Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

Alexander B. Donnel

Alexander B. Donnel was born in Pennsylvania, March 20, 1806, and immigrated to Ohio in 1818, and from thence to Iowa in 1844. In '45 he purchased land in company with S. S. Roberts, with whom he had been associated in business for several years. In '49 he, in company with many others, started for California, and died near Fort Kearney, in June. Other members of the family, some of them still living in the township, settled here in 1848,and the mother died early in the spring of '56, aged about 80 years.

Soon after the settlement of this family here, a report got abroad that they intended to enter a number of claims in the neighborhood, and this brought the club together to enforce mutual protection in case such was the design. But upon visiting the residence of the supposed intruders in a body, and with such warlike threats as were thought necessary to frighten them into compliance with the rules supposed to be indispensable to "settler's rights," yet without avail, it was discovered that it was not the intention to interfere with the just title of any claimant. Failing to bring the enemy to any more definite terms, the club adjourned, and this was about the last demonstration of the kind made by them.