Waterbury Democrat., 1901-10-07
M'KlNLEYS OF DERvOCK.
One of the Ancestors of the Late Pres
 ident Shot Carrying Arms.

A~~@%~ -~~f1s
 X few years ago. when the late Pres
 ident Mckinley was inaugurated, the
 Dublin, Ireland, newspapers printed
 stories about his ancestors and what Athey had done and suffered. After I AdcKinley's assassination the following l story was published in the Dublin
 Evening Telegraph, and being of inter-
 est we reprint it i'll full. Accompany
 ing the article are several illustrations, one showing the home of the McKin-
 leys and another the shooting by Eng-
 fish soldiers of one of the members oI
 the family The Telegraph says: s'1n no country outside the federal union will the tragic end of President McKin- ley awake a keener sympathy than
 here in Ireland. It is fitting that this should be so for many reasons. The
 country of which William Mckinley
 was ruler has given shelter to thou
 sands and thousands of Irishmen, and he himself comes of a stock that gave l a martyr to the Irish cause, for away in the north of Ireland lies the grave
 of q kinsman and namesake who died hero's death for Ireland little more
 than hundred years ago, in the stir- ] ring times of '9S. The William Me-
 Kinley who has just died was the
 chief executive of the greatest nation
 in the world. The William Mckinley I ot 179S fought in the war. for Irish h. dependence, sustained in hope, no
 doubt. by the example of American in l dependence already achieved, and, Le ' feated in the unequal strife, was not l treated as a prisoner of war, but shot in Coleraine market-place on the fnd- 1 ing Of a drumhead court-martial. Of course heswas Protestant-on of the
 race that gave McCracken and Monroe l to Ireland. Nothing is better in these days than to recall to mind the fact that in Ulster and Leinster-at Bal liEahinch and Antrim, as well as oil
 the hills of Wexford Protestant and l Catholics fought and fell together for I the cause of human liberty. The reyo- l lutionary idea fell in the north, and it's l first adherents were the Protesta1lt l friends of the Catholic cause. The l great struggle was fought out in Wex- ford, and with Father Murphy and FatLer Roche during that terrible, brief campaign, were Bagenal, Harvey and many other Protestants whose
 lives were given for Ireland. There is
 noth,ng wonderful. then, in the fact that William Mckinley of the McKin- 1 leys of Dervock. county of Antrim, Wenr to his death with the United
 Irishmen in 179S, although Antrim is
 the ultimate county of Ulster, the farthest-hung bit of Irish soil that
 parts the fretting foam of the North
 ern sea. The McKinleys of Dervock
 were a substantial family. The sturdy stone farmhouse in Dervock, four
 square to all the winds that blow sti'l 1 stands just as it did when they lived
 in it, the stone chfmneys untroubled | by time, the thick walls solid as ff.1.t1s 1frair ,cyf f1a0 1fc
 The roof of the house was matched
 until at recent date the three feet 1 thick of matted straw was replaced | with slate. The wide doorway is filled by the familiar shall-door.' The house
 is not old as substantial Irish houses
 go. Tt was probably built in 1765 by the William Mckinley of that date, who left his initials cut on an old stone seat that still serves the visitor to rest upon by Dervock door: w. MclN.. 1765.' But long before the Me-
 Kinleys had lived on the spot proba-
 bly ir a ruder dwelling, torn down to
 make room for the present house. l Their precise origin is in dispute. Some say that the McKinleys were a Scot tish race that settled in Antrim during Jan es I.'s plantation of Ulster; others stoutly maintain that they were of pure Irish stock, and a sub-tribe or
 branch family of the great house of
 OiNeili. However this may be, it $ fairly certain that during the reign of Charles II. James Mckinley. son of an- 1 other James Mckinley. called 'Shamus
 Oge,' or James the Younger settled
 upon the lands of Dervock.
 'Fhe name of sShamus Oge' may be founC among the list of those to whom
 a contract for the making of a road along the shores of Lough Neagh was issued in the year 1688 Tn 17O9 David Mckinley of Dervock was a collector
 of the hearth tax in Antrim. From
 his time the names David and William
 rc appear in the successive generations
 of ATcKinleys of Dervock. It was tho l grandson of David Mckinley, .he
 lie arth tax collector who went with
 the Ulster United Irishmen, and so met death s
 .sOf David of the hearth tax and his wife Hannah were born four stalWart sons. James, John. Peter and William. They were smart. stern men of strong bodies and resolute minds, and with bold brows and prominent noses. such as have for generations marked the Mckinley men.
 ''Ihe oldest son. James McKin1ay. went early to America. and from him descended in regular line the present William. who. by a strange oinci- 1 dence. became Washington's successor hundred years after 179S
 Tt was by a junior line of the family that the William McKin1eyNof 179S in. herited the family home of the Me- Kinleys of Deryock And he was. as his fcrebears had been. a sturdy yeo. man. tilling his acres. fearing his God, and fearing naught else This William Mckinley was close friend of Henl-r Joy McCracken, leader of the Ulster 1 rebels and an ardent adinirer of fha l Emmets. the Sheares. Lord Edwari | Fitzgerald and Wolfe Tone When the Great Organizer was in France, plying l h.s quest for efficient French aid. the 1 United Irishmen of Ulster were among | those who strained the eve day by l day. for the sight of the French ships With their braided-up sails. and float ing proudly at their peaks the tr'. color. which was then over all Europa tho emblem of liberty. But bright hopes faded, and in wild despera ton the people took the field in Leinster and Ulster, trusting to themselves alone. It was not given to William Mckinley to die in battle A quantity 1 of arms and ammunition destined for 1 Tr,sk k.<1 T<se --1-