History of Greene
County,
Pennsylvania
JAMES McVAY, farmer and wool-grower, and breeder
of
short-horn cattle, is among the most prominent, influential and
successful
farmers of Greene
County. He was born in Morris
Township, this county, March
21, 1824,
and is a son of John and Hannah (Sidwell) McVay, and are natives of Pennsylvania,
and of
German and Irish descent. His father was
a farmer all his life and died in Greene County. His family consisted of ten children, eight
of whom grew to maturity. The subject of
this sketch is the second and was reared on the farm, attending the
subscription schools. Mr. McVay started
in the world with little else than a determination to succeed. He commenced to buy stock when he was still a
young man, buying for other parties a short time, but soon engaging in
the
business for himself. He has succeeded
in accumulating a handsome fortune. In
1865 Mr. McVay bought 244,000 pounds of wool.
His land in Greene
County amounts to
540
acres, in a high state of cultivation.
In 1840 Mr. McVay married Susan, daughter of Henry and Mary
(Williams)
Neel, and they are the parents of the following children: Mary M., wife
of H.
H. Parry; Warren, R. M., William I. And Hannah M., wife of H. C.
Snyder; D. L.
is deceased. Mr. McVay is a
Democrat. His wife is a member of the
Cumberland
Presbyterian Church.
Page 567
History of Greene County,
Pennsylvania
Samuel P. Bates
Nelson, Rishforth & Co., Chicago.
1888
Transcribed by Annette Bame Peebles
The Greene County,
Pennsylvania
Biographies Project –
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~arkbios/Greene/index.html.
Date of Transcription: 5 June 2007
Copyright (c) 2007 – All Rights Reserved