Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/27

Rh as part of that large body of Scotch-Irish colonists who did so much toward making this country what it is to-day.

James McKinley, the great-great-grandfather of the future President, came to America in a sailing vessel which, we are told, was not so large as the famous Mayflower of Puritan fame. Shortly after landing he took his way to Pennsylvania, and settled in York County, then little more than a wilderness, inhabited by Indians, and overrun with deer, buffalo, and other wild animals. Here, on May 16, 1755, his son David was born,—a rugged, fearless youth, who, when the colonists declared themselves free and independent, hastened to join the army under Washington, fighting with that same courage which distinguished his great-grandson during the Civil War.

Shortly after the end of the Revolution, David McKinley moved westward, first to Westmoreland and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania, and then to Columbiana County, Ohio. His son James moved from the homestead to New Lisbon in 1809, taking with him his two-year-old son William.