BIOGRAPHY: James J. McMahon; Stony Point, Rockland co., New York

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York
Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens of the Counties.
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United
States.
New York and Chicago; Chapman Publishing Co., 1895

REV. JAMES J. McMAHON. To trace one's ancestry to honorable progenitors, those
who have been active and influential in times of war or peace, is something of
which a man may well be proud. The subject of this notice is a descendant of a
family that has been distinguished in French, Irish and English history, and
has furnished able statesmen and valiant warriors to various European
countries. Among the most illustrious of the name was the late President
McMahon of France, whose life is familiar to every student in history
throughout the entire world. The maternal ancestors, too, were people of worth
and prominence, and the family was a very ancient one.

Born in Annahilla, County Tyrone, Ireland, December 10, 1825, the subject of
this notice is a son of Patrick and Eleanor (Montague) McMahon. His early
boyhood was passed in his native land, whence in 1844 he came to America, the
six ensuing years being spent in Canada. For a time he attended the Blackwater
School, later studied at St. Therese, and then was made a Professor in the
high school of Montreal, which then ranked as high as a college. Prior to
this, for a short time, he was employed as secondmaster iii Quebec Academy,
where he taught English branches and mathematics. After spending two years in
Montreal, he entered the Union Theological Seminary, where he was under Rev.
Edward Robinson, D. D., as Senior Professor.

April 5, 1853, Rev. Mr. McMahon was licensed by the Third Presbytery of New
York, and on the 4th of November following he was ordained to the ministry. On
Christmas Day he was in-stalled as pastor of the Duval Street Presbyterian
Church at Richmond, Va., a church that was then large and prosperous. His
pastorate there was eminently satisfactory, and under his leader-ship the
cause increased in power. In 1858 he went to Castle Craig, twenty miles west
of Lynch-burg, for the purpose of establishing a Presbyterian Church. To many
prominent men of the denomination this seemed a hopeless task, but under his
enthusiastic leadership, within a few months there was a church with a house
of worship and no debt. On resigning from the Richmond church he labored for a
year or more as an evangelist, meeting with flattering success in that
vocation, gaining many accessions to the church, and healing old dissensions.

About this time Rev. Mr. McMahon was pressed into the service of the
Presbyterian Witness, the denominational organ of that part of the country,
and he remained in that position until the outbreak of the Civil War. February
13, 186o, he became pastor of the church at Marion, Smith County, Va., and was
in charge there when the war began. In August, 1861, Jefferson Davis appointed
him Chaplain of the Fifty-first Regiment Virginians, C. S. A., in John B.
Floyd's brigade. At the same time most of the able-bodied members of his
congregation took arms in defense of the Confederacy.

One of the first engagements of the war in which our subject had a part was at
Carnifax Ferry, Kanawha Valley, Va., when Rosecrans with sixteen regiments met
Floyd with two thou-sand men. General Floyd found it necessary to return
across the river about 9 P. M., but after traveling some miles discovered that
he had left his sword in an old carriage on the battlefield. It was a sword
which his grandfather had carried in the Revolution, and he was exceedingly
desirous of retaining it in his possession, so Mr. McMahon returned for it,
receiving the grateful thanks of the General, who from that time on was his
stanch friend.

After having served as Chaplain for a time our subject was commissioned
Colonel of the Sixty-third Virginia Regiment by Jefferson Davis, and served
under Gens. Roger A. Pryor, Longstreet, Eckels, and Loring, the old one-armed
veteran. For three years he led his regiment, their service being principally
in Virginia. He took part in the battles of the Kanawha Valley under Loring
and Eckels (the latter being the father of the present Comptroller) , and
afterward, in a battle with General Cox at Norfolk, Va., his regiment lost
heavily. Then he marched through West Virginia and Tennessee under Buckner,
and was at the battle of Ft. Donelson. The exposure incidental to army life
gave him asthma, from which he suffered so severely that he was obliged to
leave his regiment after the battle of Franklin, Tenn., with General Hood,
which was one of the most disastrous engagements of the war to the Confederate
side. While at the front commanding his regiment he was nominated for
Congress.

While a student in the seminary, Mr. McMahon had preached in the First
Presbyterian Church at Haverstraw, Rev. James Trowbridge being then in charge.
In December, 1866, he was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church at
Stony Point, which had only eighteen members and was at a very low ebb. In
that difficult field his old enthusiasm displayed itself and infused new life
into the congregation, which increased in numbers so rapidly as to render
necessary the erection of a new house of worship. In 1868 he became pastor of
the First Presbyterian Church at Haverstraw, dividing his time between it and
the church at Stony Point. Since 1876, however, his entire attention has been
given to the First Church at Haverstraw.

March 1, 1859, Rev. Mr. McMahon married Mary M., daughter of George S.
Allison. She died in 1868, after having had five children: George A., Eleanor
M., Arthur B., Hannah and Mary A. January 22, 1874, he was united inmarriage
with Lizzie, daughter of Francis Gurnee, and the following children blessed
their union: Lizzie S.; Ann Augusta; James, who died in infancy; Hugh; and
Gladstone, who died in in fancy.