The McDades - Part 1, The Brothers

From family history, I know Wm J McDade came from Scotland. He is Alexander, Eleanor's husband's Father. Wm J lived in Fayette County, Pennsylvania working as a coal miner. From the censuses, he came to the US about 1884. Also from family history, I know he had a brother named Patrick Allan or Allan Patrick. Patrick was the namesake for Wm's youngest son, Allen Patrick. This was told to me by one of Allen Patrick's sons. This is pretty much the extent of what I know about my McDade ancestors.

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Unfortunately, the 1890 census was mostly destroyed in a fire. It would answer many questions I have. Since it is not available, I turned to the 1900 census. In 1900, in all of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, there were 15 McDade's.

Wm J and his family
    Sarah Wife
    William Emmitt Son
    Catherine Daughter

Alexander and his family
    Mary Wife
    Alexander Son
    Margaret Daughter
    Mary Daughter
    William Son
    James Son
    Robert Son
    Peter Son

Mary McDade, a 52-year-old widow

Mary McDaid, the 14-year-old niece of William  and Elizabeth Goodburn

With so few McDades in the area I felt William and Alexander had to be related.

Researching Wm about 5-years ago or so, I found an entry in a book for Alexander as the Treasurer of the local Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 5 of Uniontown. The Ancient Order of Hibernians is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization founded concurrently in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in May 1836. The AOH still exists, so I emailed the Historian to find out if they had any family records. He said they didn't, but offered this;

I have searched the national archives for any information on Alex McDade and found nothing except for the directory information you already have.  Application forms for the AOH do not ask for information on parentage nor Irish County of origin – at least today they don’t.  Not having the records of the early Pittsburgh Divisions, I am afraid I can’t be of much help to you, but I wish you luck in your quest.  Know that to be a member of the AOH around the turn of the century in Pittsburg took a good deal of courage.

               De Bard

The AOH is a faith-based, Roman Catholics of Irish descent, organization and their divisions are based out of churches. The church used by the Fayette County division that Alexander was the Treasurer of was St. John the Evangelist Parish in Uniontown. I contacted the church and asked if they could provide any information. They sent me a letter that Wm's children William Emmett and Catherine were baptized there and Alexander's children, Robert, Peter, Joseph, and Eugene were baptized there as well. But they had no information tying the families together.

Due to the number of children being named after someone else, specifically William and Alexander at this point, I'm going to give them different names to distinguish them.

        William John - Eleanor's Father-in-law will be Wm.
        William Emmett - Wm's oldest son will be Emmett.

        Alexander - Wm's brother will be Alex.
        Alexander - Alex's oldest son will be Alex Jr.
        Alexander - Wm's second son, and Eleanor's husband will be Red.


The first bit of information to confirm my thoughts was a newspaper article I found a couple years ago. Wm's second son, Red, got into some trouble, armed robbery. There were three that participated in the robbery, but of note was Red (Alex) and his cousin James McDade. James is one of Alex's sons.

The Evening Standard, (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 02 Jun 1931, Tue, Page 1

As I continued to search for more information - more confirmation, I found another obituary for Alex that I hadn't previously uncovered. In this one, the last line says, "He also leaves one brother, William McDade, of Uniontown."

The Morning Herald, (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 09 Sep 1916, Sat, Page 3

That's two incidents that indicate they are brothers, but I also came across this newspaper story of Wm's funeral. "Pallbearers were all nephews of the deceased and were Robert, James, Lambert and Joseph McDade, William Cosgrove and James Catney." Robert, James, Lambert, and Joseph are Alex's sons. William Cosgrove and James Catney are Alex's sons-in-law. William was married to Margaret and James was married to Mary.

The Evening Standard, (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 02 Jul 1927, Sat, Page 16

I'm going to conclude Alex is the older brother of Wm and Patrick.

Part 2 -> The Family