Thanks to Ancestry DNA, I extended my McDougal line on my Paden side to the Vawter family, and then to a Revolutionary War veteran with the great name of Allegany McGuire (1757-1843), sometimes spelled creatively as Alleygane Magwier. (Hey, spelling was flexible back then!) He was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, where he volunteered for service in the Revolution and was appointed orderly sergeant. He served under Generals Gates and Lincoln. According to his biography at
findagrave.com (an amazing crowdsourced resource for genealogy), he was at the battles of Williamsburg (I can't find any information on this one), Hampton,
and the decisive battle of Yorktown [edit: not the battle of Yorktown; see comments]. Afterwards he moved to Georgia and then Tennessee, where he lived for many years. His pension papers are pretty long, I am going to have to try to transcribe what he said. I did find quite an interesting person in his list of character references--Col. James K. Polk! The future president lived in Columbia, Tennessee, in the same county as Allegany.
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James K. Polk. This is the first
photograph of a U.S. President. |
Allegany McGuire married Sarah Holiday, giving one of his sons the even more amazing name of Holiday McGuire.
CHILDREN of ALLEGANY and SARAH are:
(1) Rhoda McGuire was born 16 Nov 1785; married John Lewis Vawter; died 28 Aug 1824 in Maury County, Tennessee.
(2) Mourning McGuire was born 20 Aug 1787.
(3) Nancy McGuire was born 3 Jun 1789.
(4) Cynthia McGuire was born 9 Feb 1791; married first, Richard Johnston Vawter and second, John Ray.
(5) Holiday McGuire was born 29 Dec 1792.
(6) Matilda McGuire was born 8 Oct 1794.
Looks like sisters Rhoda and Cynthia married brothers (Vawter family), a fairly common occurrence in the rural and frontier regions.
