Samuel McConnell, p. 1022

SAMUEL ALEXANDER (deceased). The ancestors of this well-known citizen were numbered with those heroic pioneers, the story of whose lives is ever new. That "truth is stranger that fiction" is amply proven when we read the thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes of those who gave to us our fair homes, by sacrificing in many cases all that was dearest to their own happiness. Men of iron, firm in the line of duty wheresoe'er it called, never flinching though the next moment might be their last -- women who with tearless eyes could, like the Spartan mother, send their best-loved to victory or death -- such were the ancestors of the Alexander family.

Samuel Alexander was born in the Emerald Isle of Scotch-Irish parents, and was a soldier in the British army. His children were Joseph, Samuel and Thomas, the latter born March 13, 1758. This family emigrated to America some time during the first part of the seventeenth century, settling in Maryland. Joseph was born at Chadd's Ford, Md., in 1766, and about the year 1785 came with his brothers, Thomas and Samuel, to Washington county, Penn. In March, 1786, they took out a patent of 400 acres of land on Millers run, which was then included in Washington county, now in Allegheny county. Some time after this purchase Joseph sold his interest in the land to his brothers and purchased, of one Mercer, a farm near Canonsburg. Descendants of the Mercer family may yet be living in Florence, Penn.

In early life Joseph Alexander was married to Elizabeth West, who was born June 7, 1777. To this marriage were born five children, two sons and three daughters, namely: Mary, (Mrs. Mahood), Samuel, Elizabeth (Mrs. Dickson), Dr. J. W. Alexander, of Canonsburg, and Susan (Mrs. Quail), all now deceased. The father of this family died March 23, 1828; the mother on September 3, 1866.

Samuel Alexander, second child of Joseph and Elizabeth (West) Alexander, was born June 3, 1811, on the home farm near Canonsburg, North Strabane township, Washington county. On January 24, 1860, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Logan Van Eman, daughter of Joseph and Isabella Logan Van Eman. The first child born to this union was a son that died in infancy; the second was a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, who was born May 21, 1863, and died December 10, 1889. The father was called to enter the silent land October 2, 1874, and Mrs. Alexander is now residing in Canonsburg, though yet retaining possession of the old homestead in North Strabane township. This family were Presbyterians, as were all the families of the connection in past generations as far as known.

Text taken from page 1022 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).

Transcribed January 1997 by Sharon McConnell of Fontana, CA 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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