Nebraska State Historical Society
Date of this Version
1887
Abstract
Died, November 3, 1883, at "Headwood," the family residence, in Otoe county, near Nebraska City, Nebraska, of the infirmities incident to old age, John McMechan, aged 83 years and 23 days. The McMechan family is of Scotch origin, and lived in Ayreshire, but being active and leading members of the" Solemn League and Covenant," was forced, by religious persecution, to leave Scotland in 1650, and settled in the county Antrim, in Ireland, near “White Abbey,” five miles from the city of Belfast.
John McMechan, the father of the subject of our sketch, was a wealthy land-owner, and the family estate in Ayreshire and Antrim 'County numbered several thousand acres of grazing and tillable lands. His wife was a Miss Mary Ballentine, daughter of David Ballentine, of Ayreshire, and grand niece of Lord John Ballentine, a cousin of Mary Queen of Scots. John McMechan was born on October 10, 1800, at the family homestead “Carmonia,” near the “White Abbey,” five miles from Belfast. He had four brothers and five sisters. He survived all of his brothers and two of his sisters. In 1810 the family came to America and settled in Belmont county, Ohio, eight miles from "Wheeling, Virginia, and his father in the same year purchased the "Indian Springs" farm, so called from the springs at which the Indians camped previous to attacking •Wheeling.
Comments
Published in TRANSACTIONS AND REPORTS OF THE NEBRASKA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, vol. 2 (Lincoln, NE, 1887).