JUDGE WILLIAM McKENNAN. The great-grandfather of Judge William McKennan, Rev. William McKennan, immigrated to America from the North of Ireland about the middle of the last century. For a period of fifty-four years, from December, 1755, he was pastor of the White Clay Creek and the Red Clay Creek Presbyterian churches, near Wilmington, Del., and during thirty- four years of this time he was also pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington. He died in 1809, at the age of ninety, and is buried at Red Clay Creek church. His son, William McKennan, was born in Delaware in 1758. In the early part of 1776 he entered the Continental army as second lieutenant of Capt. Kean's company of the regiment of the Flying Camp. In the latter part of the same year, upon the organization of the famous Delaware Regiment, he became first lieutenant of the first company, and afterward he was promoted to the captaincy of his company. In September, 1777, he was engaged in the battle of Brandywine, and a month later, at the battle of Germantown, he received a wound in the arm which ultimately caused his death, thirty years later. In 1780 he took part in the battles of Monmouth, Camden, South Carolina and Cowpens. After the battle of Camden, in which the Delaware regiment suffered severe losses, Capt. Kirkwood took command of the regiment, and, in December, 1780, Capt. McKennan returned to Delaware and enlisted a body of men, who, however, did not join the Delaware regiment, but was brigaded with William Washington's Legion and troops of the Maryland Line, and was commanded by Capt. McKennan until the close of the war, in 1783. Capt. McKennan and his battalion were engaged in the operations against Yorktown, which resulted in the surrender to the Continentals of the main British army under Cornwallis. Afterward the battalion performed arduous and highly honorable service under Gen. Greene, in North and South Carolina. Upon his return to civil life, Capt. McKennan was chosen colonel of a regiment of Delaware militia, and was elected a member of the Legislature of his native State. He also became a member of the Order of the Cincinnati. In 1797 he removed to Charlestown, Va. (now Wellsburg, W. Va.), thence, in 1800, to West Middletown, Washington county, and in 1801, having been appointed prothonotary of Washington county, he became a resident of the town of Washington, and continued to live there until his death, in January, 1810. In 1800, before his removal from Charlestown, he was one of the three presidential electors from Brooke county. Col. McKennan married Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of John Thompson, one of the judges of the court of common pleas and Orphans' court of Newcastle county, Del., an active patriot and prominent citizen of the State during and subsequent to the Revolutionary war. Mrs. McKennan's mother was the sister of Thomas McKean, a member of Congress and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, from Delaware, and afterward governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Mrs. McKennan died at Washington, Penn., in 1839, at the age of seventy-eight years. Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan, the third son of William and Elizabeth Thompson McKennan, was born in March, 1794, in Newcastle county, Del. He was educated at Washington College (Penn.), whence he graduated at the age of sixteen in the class of 1810. Immediately thereafter he began the study of law under Parker Campbell, of Washington (Penn.), one of the most brilliant lawyers who has ever graced the bar of western Pennsylvania, and on November 7, 1814, at the age of twenty-one, he was admitted to practice. Shortly afterward he formed a legal partnership with Obadiah Jennings, eminent as well in the forum as in the pulpit, and at once entered upon a career of success. A year later he succeeded Walter Forward as deputy Attorney- general or district attorney of the county, in which office he served until 1817. In 1831 Mr. McKennan was elected to the House of Representatives of the United States, and continued a member thereof for four terms, finally declining further re-election on account of the urgency of his professional work. In 1842, however, a vacancy having occurred in the House by reason of the death of Joseph Lawrence, Mr. McKennan yielded to the solicitations of his party and the public demand, and served the remainder of the term. He was chairman of the Committee of the Whole for two months of the first session of that year, and as such was largely instrumental in securing the passage of the famous Tariff Act of 1842. In 1840 he was chosen a presidential elector on the Whig ticket, and in 1848 he was made president of the Pennsylvania Electoral College. In 1850 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Fillmore, but resigned a few weeks later. Soon after this he became president of the Hempfield Railroad Company, and while attending to its affairs he died at Reading, Penn., on July 9, 1852. In politics Mr. McKennan was an earnest Whig. Mr. McKennan entered Washington College at a very early age, and passed through the entire curriculum. In February, 1813, he was appointed tutor of the ancient languages, in which position he continued for eighteen months. In April, 1818, he was chosen a member of the College Corporation, and continued as such up to the time of his death, a period of thirty four years. For several years he held the position of adjunct professor of languages. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him, by Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Penn. The life of Mr. McKennan was one of purest probity, and in his quiet, unobtrusive, yet effective way, he contributed largely toward the shaping of the political destiny of the State of Pennsylvania. He was universally respected, and his popularity was unbounded. In his private life he was beloved by all as a loyal citizen, a devoted husband, an affectionate and indulgent parent and a true friend. He was devotedly attached to children, was a lover of good men and a supreme detester of all manner of vice and meanness. In 1815 Mr. McKennan married Matilda, daughter of Jacob Bowman, one of the pioneer merchants of Brownsville, Penn. William McKennan, the oldest son of Thomas M. T. and Matilda (Bowman) McKennan, was born at Washington, Penn., September 27, 1816. He graduated as valedictorian of his class, from Washington College, Washington (Penn.), in 1833, and afterward took a post graduate course at Yale College, New Haven, Conn. He was admitted to the bar of Washington county in June, 1837, entered into partnership with his father, and on August 23, 1837, qualified as deputy attorney-general or district attorney of Washington county, and served one term. In 1847 he was burgess of the borough of Washington, and in 1852 a member of its councils. In 1858, 1862 and 1863 he was a delegate from Washington county to the Republican State Conventions, and in 1868 a delegate to the National Convention. In 1857 he was chairman of the Republican committee of Washington county; in 1858 was a member of the Republican State Central committee; in 1860 was a presidential elector; in the same year was a delegate to the Peace Congress, and on December 21, 1869 was commissioned Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States for the third circuit, comprising Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, which office he resigned on January 3, 1891. While at the bar, Judge McKennan was recognized as one of the foremost lawyers of western Pennsylvania, and during his twenty-one years' incumbency of the bench he won a high reputation for integrity and ability. He married, October 12, 1842, Pauline Gertrude de Fontevieux, who was born at Paris, France March 23, 1821, and died May 7, 1886, at Washington, Penn. The children of this union were: Isabel B., who married George M. Laughlin, of Pittsburgh, Penn., and died December 5, 1891; Thomas M. T.; Emma W., who married William W. Smith, of Washington, Penn., and died August 30, 1879; Henry S., who died at Washington, Penn., January 9, 1888; Samuel G.; John D.; Gertrude M.; Annie, who married Alexander W. Biddle, of Philadelphia, Penn.; David W. and William, Jr.

Text taken from page 99 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed April 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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