JAMES CARROLL, a highly-respected and much esteemed farmer citizen of West Finley township, was born November 15, 1833, on the old Carroll homestead in East Finley township, this county. Robert Carroll and wife, accompanied by his two brothers, John and Hamilton, and a sister Jane, emigrated in 1760 from Ireland to America, locating in a place called Mingo, western Pennsylvania, thence moving in a few years to East Finley township, Washington Co., where they settled on one of the headwaters of Wheeling creek, near the present postoffice of Gale, and began cutting down the forest trees until a space was cleared for the log cabin (perhaps the first in that vicinity) which they soon erected. Like all the pioneer settlers, they were in hourly danger from the hostile savages, and endured the inevitable hardships of backwoods life. In 1781 work began in earnest, and Washington county was founded. In the summer of that year John and Hamilton Carroll, who resided with their brother Robert, went out one morning, and when but a short distance from the cabin both men were shot down by the Indians. Robert's wife (who with her two children was in the cabin) heard the report, and knowing the boys had no firearms with them, immediately grasped the situation; she snatched the infant from his couch and with him in her arms, and her little son of four years clinging to her side, ran to a cornfield near by, where she waited till the Indians reached the cabin. The faithful dog remained on guard at the door, and barked vigorously at the murderers, who were obliged to kill him before they could enter the house. The heroic mother knew when the barking of the dog ceased that the Indians were busily engaged in ransacking the house, and immediately taking advantage of the opportunity ran for life with her children to the nearest fort, which was five miles distant (now at Prosperity), though she had to travel much further; but she reached it safely at last, the infant in her arms, and little James running by her side. While these terrible scenes were in progress the husband and father was absent, having left home a day or two before, and gone to a mill on the Monongahela river. On returning home he was horrified to find the floor stained with blood, and other evidences of the presence of the marauding savages. Almost heart-broken the poor man hurried to the fort, and was overjoyed to find his wife and children safe within, but heard with anguish of the terrible fate of his brothers. A few days later a party of men left the fort, and finding the dead bodies of John and Hamilton (whose scalps the Indians had taken as trophies), buried them in what has since been known as the Carroll graveyard; these two victims of Indian fury being the first who were there interred. The burying ground is but a short distance from where the cabin stood. After all traces of the Indians had disappeared, Robert and his wife returned home and were not again molested. The infant Robert, who was saved from the Indians by his mother, grew to manhood and married Margaret Craig, who bore him one daughter; while James, whose little feet proved of such good service on that memorable day, was united in marriage with Margaret Marshall, to which union the following children were born: William, Robert, John, Hamilton, James, Hugh, Joseph, Thomas, Mary and Jane. John Carroll, father of subject, was born in 1808 on the same farm as was his son James, and was here reared to agricultural pursuits, which he followed on the old homestead until 1855, in which year he moved to West Finley township, where he passed the rest of his days, dying in 1876. He had married a Miss Rebecca Donley, and they had seven children, as follows: James, the subject of this sketch; William D., who married Melissa Alexander; John H., who married Anna Wirt; Hamilton B., who married Ida Underwood; Elizabeth, married to Harrison Thompson; Mary, married to Jackson Steele, and Sarah, married to William Eckols. John Carroll was a practical brick burner. Politically he was a solid Democrat until the breaking out of the Civil War. James Carroll came to West Finely township with his father in 1855, and has been a resident of the same ever since, living on various farms from time to time, but finally settling on his present fine property, which is well equipped with all modern improvements, including a comfortable and commodious dwelling. Mr. Carroll was married September 30, 1858, to Miss Agnes Patterson, who was born January 12, 1840, in West Finely township, daughter of Robert and Sarah (Rodgers) Patterson, and to this union six children have been born, viz.: Ola G., wife of W. L. Blaney; Lulu J., wife of Harry Sprowls, and Ella, Cora J., John H. and Alta Rebecca, all at home. Politically Mr. Carroll is a stanch Republican.

Text taken from page 546 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed January 1997 by Karen Souhrada of Pittsford, NY as part of the Beers Project. Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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