- February 5, 2025
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Dennis McDonald can trace his family's history in Port Orange back to the time it had a different name, when it was called Port of Oranges.
McDonald's family first arrived in the city now known as Port Orange in the year of 1848 after moving from Pennsylvania in a two-wheeled covered wagon pulled by two oxen. The family quickly established themselves in the area and left a long legacy that still continues. Even McDonald's grandmother, Rose, is still remembered whenever anyone visits Rose Bay in Port Orange, which was named after her by her husband.
McDonald remembers his father helping to put in a drainage system where a canal was. The dirt piled up on one side and eventually turned into what residents today know as Nova Road. For McDonald, who grew up in Port Orange, life revolved around farming and family.
McDonald was born in 1933 to a family with a strong work ethic and a large cattle farm. At one time, McDonald's father had 50 cowmen working for him. Not long after he was born, McDonald was taken out to his family's cattle pasture and shown a cow that had been branded for him.
McDonald still proudly displays his own brand, a cross and d, with a bone handle. One of his favorite memories was of that farm, of learning to ride his Florida Cow Pony, Daisy. She was a breed of horse that could be ridden day in and day out and seven days a week, according to McDonald.
On the farm, there was even a way of communicating with the whips the men cracked and how many times they were cracked. McDonald himself used a 12-foot cattle whip. However, one day when he asked the other men why they would never call him a cowman, he was told it was because he owned some of the cows; he was a cattleman.
When McDonald was 14 he received his driver's license, and after leaving school each day at St. Paul, he would take his bicycle to Orange Ave. where his father had a grocery store. Because the slaughterhouse had no electricity, McDonald would take the meat that had been hanging on hooks and put it in the cooler, get the pickup truck and then come back for the meat to be brought to the butcher before being put back in a cooler.
When the Korean War began in 1950, McDonald joined the military and was sent overseas. He came home to Port Orange when the war was over in 1953 and decided it was time for his own home. McDonald told his father he wanted to stay in the area and was given a small plot of land on the corner of Madeline Ave. for a home.
About a year later, McDonald had enough money to buy himself a pre-cut home from Orlando.
"I ended up getting that house in 1953," McDonald said. "To me, that's just a few years ago."
The only problem was that he had no power. A quick call to the power company brought up another problem — he had no address. McDonald then called the post office as there was not one present in Port Orange at the time.
"They asked me, 'where do you live?'" McDonald said. "I told them, 'I live down that dirt road.'"
McDonald soon found out he would first have to name the road, which he decided to call McDonald Road. That name was written down on a Friday, and by Tuesday the power company was installing a power pole near the home.
After he had established his own residence in Port Orange, McDonald joined the Air Intelligence Group and spent 12 years traveling between his home in Florida and multiple countries, from Egypt to Russia to Lebanon.
But despite all the places he lived during that time, Port Orange was always home. It's where he now lives. He may no longer crack his whip while riding Daisy or take his car down Taylor Road when it was little more than a dirt lane, but McDonald has his stories and a sense of pride in the place he lives.
"I was born and raised here. I just love the place," McDonald said. "I'm going to die here."
