William Madison "Gooseneck Bill" McDonald, born in 1866 near Johnson Point southeast of Terrell to George McDonald of Tennessee and Flora Scott McDonald of Alabama, rose from the son of former slaves to become an educator, political leader, Mason, businessman, and civic leader in Texas. After his mother died and his father remarried Belle Crouch, he began school at age seven, graduated from high school in 1884, and earned a reputation as the smartest boy in the area schools. As a youth he worked for attorney and rancher Capt. Z.T. Adams, who taught him about business and law. McDonald later served for several years as principal of the African American high school in Forney, where his first wife, Alice Gibson McDonald, was a teacher. He became an early leader in Texas' Republican Party within the "Black and Tan" faction, in which whites and blacks shared leadership roles, and his political partnership with businessman E.H.R. Green gave him a strong voice in state politics. In 1899 he became the right worshipful grand secretary of Texas' African American Masons, a position he held for almost 50 years. After moving to Fort Worth in 1906, he became a civic leader and businessman there. He died in 1950 and was buried in Old Trinity Cemetery, part of Fort Worth's Oakwood Cemetery. Throughout his life, he led in the struggle for social justice and urged persistence and civic and moral responsibility as steps toward equality.