McFadden Family

Whether James McFadden himself came from northern Ireland, or was descended from 
an earlier progenitor (perhaps Andrew, who settled in Main in 1718, or Candor, 
who came to Nova Scotia, latter moving to Pennsylvania arounf 1740) is still uncertain.
As early as 1768 James was a farmer in Salsbury Township, Lancaster County Pennsylvania, 
appearing on the tax rolls for the next twenty years, along with Alexander, Daniel and William, 
possibly brothers. During the Revolution, James and Alexander served in Lancaster County Militia,
with Michael and Jacob Jack
(brother and father of James' wife, Eve).

In 1788, James packed up his 3 horses and 3 cows and headed west, with the Jacks. They cleared 
adjacent farms in the beautiful valley along the base of Tusey Mountain, near what is now Boalsburg. It was 
James' first farm: he named it "Hope."
By 1801, however, the urge that drove the Scotch-Irish to the fringes of wilderness again struck. 
Selling his farm to Jacob, James set out with a band of neighbors over the torturous mountain trails 
to settle in the forest about a mile southeast of what is now Clarion. Here he had the unfortunate
distinction of being the first settler to die, in 1802. He lies in an unmarked grave in the old 
Seceder Cemetery, along with his wife Eve, who survived him by 38 years.
His eldest son Isaac, and youngest daughter, Jane, are unaccounted for, seemingly swallowed by the wilderness.
Second son Jacob remained prospering in Clarion till his death in 1859 at age 77.
Youngest son James and daughter Catherine died in 1817. Of the remaining daughters, 
Mary married James Potter; Elizabeth, Thomas Heredith Jr.; Margaret, William Gibson; and Ann, Owens Merideth. 
Jacobs son, also Jacob, was a pioneer of Jefferson County. Born in 1812, his mother was Elizabeth, 
daughter of Jacob and Lydia (Shaffer) Hetrick. James and Daniel McFadden were probably other sons 
of the eldest Jacob, while Elizabeth was also the mother of John Black.

Younger Jacob and his family's lives are well documented in McKnight's previous Jefferson County 
history (dispite inaccuracies regarding his ancestry). A "rawboned and powerful" man of six-three, 
Jacob was an expert woodsman and farmer, active in church and community. He cleared and farmed much acreage, 
finnaly settling in Polk Township, where he died in 1891. He and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Peter and 
Rebecca (Shannon) Reed, are buried in Munderf.

Their children were: Shannon ("stalwart" Civil War hero) married Anna Webster; Levi, 
died in the Civil War: Reed, married Julia Madock ..............: Jonathan, married Christina Wingard; 
Elizabeth; Maria, died in 1852, age 3; Reese, married Caroline Wingard; and Enoch, married Olive McKillip.
Reese had three children, Della (Heidinger), John, and William; only Will, as he put it, "aint dead yet" 
Tough as nails and sharper, he still lives near the family farmstead just north of Munderf. 
John's son, John (my dad), now lives with his wife Vera (Hall) in Brookville, and still has a hell of a fastball.

(Don't know if you want to update your genealogy section or not, but here it is.
Of course, after 26 years, my Uncle Will can no longer claim he "ain't  dead yet." Neither can my father, for that matter. Tick tock, I guess.)