BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO

"History of the Upper Ohio Valley" Vol. II, 1890.

Presented by Linda Fluharty from hard copies provided
by Mary Staley & Phyllis Slater.


Pages 650-651.

ANDREW McFARLAND

Andrew McFarland, a well-known citizen, was born in this county October 17,
1824. He was the son of William McFarland, a prominent man in the early
history of eastern Ohio, of whom detailed mention may here appropriately
be made. William McFarland was the son of Robert, who was a native of
Ireland, and his mother, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Malcolm Ferguson,
and both their parents were born in Scotland, but were expelled from that
country during the reformation. William came to America from Ireland, his
native land, with his parents, in 1789, and settled in Washington county,
Penn., where he remained until 1800, when he came to Ohio, and cleared a
farm in Colerain township, Belmont county. William attended school at Mt.
Pleasant, Jefferson county, walking a distance of three miles, and was
compelled by poverty to borrow a book of a neighbor boy in order to study
surveying. This convenience being soon refused him on account of his
superior progress, his father made a trip to Washington, Penn., to obtain
him a book of his own. At the age of thirteen years he began teaching
school, and he was thus engaged during the winter months for about eight
years. Soon becoming prominent and well-known, he was elected to the
legislature in 1843, as the representative of Harrison county and the
nominee of the whig party. In 1845 he was appointed by the governor
associate judge with Thomas Lee, and he served in that capacity at the
time that Messrs. Cowan and Kennon were president judges. Having
prospered as a farmer, and accumulated considerable property, he became
one of the early stockholders of the bank of St. Clairsville, and at
the organization of the Harrison National bank at Cadiz, he was one of
its directors, as which he remained until his death. By a robbery of
this bank in 1866, he suffered a loss of $14,000. During the war he
served as deputy provost marshal of this district, and sent four sons
and two sons-in-law to the field, all of whom returned save Capt. J. S.
Cready, who fell in the battle of the Wilderness in defense of his
country. William McFarland was a member of the United Presbyterian
church and an elder, and also an elder in the associate organization,
prior to the Union. Andrew McFarland, son of the above by his marriage
to Elizabeth Henderson, was taken in A. D. 1825, by his parents, to
New Athens, Harrison county, when he was one year old. He attended
Franklin college over three years, and was engaged in teaching in
1846-47. He then took up the study of medicine, with Dr. Mills as his
preceptor, and after reading with him three years, he went in 1852 to
Wheeling, and continued his studies with Dr. S. P. Hullihan, until
1856, from which time he has had a home practice until the present
writing. Dr. McFarland was afterward connected with the school board
of Athens township, of Harrison county, for thirteen years, and of
Franklin college from 1871 to 1887. After his marriage he was engaged
in farming and wool growing. In 1864, he enlisted In Company H, One
Hundred and Seventieth Ohio regiment, and as soon as he reached the
front, was sent to the hospital to care for sick and wounded, at Fort
Mansfield, and for awhile to Fort Sumner, and the remainder of his
time was in actual service. In 1880, he sold his farm and stock, and
made his home in St. Clairsville, Ohio. He is now one of the prosperous
and successful citizens of St. Clairsville. He is the manufacturer and
proprietor of a catarrh remedy which is in great demand, and an Aesculapian
compound for pains, etc., and also a cough medicine which is quite popular.
Mr. McFarland was married in 1858, to Margaret A. Smith, daughter of Joseph
B. Smith, and has three children: Elizabeth G., wife of William E. Clark;
Louella M., wife of Thomas A. Clark, and William S., a graduate of Franklin
college, also of a medical college of Baltimore, and the Polyclinic of
New York, and now practicing medicine at Colorado Springs. The mother, who
was born in Wheeling township, Belmont county, October 11, 1836, died in
May, 1873, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1875 he was married to Martha (Coe)
Lyons, widow of Capt. Richard Lyons, who fell at the Wilderness. She was
born at Wintersville in 1831, and is a member of the United Presbyterian
church.