BIO: James McAllister Ralston, Cumberland County, PA
Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
______________________________________________________________________
History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages,
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
______________________________________________________________________
PART II.
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.
423 BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.
JAMES McALLISTER RALSTON, retired, Mechanicsburg, is a descendant of
the Ralstons and McAllisters, two of the oldest families of Cumberland
County and Pennsylvania. Among those hardy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians
who, on account of religious oppression, sought homes in western
Pennsylvania, was Andrew Ralston, who located at Big Spring, near
Newville, this county, as early as 1728. He was a native of County
Armagh, Ireland, and came over to America at the outset of the Scotch
emigration. Shortly after the opening of the land office he applied
for a warrant, stating that he had
424 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:
occupied the land "ye past eight years." A license was directed to be
issued, and below is given a verbatim copy, as in the original, in this
connection: "Lancaster Co S S, by order of the proprietary - these are
to license and allow Andrew Ralston to continue to improve and dwell on
a tract of 200 acres of and on the Great Spring, a branch of the
Conedogwainet, joining to the upper side of a tract granted to Randel
Chambers for the use of his son James Chambers, to be hereafter
surveyed to the s'd Ralston on the common terms other lands in those
parts are sold, provided the same has not been already granted to any
other person, and so can be had without prejudice to other tracts
before granted. Given under my hand this third day of January Ano:
Dom: 1736-7-SA: Blunston, Pennsylvania, S. S. "Endorsed:" License to
Andrew Ralston - 200 acres - this land was subsequently surveyed to him
by the surveyor of Lancaster County, Samuel Blunston." There is no
date of the death of Andrew Ralston. He left three daughters and two
sons. One of his daughters married one Hayes, another married one
Mickey. David Ralston, the eldest son, remained at Big Spring on his
father's farm. He was twice married, first to a Miss Scott, secondly
to a Miss McClintock; both wives died at Big Spring. He removed to
Westmoreland County, Penn., in 1806, and died there, in 1810, near
Greensburg. By his first wife David Ralston had the following named
Children: Elizabeth, married to Thomas Jacob; Jane first married to a
Mr. Donald and second time to Mr. Taylor; Eleanor, married to Mr.
Miller; James, married to Ruth Carson; Andrew, married to Miss
Kirkpatrick. By his second wife David Ralston had the following named
children: Agnes, married to Mr. Allsworth; Margaret, married to Mr.
Moorhead; Ann, married to Mr. Banks; Mary, unmarried; Sarah, unmarried,
and David, Jr. His son, David Ralston, was born at Big Spring, near
Newville, this county, September 26, 1784; married Miss Lacey
McAllister; he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church;
they had four children: James McAllister, born near Newville, this
county, January 14, 1823; David, Andrew, Mary E., wife of David Line.
The father of these children died March 8, 1849, and the mother in 1863
in her seventy-third year. James McAllister Ralston, the eldest child,
was raised on a farm, and when in his seventeenth year (in 1839) moved
with his parents to the old farm (now owned by him) four miles west of
Carlisle, and which was located by his great-grandfather, Archibald
McAllister, 1728, who purchased over 1,000 acres of land on both sides
of McAllister Spring from William Penn. The old foundation of the
second mill built west of the Susquehanna River 120 years ago is on the
above tract. He, Archibald McAllister, married Miss Jean McClure, near
Carlisle, and their children were as follows: Daniel, who settled in
West Virginia; John and James, who went to Savannah, Ga., and settled
where Fort McAllister now stands; Richard, who laid out the town of
Hanover, York Co., Penn., which was called McAllister until changed to
Hanover, about 1825; Archibald, settled at Fort Hunter above
Harrisburg, in Dauphin County, now called Rockville about 1750; Mary,
married to Mr. McKnight, Jean, married to Mr. Ormsby, and settled in
what is now Pittsburgh; and another married Mr. Williamson, and Andrew.
The last named, Andrew McAllister, was born in the old McAllister farm
in 1731. He married Miss Margaret Young, a daughter of James Young,
and both husband and wife died in 1804, aged seventy-three and sixty-
one, respectively: The children of Andrew and Margaret (Young)
McAllister were: Elizabeth, wife of James Parker and who moved to
Lexington, Ky., in 1800; Jean, married to Joseph Pierce, they settled
in this county; Mary, married to Thomas McIntire; Archibald, unmarried;
Margaret, who went with her eldest sister to Lexington, Ky., and
married a Mr. Calhoun; James, unmarried, who resided on the old farm;
Sarah, who died unmarried; Eleanor, unmarried: Lydia, married to
Joseph Jacob; and Lacey, the youngest, who, as above stated, married
David Ralston, the father of James McAllister Ralston, the subject of
this sketch. During the last three days of June, 1863, Johnston's
division of Gen. Ewell's corps of the Rebel Army encamped on the
McAllister (now J. Mc. Ralston's) farm, and was then ordered to proceed
directly twenty-five miles south, to participate in the battle of
Gettysburg. Ewell's division contained the "Louisiana Tigers," and
also the Virginia artillery.