George McKeehan

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Husband George McKeehan ¹

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           Born: Abt 1747
     Christened: 
           Died: 1803
         Buried: 

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         Father: John McKeehan (      -1783)
         Mother: 

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Wife

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - George McKeehan

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John McKeehan, born 15 Aug 1736, made his will 27 Nov 1812 and appointed as executors his brother Benjamin and Richard Woods, both of West Pennsboro and "in case of their death, James McKeehan, son of brother James, and Samuel McKeehan, son of brother George, deceased." Thus we know that John McKeehan who died in 1782 had a son George as well as sons John, James, and Benjamin. George is anomalous in two respects. Even though he died in 1803, he is not mentioned in his father's will, as are his four brothers Samuel, John, James, and Benjamin. There is a list with birth dates of the these 4 brothers, one other brother Alexander, and 3 sisters in the Bible of the youngest sibling Benjamin, which was copied from some other source (or sources). George is missing from the list. This list can be found on page 281 of The Familes of Joshua Williams of Chester Co., Pa. and John Keehan of Cumberland Co., Pa. by Bessie P. Douglas and published in 1928 and for reference is as follows:

Samuel, born 17 Mar 1728
Alexander, born 2 Sep 1731
Janet, born 30 Aug 1734
John, born 15 Aug 1736
James, born 2 Jun 1739
Agnes, born 5 Jun 1742
James, born 20 Dec 1745
Elizabeth, born 29 Sep 1749
Benjamin, born 2 Aug 1751

Bessie P. Douglas believes that Benjamin made a mistake when he copied the information from some other source into his own Bible, and that the first 'James' should be 'George'. In support of this thesis she cites the following excerpts from the membership lists for John McKeehan's district on pages 52-53 in Gilbert Swope's book The Big Spring Presbyterian Church. These lists are thought to have been compiled by the Rev. Samuel Wilson shortly after he became pastor in 1787.

George McKeehan, 40
Mary McKeehan, 30 *
Mary McKeehan, 6
Jenny McKeehan, 7

James McKeehan, 35 *
Mary McKeehan, 30 *
Nancy McKeehan, 16
Peggy McKeehan, 14
John McKeehan, 13
Betsey McKeehan, 10

Each excerpt is a family group, and the asterisk indicates that the member is in full communion. James is 5 years older than George, which is approximately how much older the first 'James' in Benjamin's list is than the second 'James'.

I think that it is unlikely that Benjamin would make such an error in copying, and that is highly unlikely that it would go unnoticed and/or uncorrected. I think it is much more likely that the first James died as a young child and his name was given to a subsequent male child. I think Benjamin's error was one of omission, and this omission might be due to George's birth date not being in the sources that he used. Since George is also missing from his father's will, the omission might have been intentional. Note, however, that Alexander is also not mentioned in the will.

Early in his tenure Rev. Samuel Wilson divided his pastorate into 10 districts and assigned an elder to each. John McKeehan was one of them. In his book Gilbert Swope presents a membership list for each district with the name and age of each member. John McKeehan's brothers James, George and Benjamin, and some other relatives, lived in his district. It is difficult to use the ages to estimate birth years because we do not know when the lists were made, and the evidence that we have from known birthdates of various people suggests that the final list in Swope's book may have been made up partly on the basis of earlier lists whose ages were not updated. For example, John's wife Elizabeth died June 20, 1822 aged 77 years according to Bessie P. Douglas and thus was born about 1745. She is 45 in Swope's list suggesting that the list was made in 1790. Her sons George and James were born December 22, 1766 and April 2, 1768 respectively and in Swope's list are 18 and 16, suggesting that the list was made in 1784. The following family group corresponds to John McKeehan, who is not included since he is an elder.

Elizabeth McKeehan, 45
George McKeehan, 18
James McKeehan, 16
John McKeehan, 14
Samuel McKeehan, 11
Alexander McKeehan, 9
Mary Ann McKeehan

The following three persons are listed next to James McKeehan and his family. Benjamin is James's brother, and it is not clear who Margaret and Elizabeth are.

Benjamin McKeehan, 30
Margaret McKeehan, 27
Elizabeth McKeehan, 25

On page 288 Bessie P. Douglas points out that the birth dates in Benjamin's Bible and the ages in Rev. Wilson's lists for Benjamin, James and George are not very close assuming that the lists were made about 1787-89 as is often asserted. Their ages in the memberships lists are 30, 35 and 40 respectively, and their real ages in 1787 are 36, 42 and 48 (assuming George is really the first James in Benjamin's list). Douglas suggests that Rev. Wilson may have used in certain cases already existing lists which he did not bother to update or that the ages were just rough approximations.

If, however, we compare Rev. Wilson's ages for James's children with the ages on page 295 of Bessie P. Douglas's book, the match is perfect, assuming the lists were made in 1787.

I don't know when George was born, and I have placed him between James and Elizabeth primarily because there is a convenient age gap there. However, if he were 40 in 1787, as Rev. Wilson's list suggests, then he was born about 1747, which is right in the middle of the gap. I have no explanation for why the ages of James and Benjamin according to Rev. Wilson are too young.

1 Bessie P. Douglas, "The Families of Joshua Williams of Chester Co., Pa & John McKeehan of Cumberland Co., Pa with Some Allied Families," Augsburg Press, Minneapolis, 1928, pgs 281-82, 287-89.