Wells County, Indiana Family History 1837-1992
(Gc 977.201 W46we)
McCague
The McCague family connection to Wells county, Indiana, began about the mid
1850's when William Hamilton McCague and wife Margaret (Archbold) settled
land some four or five miles east of the town of Ossian. There they lived out
their lives farming and running a small country store and rearing their
eleven children. William born March 15, 1882 in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio was
apparently named after Dr. William Hamilton, the local physician who likely
delivered him. Margaret was born January 17, 1829 to John A. and Elizabeth
(Gibson) Archbold in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and married William there on
December 22, 1846.
The U.S. progenitor of the McCague family was John McKaig, who was said to
have been born in Scotland in 1780 and apparently in fleeing authorities
crossed the channel to northern Ireland in his early teens. However it cannot
be proven that he was not born in Monaghan County, Ireland, for it was from
there that he immigrated to Philedelphia about 1800 "with an uncle". No
history of the latter has been discovered. John settled in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, where for a few years he worked as a freight wagon driver
delivering goods across mountains to the west for supplies for the settlers
in eastern Ohio territory. On March 27, 1807 he married Mary Jane Holmes of
Carlisle whose parents remain unknown. In that town they continued to live
for a few years and had at least three children there: Ellinor, born/died
1808; James Fremont, born 1809, who in adult life settled in Hardin County,
Kentucky; and Annabelle, born 1811, who married William P. Moore. In later
years the latter sold his wife's parents farm, but failing to provide a deed,
cheated them from the ownership.
After 1811 John and Jane moved to Harrison County, Ohio, where they farmed
for several years. In that place they had additional children including:
Elizabeth, born 1813, married Harrison Moore (no known relationship to
William P.); Ellen, born 1816, who married first Thomas W. Taylor and later
William Wright with whom she lived in Lima, Ohio. Next, in 1819 was born
Andrew Jackson, who married Mary Jane Moore, a sister of Harrison. They to
moved to western Ohio, as did William H. and Margaret, who also lived around
Lima prior to removing to and settling in Wells County, Indiana.
Sometimes before 1825, John and Jane removed from Harrison County, Ohio to
another farm in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. No records have been found to
establish any ownership of land in either place. It was in the latter county
that were born Mary Jane in 1825, who married John Isnogle, and John Holmes,
born 1830 who first married Rebecca Williams and later Lucinda Smith, and
these latter children also removed to the Lima/Paulding, Ohio area.
John is said to have died of pnuemonia on January 1, 1851 after which Jane
went to live with Ellen Wright in Lima, Ohio, where she died in 1859 and was
buried.
William Hamilton McCague died in Wells County, Indiana April 1, 1906 and
Margaret preceeded him in death there on July 5, 1897. Their eleven children
included: Elizabeth, 1849-1850; John Lafayette, 1851-1916, married Mary Daine
Sutton and lived in Bluffton, Indiana; Andrew Commodore Perry, 1853-1924,
married Lorena Dowty; Mary Ellen, 1860-1932, married Martin Bisson and lived
in Fort Wayne; Charles Hamilton, 1861-1928, ran a livery stable in Fort Wayne
where he died; Martha Alice, 1861-1881. William Frederick, 1863-1881; Marion
General, 1868-1946, who married Sadie Valzetta Shimer and continued to live
and die on part of the original McCague land; Ida Mae, 1869-1930, and James
Francis, 1866-1931, neither of whom married and lived together thier lives on
part of the original land; and lastly Minnesota (1872-1953), married Charles
W. Snarr and they to lived and farmed near her siblings.