Ohio History Journal

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236 Ohio Arch

236       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

 

 

GENEALOGY OF WILLIAM McKINLEY.

 

BY REV. A. STAPLETON.

[The following genealogical sketch of President McKinley was pre-

pared by the Rev. A. Stapleton, of Carlisle, Pa. We give it as it was

originally published in the New York Sun.]-EDITOR.

"It should be a matter of regret to all true historians that the

campaign histories of President McKinley were erroneous in

several important genealogical details. The data herein given

may be relied on as correct, as they are the result of researches in

the court records and other authorities still extant.

"The ancestors of President McKinley belong to that sturdy

race of people called the Scotch Irish, so called because in 1607

King James I located a large number of Scots in the northern

part of Ireland on lands from which the Irish had been evicted.

These settlements were gradually augmented by immigration un-

til eventually the Scotch-Irish element predominated in this re-

gion. They were staunch Presbyterians in faith and in the course

of time developed traits and peculiarities so marked as to almost

stamp them as a distinct race.

"In course of time this noble people were overtaken by many

hardships, which as the successive failure of crops, besides very

unsatisfactory civil and religious conditions. Their only source

of relief was in immigration to America, in which they were en-

couraged by agents of the American colonies. After 1715 the

immigration became very extensive, the chief port of arrival be-

ing New Castle on the Delaware, below Philadelphia.

"The Scotch-Irish being citizens of the British realm their

arrival is not a matter of record like that of the Germans, Swiss,

Dutch, etc., who are designated as foreigners in the colonial

records, and were required to subscribe to an oath of allegiance

upon arrival, besides a subsequent naturalization. Hence it fol-

lows that citizens of the realm are more difficult to identity than

foreigners by the historian. Our only recourse is in tax lists,

land warrants, court records, etc.