WILLIAM EWING. The Ewing family are of Scotch Irish descent. In their blood is mingled the fiery, ardent nature of the natives of Erin, with the conscientious, persevering and thrifty people of Scotland. The ancestors of the particular family whose history we are now recording were born in County Londonderry, Ireland, and in 1725 came to America,. Nathaniel Ewing, one of these early pioneers, was a farmer who settled in Cecil county, Md., and reared a family of eight sons, one of whom was George Ewing. William Ewing, a son of George, came to Fayette county, Penn., toward the close of the last century. He was married to a Miss Nancy Conwell who bore him children as follows: George, Nathaniel, John H., Elizabeth Breading (of Pittsburgh, Penn.), Maria (Mrs. Veech, of Pittsburgh), Louisa (Mrs. Wilson of Uniontown, Penn.), Mrs. Mary Mason (living in Iowa) and Mrs. Ellen Wallace (formerly of Pittsburgh). Of this family, Mrs. Mason alone is living. The father died in Fayette county, Penn. Nathaniel Ewing was judge of Fayette and Washington counties. The children of John H. Ewing were: William, Mrs. Prof. Wood, Mrs. Dr. Speer, Mrs. Dr. Hallock, Col. John Ewing, Dr. George, Samuel and Florence. William Ewing, whose name opens this sketch was born in 1823, in Washington, Penn., where his boyhood was passed. He attended Washington College (Dr. McKennan having been one of his classmates), graduating in 1842, then took a three-years course at the Western Theological Seminary. After completing his studies at the seminary he spent several years in Europe in study and travel, and upon returning to Pennsylvania took his first charge at the "Chartiers Church," of which he was the pastor for nineteen years. In April, 1853, Mr. Ewing was united in marriage with Miss Isabelle M., daughter of David Quail, of this county, who was a native of northern Ireland. She died in May, 1883, leaving four children: John (deceased in his twenty-fourth year); David, an attorney at Pittsburgh, Penn.; William Brown, one of three assistant physicians at Dixmont; and Samuel Blaine, a graduate of the Philadelphia Law School. On August 1, 1889, Mr. Ewing married, for his second wife, Mary Catherine Herriott, a native of Washington county. He was principal of the Canonsburg Academy for twelve years, being a very popular and influential citizen of that place. In politics he is a Republican, and in religious faith a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Text taken from page 121 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed January 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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