Madison County IA Archives Biographies.....McCaughan, Charles Thompson 1814 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 11, 2007, 10:57 pm Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896) REV. CHARLES THOMPSON McCAUGHAN, D. D., a venerable minister of the United Presbyterian Church, now living retired at Winterset, Iowa, is a man who has during his active and useful life been the means of accomplishing untold good. He has made his home in this city since 1865, and there are few men here who are better known or held in. higher esteem than is the Rev. Mr. McCaughan. Born on a farm in Trigg county, Kentucky, June 19, 1814, he is a son of John and Hannah (Johnson) McCaughan, his father a native of I county Antrim, Ireland, and his mother of Blount county, Tennessee. John McCaughan's early life was spent in county Antrim, and his education was received there, and at the age of nineteen he emigrated to the United States, Kentucky being his objective point. After teaching school in Pennsylvania for a while, he married and settled down to farming in Trigg county, where he continued to reside for a number of years, then removing to Preble county, Ohio, and finally to Shelby county. Late in life he returned to Ireland on a visit, and while on his way back to his home, was taken ill, and died at Rochester, Pennsylvania, this being in 1850. After surviving him some years his widow died in Shelby county, Ohio. In their family were eight children, six sons and two daughters,-all born in Kentucky,-the subject of our sketch being the fifth born, and one of the two who still survive. His sister, Mrs. N. J. Wilson, is a resident of Sidney, Ohio. Charles T. spent the first seventeen years of his life in his native county, his studies during that time being pursued in a private school. He then entered Miami University, at which institution he graduated in 1837, after which he went to Allegheny Seminary, where he took a two-years course in theology. Next he entered the seminary at Oxford, where he continued his theological studies, and where he graduated in 1841. The year before his graduation at this last named institution he was licensed to preach, and the summer following he spent in missionary work in Indiana and Ohio. He began preaching at Sidney, Ohio, in what was called the Associate Reform Church, afterward known as the United Presbyterian Church, and he served his congregation at that place for a period of seventeen years. Following this pastorate he for two years had charge of the Urbana Female Seminary, and the next two years he preached and taught at Mansfield, Pennsylvania, now called Carnegie in honor of the "Iron King." While in charge of the seminary at Urbana he preached as a supply to a congregation which had no regular pastor. In 1865, as already stated at the beginning of this sketch, Mr. McCaughan became a resident of Winterset, Iowa. He was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church here and in other parts of the county, up to 1882, since which time he has been retired from the active work of the ministry. He, however, still preaches occasionally. Previous to 1882, in addition to his work as pastor at Winterset, he organized four churches in Madison county, Iowa. His work in the ministry has all these years been characterized by earnestness and devotion, and has been crowned with success. Mr. McCaughan was married November 2, 1841, to Miss Emily S. Sheppard, a native of the village of Frome, in Somersetshire, England, and a daughter of John Gregory Sheppard. Her father emigrated from England to the United States in 1825 and located in Steubenville, Ohio, where he was for many years engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods. In 1865 he removed to Winterset, Iowa, where he spent the last twenty-five years of his life, and where he died at the extreme old age of ninety-seven years, an honored citizen of Winterset. For more than fifty years Mr. and Mrs. McCaughan have traveled life's pathway together, and now, both in possession of all their faculties, they are comfortably situated in a delightful home, and happy by being surrounded with a large family and numerous friends. Four years ago they celebrated their golden wedding, which was largely attended by their children and grandchildren. Their descendants number nine children, twenty-nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Of their children, five sons and four daughters, we make the following record: J. Sheppard is a resident of Durango, Mexico; Frances A. is the wife of J. G. Steel, of Winterset, Iowa; Emma C. is the wife of D. N. Hiese, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mary S. is the wife M. C. Shafer, of Great Bend, Kansas; Thomas S. resides at Carnegie, Pennsylvania; James M. and George E. at Des Moines, Iowa; Jessie E. at Fairbury, Nebraska; and Frederick G. at Valley Junction, Iowa. All are married and have families except the youngest daughter, Miss Jessie E., who is a popular and successful teacher of Fairbury, Nebraska. Additional Comments: Extracted from: A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA ILLUSTRATED "A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."'—MACAULAY. "Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant, of all things."—CARLYLE "History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE. CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1896 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/madison/bios/mccaugha121gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/ File size: 5.8 Kb