabou Ridge.  But his prosperity was not due to chance, it was the result of hard, persevering, honest work.  A sincerely devout and model Catholic, broad-minded, sympathetic, and generous in his views, a man of charming personality, having withal a large fund of Highland Scottish anecdote, he was at his best in his own home which was one of unbounded hospitality.  A true Highlander by birth and by stature, it was fitting that on Tuesday, the 8th instant, his funeral should be in keeping with the time-honored customs of the Highland Scottish people, and that his remains should be tenderly and respectfully borne to their last resting place on the shoulders of the men of Mabou to the wail of the Scottish bagpipe.  At ten o'clock one of the largest funeral corteges ever seen in Mabou wended its way to St. Mary's Church timed to the sad strains of "MacCrimmon's Lament," "Flowers of the Forest," "MacGregor's Lament", "Mac ic Raonial na Caepeach", and "Farewell to Lochaber - Lochaber no More" and after a Requiem High Mass by Rev. J. F. MacMaster, P.P, all that was mortal of good old "Donald Cross" was buried beside his father and mother in the family lot in St. Mary's cemetery with the solemn blessing of the Church whose sacraments had prepared him to meet his Lord and his God.  Besides a devoted wife, he leaves two sons and a daughter who have the sympathy of hosts of friends in their bereavement. May his soul rest in peace!