It has not been the ambition of the writer to produce a work that will attract the attention of the reading public generally. In fact, the original purpose was simply to perpetuate as far as possible the annals of our own family and rescue their traditions from the inevitable corruption of time and tattle, and to erect a true genealogical basis upon which future generations may safely build.

In pursuit of this purpose cotemporaneous events are thrust obtrusively in our line of research and cannot be ignored, especially when they largely influence and are often responsible for conditions that would not otherwise exist. Thus it comes that much local history that will prove interesting is merged into our story.

There are many families in Western Pennsylvania and many who have gone out from there to people other lands whose early history runs parallel with our own, and though the special incidents in their story may not be the same as ours, yet they will recognize in these pages the advantages and disadvantages to which their people were subjected in the early days, and to them the narrative will seem like the meeting of old friends who have been long separated.

Some will think, perhaps, that we have mentioned matters that might as well have been left untold. We would remind such that truth untold is worthless.

Conditions of the times cannot be fairly represented by suppressing actual facts as they then and there transpired.

We have dealt gently with the past without a thought of prejudice or ill-will toward any one now living; seeking only to show the vicissitudes through which our fathers passed in building up the splendid civilization we now enjoy. No such conditions exist now as then. Racial contests have disappeared and in their place we have a homogeneous people whose aspirations blend and harmonize in pursuit of the good and true.

As far as we have drawn upon ancient history and the story of prehistoric ages we have no apologies to make. For centuries the history of our race has been written by our enemies: or those whose interest it was to belittle the achievements of our people. We have merely glanced at this feature of the case, content that research and science are every day vindicating the acts and deeds of the ancient Celts—the greatest race of men that ever existed on the face of the earth.

If in the succeeding pages we have written anything that will promote an honorable pride of Ancestry as an incentive to goodness and greatness our purposes will be subserved and our ambition gratified.

A. McG.
The Shacks, October 10th, 1908.

1. Origin of the White Races and Development of the Celt
2. The Scot, Scot Celt and Irish Celt—and Scotch Irish
3. The Ulsterman—His Rise and Development
4. The Hunt for an Ancestor—By Way of History and Heraldry
5. The Hunt for an Ancestor, Continued—Freefield to Richard Oulahan, Master of the Hounds
6. The Hunt for an Ancestor, Continued—Struck Another Trail
7. On the Old Sod and Across the Sea
8. On American Soil—In the Whirl of Emigration—With the Continental Army
9. Further Adventures in Search of a Permanent Home
10. They Cross the Mountains—Are Pioneers in Fact
11. Patrick’s Primeval Park and His Title to the Lands
12. The Ancestral Home—Built in 1802—Standing in Good Repair 1908
13. Arthur on the Highways—The Teuton Came With Itching Palm, Etc.
14. The Incubus Is Being Raised—Prospects Brighten—The First School
15. The War of 1812—The Deadwater and Yankee Hill
16. The Burgomaster in the Valley—The Town of Saeger Inaugurated
17. Building of the Temple—Holiness in Shares—Military Priesthood—Unknown Power—Fall of Babylon
18. The Passing Away of the Pioneers, February 11th, 1832
19. The Old Yellow School House—The McGill School—The Great Shinny Game
20. Era of Improvement—Building, Lumbering and Rafting
21. The Descendants of Arthur the Pioneer—Arthur, the Son of Arthur
22. The Descendants of Arthur the Pioneer, Cont’d.—Henry and John, Sons of Arthur
23. The Descendants of Arthur the Pioneer, Cont’d.—Robert, the Fourth Son of Arthur and Margaret McCloskey, His Daughter
24. Descendants of Patrick, the Pioneer—McGill, John, Son of Patrick
25. Descendants of Patrick, the Pioneer, Cont’d.—The Sons and Daughters of John and Their Offspring

26. The Descendants of Patrick, the Pioneer, Cont’d.—William Perry McGill: His Useful Career and Melancholy End

27. The Descendants of Patrick, the Pioneer, Cont’d.—McGill, Nancy (Burchfield) and Family—McGill, Charles Dillon and Interesting Family — McGill, Maria McCloskey and Son James
28. McGill, Andrew Ryan—His Ancestry: His Career; His Achievements and His Place in the History of His Country and His Race
29. McGill, Andrew Ryan, Cont’d.— Gleanings From Minnesota History—Capt. Henry A. Castle in National Tribune—Proceedings in Memoriam of the Senate