My Genealogy Hound

William P. McGonigle, tax collector of Knox County, Mo., is a native of Perry County, Ohio, where he was born February 20, 1842. He is a son of John and Madge (Doherty) McGonigle, both of Irish nativity. The father came to Missouri, and settled in Knox County, in the fall of 1843, with his family. He there located on a farm five miles northwest of Edina, where he successfully engaged in agriculture for a number of years. In 1880 he died at the residence of our subject in his eighty-seventh year. The mother’s death preceded his, taking place in 1873. Of the six sons and two daughters born to this pair, only two, John, in California, and William P., now survive. Our subject was reared to manhood on the farm in this county, and secured a good English education in his youthful days, and had the care of the family thrown upon him from the time he was grown until the death of his parents. In 1872 he left the farm, and engaged in the mercantile business at Edina, in company with his brother Henry, who was treasurer and collector of the county for a number of years. After building their present edifice which is situated on the south side of the square, they conducted a lucrative and successful mercantile business, until the death of Henry, which occurred August 21, 1881, since which time Mr. McGonigle has successfully conducted the business alone, handling a large stock of groceries, glassware, cutlery, boots and shoes, hats, caps, etc., and controlling a large city and country trade. Mr. McGonigle has always been a Democrat, and in 1886 was elected county tax collector, which office he is now filling in a highly creditable manner. October 4, 1870, he was married to Julia I. Coony, a native of Edina, by whom he has had the following children: Maggie T., Edmund R., Mary G., John B., William R., Julia, Cecelia and Henry. Mr. McGonigle, his wife and family are members of the Catholic Church. During the war Mr. McGonigle was a firm Union man, and although not in the regular service was a member of the militia.