Dolton.org

• Rebecca McManigle, born 1811
• John McManigle , born 1817
• Esther McManigle (1818-1893)
• William J. McManigle (1820-1897)
• +  Sarah Miller
• Robert Uriah McManigle (1820 – 1912)
• James McManigle, Jr. (1823-1875)
• Soloman Ellsworth McManigle (1830-1912)
• +  Mary Jane Mason (1840-1916)
• Esther Ann McManigle (1858-1898)
• William James McManigle (1859-1935)
• Soloman Ellsworth McManigle, Jr. (1861-1934)
• +  Martha Malinda Swartz (1864-1932)
• Fanny McManigle (1887-1887)
• Sophia Lavilla McManigle (1888-1958)
• Harvey Herbert McManigle (1890-1970)
• +  Florence Viola Farrell (1890-1983)
• Vivian Marie McManigle (1909-1982)
• Carmen Evangeline McManigle (1912-1989)
• Evelyn Lucille McManigle (1915-2012)
• Carl Franklin McManigle (1918-1974)
• Wayne Irvin McManigle (1924-1973)
• +  Mary Ellen Baughman (1928-2017)
• Mary Jane McManigle (1926-2006)
• +  Victor George Cyone (1926-2009)
• Frank Emmet McManigle (1892-1943)
• Katherine C. McManigle (1893-1959)
• Irene May McManigle (1897-1961)
• Margaret Elizabeth McManigle (1898-1930)
• Robert Hudson McManigle (1899-1952)
• Louella Ethyl McManigle (1901-1977)
• Benjamin Ellsworth McManigle (1903-1955)
• Lucille Lillian McManigle (born 1905)
• Theodore Thomas McManigle (1907-1957)
• Herbert McManigle (born 1913)
• Walter McManigle (1874-1887)
• Mary Jane McManigle (1867-1946)
• Nancy Elizabeth McManigle (1868-1937)
• David Franklin McManigle (1869-1938)
• John McManigle (born 1872)
• Sarah Matilda Sadie McManigle (1875-1919)

The world that these folks grew up in would seem silent today. In the world our ancestors grew up in you never heard the air conditioner come on, the dish washer running in the kitchen, the flush of the upstairs toilet, no jet flying overhead or car with a noisy muffler driving down the street, or the ring of a telephone. When they needed water, they went to the well or river. When they needed to answer the call of nature, they used an outhouse if one was available and pages torn from a catalog rather than toilet paper. Rather than an apartment on the twenty-first floor of their building they lived in a one room house made out of logs, mud bricks, or sod where their closest neighbor was six miles away. In good weather it took four hours by wagon to get to the farmer's market in the city.

But, no one was in a hurry. You would just wind up “putting the cart before the horse” if you hurried. No one made much money and you only needed enough to buy what you couldn't grow. If you weren't a farmer you could buy what you needed directly from the farmer.

To the family headed to Oregon or California the rivers were the highways that got them where they were going. But, once in a wagon following the Oregon or California trail, rivers and lakes became barriers that forced detours or expensive ferry rides.

In 1900 there were about 1,500 newspapers in the US. But, most folks were lucky to see part of one a couple of times a month. You got your news from your neighbor, who got his news from his neighbor, and so on. So folks liked to sit around on the porch, at the store, or the court house and talk. If you listened, then you learned.

James McManigle is the most ancient ancestor known to those McManigle’s descended through him to Wayne Irwin McManigle of Brookville, Pennsylvania. The variations in the spelling of the McManigle name are many and include: McManagel, McGanigal, McMaingil, McManigal, McMonagle, McNigle, and McManigil. James said he was born in Ireland in 1782 [Ref: 1850 US Federal Census for Eldred, Jefferson, Pennsylvania, enumerated 11 Oct 1850]. We do not have a record of who his parents were.

In 1782, when James was born, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain, in Paris, sign preliminary peace articles ending the American Revolutionary War (later formalized in the Treaty of Paris). Also in that year, Laird of Johnstone, George Ludovic Houston invites people to buy marked plots of land which, when built upon, form the planned town of Johnstone, Scotland, to provide employment for his thread and cotton mills. As whites moved west in Pennsylvania they forced the Indians out. The Indians lost their lands due to the whites moving in. Then, the whites "bought" the lands they had already taken from the Indians. They bought most of Northeast and Southwest Pennsylvania in 1768. In 1784 they bought Northwest Pennsylvania. All these purchases involved treaties that were never honored or outright swindles and grabs.

After Revolutionary war soldiers received depreciation land grants for military service, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a general land act on April 3, 1792 authorizing the sale and distribution of the large remaining tracts of land east and west of the Allegheny River in hopes of sparking development of the vast territory. The process was an uneven affair prompting much speculation but little settlement, with most soldiers selling their shares sight unseen under market value and many investors were ultimately ruined. East Allegheny district consisted of lands in Potter, McKean, Cameron, Elk, and Jefferson counties, at the time worthless tracts.

James is first found in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1809, where he shows up on the tax records as a single man. But, he didn’t stay single for long. His first daughter Rebecca McManigle was born in 1811. So he and Susanna Baeker must have been married in 1810 or 1811. James was twenty-seven years old when he first is taxed in Westmoreland County. The 1810 US Federal Census shows a James McManagel, bachelor, in Hempfield, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. In the 1830 US Federal Census James McManigle still appears in Hemfield Township, but he now has a family of eleven. There were James, his wife, and nine children ages five to nineteen years.

Westmoreland County was founded on February 26, 1773, and was the first county in the colony of Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is the home of American Revolution Major General Arthur St. Clair who is buried in Greensburg, Pa.

James continues to show up in tax records until 1835, when his name was crossed out. At this time, he probably moved to Jefferson County. While land records in Westmoreland show he owned 20 acres of land in Hempfield Township, there is no record of him selling the property.

About 1834, James and his fledgling family left Westmoreland County for Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. James McManigle appears in tax records of Eldred Township, Jefferson County, in 1837.

In the 1840 US Federal Census for the state of Pennsylvania, Jefferson County, Eldrid Township, on page 1 was a record for the James McGanigal (Sic.) family. It is believed that this is the James McManigle family. The US Federal Census for 1840 has scant information compared to other years. The record lists James as the head of household and then indicates that there are a total of six males and five females in the household. Of those eleven household members; five of them were engaged in agriculture. The others are probably James’ younger children who are too young yet to work.

James and Susan McManigle had eleven children: Rebecca McManigle, John McManigle, Esther McManigle, William J. McManigle, Robert McManigle, James McManigle, Jr., Alexander McManigle, Christine McManigle, Susanna McManigle, Solomon Ellsworth McManigle, and Elizabeth McManigle.

In Western Pennsylvania, the winter of 1842-3 was a bitter cold, when the snow was three feet deep, with a frozen crust that would bear man and beast. Travelers through the area report seeing a most remarkable sight as they journeyed toward Jefferson County in the summer of 1842. While on their way down the Allegheny River, they saw thousands of black squirrels, all journeying eastward. They would climb the trees on the west bank of the river, and drop from the outspreading branches into the stream, and then swim to the other shore. Mr. Smith and his companion would hold out their paddles to the little creatures, and they would scramble into their little boat, and sometimes stay with them for hours, when they would spring into the water again and make for the eastern shore. When Mr. Smith and his companion reached Strattanville, on their way into Jefferson County, they found the citizens shooting the squirrels off their fences, the migration still going on. The squirrels did not seem to avoid towns or people, their only aim being to travel towards the rising sun. Surely it is wonderful that instinct alone should have caused these timid animals to thus migrate from the sure death that awaited them.

James applied for privileges to Mount Tabor Presbyterian Church, 18 May 1844. Applying for privileges is the same as requesting membership in most churches today. Mount Tabor Church was located in Eldred Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, where James and his family was living. James was received (granted membership) upon examination.

Mount Tabor was the fifth church organized in Jefferson County and is located on the Olean road, half a mile south-by-west from Sigel. The Church was established in the latter part of 1840 and the first church was built in 1848. There were only eleven original members. Messrs. William McNeil and James Summerville were elected, ordained and installed ruling elders. For the first seven years the congregation worshipped in an old log school-house. [Ref: History of Jefferson County 1888 pages 243-244]

James lived in Eldrid Township until his death on February 20, 1856. He was buried in Mt. Tabor Cemetery; Section B, Row 1, 1980, Eldred Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Inscribed on the tombstone is the following: “McManigle, James d. 2/20/1856 76 y”. If he was born in 1782, then he was only 74 years old when he died and the inscription is wrong. While she may have missed him terribly, his wife Susan did fine without him. She lived another fourteen years after his death to the age of seventy-seven.

In the year James died (1856), the Civil War was just five years off. On January 24, U.S. President Franklin Pierce declared the new Topeka Free-State government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion. On May 21, Lawrence, Kansas was captured and burned by pro-slavery forces (the "Sacking of Lawrence"). On May 22, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate, for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas. Sumner is unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered; Brooks becomes a hero across the South. In June, five hundred Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa, and headed west for Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.