The Macdonald family immigrated to the United States in 1885, settling in Cavalier County, Dakota Territory.

[1] Between 1911 and 1916, he worked in various roles for the Department of Public Instruction, including State Inspector of Elementary Schools.

[1][3] He spearheaded an initiative to improve educational opportunities for rural students, and he called this "A Square Deal for the Country Boy.

He received a place in Who's Who in America, and in 1913, he was a keynote speaker at the National Education Association meeting in Salt Lake City.

[2] In recent years, the NPL had risen to prominence in North Dakota with promises of advocating for farmers and challenging "Big Business.

[6] He formed workshops called "Better Rural School Rallies," which helped boost schoolchildren attendance.

In a September 1918 letter, he wrote, "They have a Miss Nielson after me; a dear, fat old maid, who is making a campaign on three issues, namely: One, that she is a woman, second, that she is poorly educated, and therefore anything and everything can teach school if she is elected, third, that she and her friends are against the League, and fourth that she is a Scandinavian; all of which is true except the last one, for it happens that her father and mother were born in Scotland.

In early January 1919, Nielson and her staff arrived in Bismarck at the Capitol to move into the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

However, Macdonald and his wife Kathrine, who also served as deputy superintendent, refused to leave the office and relinquish their duties.

[14] After the supreme court ruling, the Macdonalds were escorted out of the state superintendent's office by Governor Frazier, along with the sheriff of Burleigh County.

This was made known when Macdonald and his representation, consisting of Judge John Carmody, Edward S. Allen, state’s attorney of Burleigh County, and J.

Before Macdonald’s action was dismissed by Judge William Nuessle, a 1914 letter was read into the record by Nielson’s counsel, Assistant Attorney General Cox.

[20] To some, like the NPL, the creation of the Board of Administration was viewed as a way for the state to increase efficiency and save money by consolidation.

[23][24][25][26][22] In September 1919, the Board of Administration appointed Macdonald to serve as educational advisor and general school inspector.

[3] To make matters worse for Macdonald, he suffered from a case of mistaken identity when William Howard Taft, former U.S. President, waged a campaign against the NPL in the papers.

"[28][29] In one article, published in December 1920, in Philadelphia's Public Ledger, Taft confused Macdonald with Charles Emil Stangeland, a one-time consultant of the North Dakota Board of Administration who, in 1919, recommended a number of controversial books for the state library to purchase.

[2] In the early 1900s when Neil was employed as the superintendent of Lidgerwood, his wife Kathrine worked as a teacher and principal of the high school.

[2] Chester Fritz would later become a notable alumnus of the University of North Dakota, and he would have an auditorium and library named after him.

[3] Neil C.Macdonald was involved with the National Education Association, American Academy of Political and Social Science, Phi Delta Kappa, Shriners, and the Presbyterian Church.

[34] On September 8, 1923, Macdonald died unexpectedly of uremic poisoning in Montana while traveling to accept the role of dean at Seattle Pacific College.

In 1926, three years after his death, Neil C. Macdonald was posthumously honored in Bismarck for his work in the North Dakota education system.