Barren County Letters

 

Contributed by Bushy Hartman


This a letter written in 1938 by O.R. MCGUIRE of Arlington, VA, to Miss Ludie J. Kinkead, Curator of the Filson Club in Louisville, KY. I (Bushy Hartman) received a copy from Ruth Eager Moran.

Many thanks for your letter of August 17th. I have a Photostat copy of the Revolutionary claim of John McGuire of Morgan County, Kentucky, which was furnished to me by the Adjutant General of the Army but I do not think that he was the John McGuire I had in mind. According to the best information I am able to obtain, this Morgan County John McGuire was born in Ireland while the John McGuire I have in mind was born at Winchester, Virginia. His father was Edward McGuire. This John carried a chain for Washington when the latter was surveying for the Fairfax people; went with Washington, as captain of a  Virginia Company, to Cambridge; and volunteered to go with Arnold in the siege or attack on Quebec. There he was captured, later paroled, returned to the Continental Line and was so severely wounded at Germantown that he resigned his commission. After returning to Winchester, he set off for Kentucky and the McGuire Branch of the family lost track of him.

The records of Monroe County were burned several years ago and I have been unable to secure much information from that source. My grandfather was but a small boy during the Civil War but he had several brothers in the Union Army. His name was Richard McGuire and he married a Miss Ellen Morgan who came for the John Morgan family which produced General John Morgan, the Confederate Raider.
Our ancestral home in Monroe county was on the path of both Confederate and Union raids, buildings were destroyed, papers, etc, also and I did not become interested in my ancestry until long after the deaths of both my grandfather and grandmother.

This explains why I am hazy as to the early records.

Sincerely Yours
O.R. McGuire


 

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