BIOGRAPHY: P. McGOUGH, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 326-7
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P. McGOUGH, the oldest permanent resident and business man of Portage, is an 
active Democratic leader, and has served as justice of the peace continuously 
since 1857, excepting four years when acting as postmaster. He is a son of 
Colonel John and Sarah (Glass) McGough, and was born two miles west of Cresson, 
in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1832. He attended the early common 
schools a short time, but is principally self-educated, and remained on the farm 
until he was twenty-five years of age. He was next engaged in getting out and 
sawing lumber on a small scale for a few years, and then removed to Portage, 
where he built and opened the first hotel of that place. He also started the 
first butcher shop and grocery store, but in a short time disposed of both 
grocery and hotel and engaged in his present livery business, which is both 
extensive and profitable.
     Mr. McGough has been twice married. In 1862 he wedded Mary McColgan, who 
died Aug. 6, 1865, aged thirty-two years, leaving three children; Sarah, Mary, 
wife of D.W. Martin; and E. Josephine, who married F.J. Saxton. Four years after 
his first wife's death, Mr. McGough, on July 7, 1869, married Rose Donahoe, 
daughter of Patrick Donahoe, and by his second marriage has twelve children: 
Clara, wife of John Smith; Clement, running a mercantile boat between Toledo and 
Buffalo; Patrick and Ida, twins; Henry, a resident of Buffalo, New York; Rose, 
Laura, and Peter, at home; Frank and Margaret, twins; Anna and Maria, who died 
in infancy.
     In politics Mr. McGough is and has always been an active and influential 
democrat. He has held various township offices, and in 1857 was elected justice 
of the peace, which office he held successively in Washington and Portage 
townships until the erection of Portage borough, when he became its first 
justice, serving up to 1884. In that year he resigned to accept the 
postmastership, and when Cleveland went out of office in 1889, he was re-elected 
as justice of the peace. Squire McGough is a member of the Catholic church, and 
has always been active and useful in every movement for the improvement and 
advancement of Portage, in whose history he has been so prominent and 
influential for over a quarter of a century.
     The trans-Atlantic home of the McGough family is in County Donegal, 
Ireland, from which Arthur McGough came in 1786, to near Loretto, where he 
passed the remainder of his life. His son, Colonel John McGough, was born in 
County Donegal, Ireland, in 1786, and was brought by his parents to this 
country, where he grew to manhood and received the meagre education imparted by 
the old subscription schools, which he supplemented by reading and self-study to 
such an extent that he became a teacher. After teaching for a few years he went 
into the woods and cleared out a good farm. He was a man of intelligence, 
activity and ambition, and at an early age interested himself in political 
affairs. He was an active democrat, and served one term each as county 
commissioner and as sheriff, besides holding many minor offices. He took   an 
active interest in the old State militia, serving for several years as colonel 
of one of its regiments. Colonel McGough was one of those men so needful in a 
community, because so energetic and so useful. He was killed in 1856, in an 
accident on the Portage railroad, and his remains are interred in the Catholic 
cemetery at Wilmore. His loss was deeply felt in that community, where he had 
been a leader in every movement of value or benefit. He was an active member of 
the choir during Father Gallitzin's time. Colonel McGough married Sarah Glass, a 
daughter of Jacob Glass, who was of German descent. Colonel and Mrs. McGough 
reared a family of eight sons and six daughters, of whom three sons and four 
daughters are living. The subject of this sketch being the youngest of the sons.