My Genealogy Hound

James McGrath was born in Beaver County, Penn., in 1819, and since 1881 has been a resident of Barton County, Mo. He first moved from his native State to Illinois in 1834, and was there married to Miss Jane Haas, who was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1830. To them were born eight sons and two daughters: Thomas G., John A., Samuel F., James W., Mary C., Charles H., William H., Phoeby A., Jessie G., and Birdy S. McGrath. Mr. and Mrs. McGrath own 320 acres of land in Hickory County, Mo., and eighty acres of land in Barton County, Mo., on which they reside. He is a Republican in his political views. His father, Samuel McGrath, was born in Newtown Stewart, Tyrone County, Ireland, in 1788, and came to America in 1806, settling first in Philadelphia, and going thence to Harrisburg, where he worked at his trade as a shoe and boot maker, and later to Pittsburg, where he went into the sheep business. He served in the War of 1812, and was in the famous battle of Bunker Hill, and died at the age of ninety-six, being active and energetic up to the last. His father, James by name, lived and died in Ireland, being a merchant on a small scale, in Newtown Stewart. Jane (Denning) McGrath, the mother of our subject, is of Scotch descent, her ancestors having moved from their native land to Ireland. One brother settled in the hills, and the other one in glens, and the latter had the word Glen prefixed to his name, making it Glendenning. Mr. James McGrath is a descendant of the fifth generation of the brother who settled in the hills.