The Henry McCahill Family, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Apr. 2006
Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives.

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THE HENRY McCAHILL FAMILY

BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian


Sailing from Ireland to America in 1849 as a teen-age boy, Henry McCahill was a 
part of the wave of immigrants arriving in America from the Emerald Isle from 
1848 through the 1850's.  Many of these immigrants fled Ireland because of the 
potato famine and generations of British misrule.

Henry McCahill was born about 1835-1836.  When he arrived at the age of majority 
he completed the preliminary paperwork to become an American citizen.  His letter 
of intent was filed 3 July 1856 in Iberville Parish, but he indicated that he 
intended to reside in St. Martin Parish. 

By 1870 he was farming in New Iberia and was apparently successful in his 
endeavors accumulating real estate worth about $2,000, and had about $1,000 in 
personal property.  He had also acquired a wife, marrying Miss Margaret Rickerby 
and starting a family with the birth of their son Henry McCahill, Jr., who was 
about four years old when the census was conducted in 1870.  Margaret was born 17 
August 1850 in Louisiana of Irish born parents.  Living with the family in 1870 
were Margaret's siblings, James (18), Elizabeth (13), and Ralph (11) Rickerby, 
and John Mason (5).

Henry and Margaret decided to leave New Iberia and settle in southern Tangipahoa 
Parish.  In June 1872, Henry, then said to be of Iberia Parish, purchased 424 
acres of land opposite the small town of Wadesboro for $1,000.  Wadesboro was 
then a small but active port with schooners docking along the Ponchatoula River 
and transferring their cargos to warehouses along the banks.

By the time the census taker arrived at the McCahill farm in the summer of 1880, 
Henry and Margaret's family had grown to include their son Henry, Jr., a daughter 
Louisiana (9), son Robert E. Lee (7), daughter Alice E. (5), son Willie (2), and 
their baby boy Winfield James McCahill, who had been born that March.  Margaret's 
half-brother John Mason was also living with the family in 1880.

Henry and Margaret lived on their Wadesboro farm for many years.  Henry's death 
date is not known by this writer, but he seems to have died sometime between 1894 
and 1899.  Henry witnessed a land sale in Ponchatoula in August 1894, and Margaret 
said she was a widow in May 1899 when she sold five acres of the family land.

Margaret continued to operate her farm with the assistance of her two grown sons 
William and Winfield.  When the census was again taken in 1910 and 1920, she was 
listed in the household of her son Winfield.  Margaret died 8 Sept. 1920 and was 
buried in the Wetmore Cemetery not far from her home.  Of her six children, three 
reached maturity:  Robert E. Lee Winfield (1873-1932); William Francis McCahill, 
(1877-1946), m. Margaret Schafer; and Winfield James McCahill (1880-1961), m. 
Alice Morgan.  Through their sons, Henry and Margaret McCahill have left many 
descendants in the Wadesboro and Ponchatoula areas that can be justly proud of 
the accomplishments of their immigrant ancestors.

Anyone with questions, comments or suggestions for future articles, may contact 
Jim Perrin at 386-4476.