James McAuley
JAMES MCAULEY, late of Boggs township, had lived on his farm there for almost fifty years at the time of his death. He was a native of Ireland, born July 28, 1828, in County Antrim, Province of Ulster, son of Henry and Martha (McIntire) McAuley, Scotch Irish people who lived and died in Ireland. They left only one child. The father was a weaver of fine linen.
The father had two brothers, John and James, and one sister, Mrs. Mary Mitchell, the latter being the only one of the family to come to America. She and her husband settled in Ohio.
James McAuley received his early education in Ireland. His parents having died, he came to America at the age of seventeen, joining some friends in Pittsburgh who had written him of the opportunities to be found in the new land. He worked in farms about what was then the village of Mechanicsburg, now Verona, and studied under Prof. Samuel Jones until he became fitted to take up the profession of school teacher, which he followed for a number of years. On March 29, 1855, he married in Pittsburgh Cornelia Remaley, and on April 5th they went to Ohio, settling on a small farm near Lucasville, where Mr. McAuley had previously taught school. After a residence of a year and a half they sold out and returned to Pennsylvania, settling December 10, 1857, on the farm in Boggs Township, Armstrong County, which was ever afterward his home, and where his widow and three daughters resided for several years after his death. It is situated on the south fork of Pine Creek. Mr. McAuley purchased a first tract of 102 1/2 acres, on which a big log house was standing. That, however, was the only improvement. The land was overgrown with brush, but he set bravely to work, and not only succeeded in placing his original purchase under cultivation, but bought another tract containing sixty one acres and a fraction. As he prospered he put up new buildings, and the fine condition the place attained under his intelligent management showed him to be a man of resource and energy, as well as progressive ideas. He became a well known citizen of Armstrong County, having served a s tax collector for many years from 1869, and was quite prominent in the work of the Democratic Party. While he and his wife were living in Ohio he was instrumental in organizing the church there, and after settling in Boggs township was prominently identified with the United Presbyterian Church, being an elder in the Mount Zion Church. He died at his home, April 21, 1907.
The following children were born to James and Cornelia (Remaley) McAuley, Martha, Mary, Susan, Margaret, Minerva, Elvira, Isabella, Robert James, and Sara Orie. Mary died when but five years of age, and Isabella in June, 1913, at the age of forty-four. Susan and Sara Orie remain with their mother. The other members of the family all married, and reside in different parts of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. McAuley appreciated the advantage of an education. In the early years of their married life, after the toils of the day were over, they made their home like a school, and as a result of their teaching all their children enjoyed the a liberal education, several of them becoming prominent teachers.
George Remaley, son of George and Katie (Richards) Remaley and father of Mrs. McAuley, married Mary Hoffer and they became the parents of six children: John, Susan, Jacob, Catherine, Cornelia (born March 17, 1833, at Springdale, Allegheny Co., PA., now the widow of James McAuley), James. Mrs. McAuley was but 21/2 years old when her mother died, and her father died in the prime of his life, when only forty four years old. At the death of her mother she went to live with her aunt, Mrs. Susan (Hoffer) Wright, of Pittsburgh, where she resided until her marriage.
Source: Pages 890-891, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed November 1998 by Nanci Michalkiewicz for the Armstrong County Beers Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format, for any presentation, without prior written permission.Return to the Beers Project
Return to the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
Return to the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
Return to the Armstrong County Genealogy Project