U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- McDougal Family ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Ritchie County by Minnie Kendall Lowther Wheeling News Litho. Co., Wheeling W.Va., 1911 Pages 491-493 William McDougal, a lineal descendant of the "Dhu Gals" or the "Kings of the Isles" as they were called in ancient times, came direct from the "District of Lorn" in the Highlands of Scotland to the Virginia colony in 1762. He was a young Presbyterian clergyman of marked ability, and shortly after his arrival he became the pastor of a small band of Scotch Presbyterians, who resided on the Monongahela river where Morgantown now stands. Here, in 1774, he was married to a Miss Brand, a member of his congregation, and three children were born of this union, John, Sarah, and Margaret; and shortly after the birth of the second daughter, the mother died, and in 1781, the Rev. Mr. McDougal, leaving his little ones in the care of some of his parishioners, returned to his native Highlands and there claimed another bride, before coming back to America. Upon his return he went to Kentucky, where he played an important part in the founding of the old Presbyterian church school at Danville, which is now known as "Centre College." In 1804, he rode on horseback from Danville, Kentucky, to Marion county to see his children whom he had not seen since he left them in childhood, and to induce them to go to Kentucky and live near him, but they had, in the meantime, grown to manhood and womanhood and married (Sarah had become Mrs. Deviess and gone to Ohio, Margaret had married Samuel Dudley, a Revolutionary soldier, and lived at Dunkard Mill run, in Marion county, near her brother, John), and all his persuasions, and his offers to give them large possessions in "the Blue Grass state" could not induce them lo return with him. The son said, "Father, when sister and I were infants you left us here in Virginia in the care of strangers, and returned to Scotland. Both are now married, have children of our own and are doing well. We have paddled our own canoes thus far, and so far as I am concerned, I expect to do so in future. My answer is no! I would not go for all the money you are worth." Speechless from rage or astonishment, without answering a word, the old gentleman turned upon his heel, went to the barn and got his horse and rode away, alone, through the "dense mountain forest" to his Kentucky home. And from that hour the silence between father and son was never broken, Scotch pride and stubbornness keeping them apart. John McDougal, this son, was an ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and an extensive land-owner and stock-raiser. He married Miss Margaret Hilery, in 1798, and removed to Dunkard Mill run in Marion county, where he reared a large family, and where he and his wife both fell asleep in 1861. Their children, which were nine in number, were as follows: William, Elizabeth, (Mrs. John Amos) Mary (Mrs. Wm. Toothman), Jonathan, who died in infancy, and Sarah, in youth, Osbourne, John Fletcher, Nancy (Mrs. Charles Sturm), and Enos Hilery, all of whom have passed on except John Fletcher, who resides in Missouri. The rest all sleep near the old home in Marion county, except Enos Hilery, and Osbourne, whose ashes lie in Ritchie county, they being the progenitors of the different families of this name in this county. Enos Hilery McDougal was born on June 4, 1824, and on August 17, 1848, he was married to Miss Miranda Price, of Marion county, who was born on January 6, 1831, and shortly after the close of the Civil war, they came to Harrisville, where his life closed on March 29, 1875, and where his family still reside. Mrs. McDougal was laid by his side in the Harrisville cemetery in 1907. They were the parents of six children; viz., A. S. McDougal, Mrs. Florence (J. J.) Sigler, E. L. McDougal, the late Mrs. Nettie Myrtal (Chas.) Musgrave, all of Harrisville; L. Meade McDougal, Parkersburg; and Thomas Theodore, the well-known editor of the Ceredo Advance, and the "Kenova Reporter," who began his journalistic career in a local office at Harrisville in his youth. Osbourne McDougal married Miss Sarah Brumage, and came to Ritchie county in 1845, and settled on the farm that is now the home of Leman Wilson, at the mouth of Beeson, where he remained until he was borne to his final resting-place, on his own homestead. His wife who survived him sleeps at Riddel's chapel. They were the parents of six sons and two daughters; viz., Thomas, and the late Cole, of near Pennsboro; Charles, of Kansas; Simon, of Roane county; the late Joseph, who died in the West several years ago; Enos, died while serving as a Union soldier in the Civil war, and Sarah, in youth, and Alcinda was the late Mrs. Wigner. _____________________ Footnote on page 493: (This interesting ancestral history of the McDougals is taken from a "Sketch of the Clan," which was written by Henry Clay McDousal, son of John Fletcher McDougal, of Kansas City, Missouri, who got his information from "Keltle's History of the Highlands," and by tradition. — Author.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ritchie County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ritchie/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------