The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-03-12
M'klNLEY'S ANCESTORS.
The Old Church Dating Back to tho
Times of George 1.

AAo OAu Shurcn DaCinS BACK co tn0
Times of George 1.
The church where the great-great-
great-grandmother of the president
elect, William Mckinley. attended, and
the old dwelling occupied by her peo-
pie, are still standing in Lancaster
county, Pa. The pity is, however, that
the original house in which she was
born is no longer to be seen; excepting
for a few stones which mark the out
lines of the foundation of the old place,
there is not a trace of it's eighteenth
century architecture.
In the beautiful Donegal valley,
among the rolling mills of Lancaster
county, ard looking down upon the
rapid waters of the Susquehanna, lies
the village of Donegal, where the
Stevensons built the long, low house
in which the ancestor of n president
were born. The valley is one of the
prettiest in the state, and that is say
ing a great deal, for the state is filled
with picturesque places lying among
verdant hills, on the sides of which
cling tenaciously the most attractive
of well-kept farms and the whitest of
white-walled farmhouses. Donegal lies
about IS miles northwest of the town
of Lancaster. and to get to it one had
better leave the train at Marietta,
where u conveyance can be obtained
to make the five-mile journey still to
be accomplished.
Strictly speaking, Donegal is not
village nor a town, and it is doubtful if
it can claim to be borough, for there
is merely sprinkling of farmhouses
upon the hills, too far apart almost to
be called a community. In the midst
of this fertile spot lies imbedded in the
trees, which even at this time of the
year hide it, the old Donegal Presby
terrain church. which has been stand
ing since early in the eighteenth cen
fury. 1t has been remodeled, of course,
in order to preserve It, but it stands
practically the same to-day as it did in
the days of George IL.
y tablet of marble attached to the
wall of the church gives about all the
history that is known of the old struc-
ture. From this it seems the church
was founded by Arthur Patterson in
the year 1922. and in the year 174O the
church received a patent from John
Thomas and Richard Penn. During the
revolution the pastor of the little church
was royalist, but one day his congrega-
ton took him out and made him swear
his allegiance to the colonies, under a
white oak in front of the church; and
the tree, now a mighty king of the for
est, known as witness oak" on ac-
count of this circumstance, is loved al
most as much as the little white-plas-
tered church itself.
In the early part Of the last century.
at the time when George l. was king,
there was large number of immigrants
from the north of ireland. About that
time the Ulster men were having an ir-
reconcilable controversy about the
rates for land rents, and as a result
they decided to leave the old country
and seek refuge in the new world. The
majority of these settled west of the
Blue Ridge, and large number of the
SeQteh-lrish became the pioneers in
the western part of Pennsylvania.
Among those who came over at this
time was a certain James Stevenson.
who also spelled his name Stephenson,
and who had 1t spelled for him, in the
patent from the proprietor Of the col
ony, Stinson.
The precise date of his arrival is I'M
known, but it was undoubtedly, from
appearances, while the first George was
still reigning. In the year 174O. the
same year the church obtained q pat