My Genealogy Hound

JOHN DONNELLY, one of the prominent citizens and a leading farmer of Middlesex township, and for twenty-five years a justice of the peace, was born Nov. 13, 1827, on his present farm. On the paternal side his ancestry is Irish, several generations back, but his father, William Donnelly, was born in Silver Spring township, Cumberland county. He settled on a farm which is now the property of his son Washington, and died there in 1863. In politics he was a Democrat.

William Donnelly married Mary A. Brownawell, a daughter of Henry Brownawell, who died at the age of eighty-four years; he married a Corman, and she lived to the age of ninety-four. The children of William and Mary A. Donnelly were as follows: Samuel of Bellville, Richland Co., Ohio; John, mentioned below; Henry, who died in Cumberland county; William, deceased; Washington, of Middlesex township; Mary, Mrs. Samuel Spangler, of Silver Spring township; Israel, an attorney at Mansfield, Ohio; and Annie, deceased, Mrs. John Burget.

John Donnelly was instructed in the primary elements of his education in the subscription schools, in Silver Spring township, but family circumstances made it necessary for him to begin supporting himself while still a small boy. There is always plenty of work in a farming community, for a small boy who is honest and industrious, and he first received forty cents a day. Later he learned the tanning business with Joseph Shrum, of Carlisle, and was connected with that industry for ten years. After his marriage he lived at New Kingstown and worked at his trade with John Clendennin. He then built himself a residence, the first one erected at what is now known as Donnellytown, where he lived until 1878, at that time buying his present place from the heirs of his grandfather Brownawell; this has been the family home ever since.

On May 3, 1853, Mr. Donnelly was married to Miss Sarah S. Gregg, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Bradley) Gregg, of Carlisle, who died in February, 1903. She is survived by her bereaved husband and the following children: Clara, Mrs. John Mater, of Harrisburg; Emma, who first married Morris Mater, and second Frank McCreary, of Harrisburg; and Charles J., of Cumberland county, who married Jennie Haymaker.

In 1878 Mr. Donnelly was elected justice of the peace, an office he has held with efficiency and dignity for twenty-five consecutive years, giving great satisfaction, and disposing of an immense amount of business. In politics he has been a lifelong Democrat.