My Genealogy Hound

JOHN McFADDEN is a prosperous and intelligent agriculturist, and grape grower of Portland town, and owner of one of the best vineyards, forty acres in extent, in the county. He is a son of Manassas and Mary (Magee) McFadden, and was born in Venango county, Pa., February 24, 1824. His grandfather, Manassas McFadden, was born in Ireland and came to the young republic about 1796. He soon heard of the fertile lands in Venango county, Pa., and took his family there to make a home. Land was cheap and he secured a large tract which before his death was improved into a fine farm. He married and reared a family of four children, and died in 1810, aged seventy years. Manassas McFadden, Jr., (father), was born on the sod of Erin about 1792, and came with his father to America when four years of age. His early life was passed on the farm in Venango county, which was four hundred acres in extent. Upon his father’s death, the young man took the farm and made many improvements, among them the raising of good cattle, in which he was highly successful. He died in 1847, aged fifty-five years, a devout member of the Catholic church. In 1811, Mr. McFadden married Mary Magee, who came from eastern Pennsylvania and they reared a family of ten children. Mrs. McFadden died in 1824, he married Cecelia Griffin in 1827, rearing six more children, also a communicant of the Catholic church. Mr. McFadden was a soldier in the war of 1812, and joined his sympathies with the Democratic party.

John McFadden was reared on the farm in Venango county and attended the public schools of the district. When reaching manhood he did farm work for several years, but in 1865, he came to this county and settled on his present fine place two miles southwest of Portland village, containing seventy-five acres. It was different then. To-day all is changed. Where the grain-fields stood productive vines send forth their branches and at harvest time the air is filled with the fragrance of the fruit.

In 1849, he married Catherine Maguire, daughter of William Maguire, of Crawford county, Pa., and their union has been blest with five children, two sons and three daughters: Mary J., Emaline E., James S., Raphael M. and Hattie A., wife of Auguston Weagraff and lives in Warren county, Pa.

John McFadden is a member of the Catholic church, and a Grover Cleveland democrat. He is one of Portland’s citizens who feels that the town’s welfare is his interest and uses every opportunity to advance it.