Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 975
SAMUEL MCGAVREN

Samuel MCGAVREN is numbered among the pioneers of Harrison County, having settled on his present farm, on section 21, Jefferson Township, February 18, 1853, and purchased a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, for which he paid $250; he entered the land as soon as it came into the market. His farm now comprises two hundred and forty acres. When he came to the county his family consisted of six children and their nearest market place was Kanesville, now Council Bluffs.

He was born on the Conemaugh River, near Johnstown, Pa., February 20, 1812, and is the son of George and Nancy (EWERT) MCGAVREN, who came from Ireland in 1800, and settled in York County, Pa. After two years they removed to Indiana County, Pa., and in the fall of 1829 removed to Columbiana County, Ohio. The father died August 27, 1853, in Auglaize County, Ohio, and the mother died at the village of St. Johns, Harrison County, Iowa, July 7, 1861, having been in the county since 1854.

Our subject is of a family of twelve children, nine sons and three daughters, he being the second son. When twenty years of age he started in life for himself, his first work being the threshing of fourteen hundred bushels of grain with a flail. After which he worked as an apprentice, as wheelwright, for three years. He followed this and the cabinet business for twenty-six years in Ohio. September 15, 1852, he started with an ox-team for the West and arrived at Council Bluffs, November 6, and two days later at St. Johns.

Mr. MCGAVREN was married August 16, 1834, to Jane HOON, who died January 15, 1851, leaving a family of six children: Nancy J., Wallace, Mary Amanda, Scott, George and Smith. He was again married August 16, 1853, to Margaret HADDEN, by whom two children were born. The mother of these children died October 1, 1856, and he was again married January 27, 1857 to Sarah MORGAREIDGE, daughter of Richard and Amy (SCOTT) MORGAAREIDGE. By this wife four children have been born: Amy C., born November 15, 1857, and died December 5, 1863; Laura E., born August 11, 1859; Arthur H., June 30, 1861; Addie M., May 17, 1864.

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