BIO: James McAllister Ralston, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER XXXIX. BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG. 423 BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG. JAMES McALLISTER RALSTON, retired, Mechanicsburg, is a descendant of the Ralstons and McAllisters, two of the oldest families of Cumberland County and Pennsylvania. Among those hardy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who, on account of religious oppression, sought homes in western Pennsylvania, was Andrew Ralston, who located at Big Spring, near Newville, this county, as early as 1728. He was a native of County Armagh, Ireland, and came over to America at the outset of the Scotch emigration. Shortly after the opening of the land office he applied for a warrant, stating that he had 424 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: occupied the land "ye past eight years." A license was directed to be issued, and below is given a verbatim copy, as in the original, in this connection: "Lancaster Co S S, by order of the proprietary - these are to license and allow Andrew Ralston to continue to improve and dwell on a tract of 200 acres of and on the Great Spring, a branch of the Conedogwainet, joining to the upper side of a tract granted to Randel Chambers for the use of his son James Chambers, to be hereafter surveyed to the s'd Ralston on the common terms other lands in those parts are sold, provided the same has not been already granted to any other person, and so can be had without prejudice to other tracts before granted. Given under my hand this third day of January Ano: Dom: 1736-7-SA: Blunston, Pennsylvania, S. S. "Endorsed:" License to Andrew Ralston - 200 acres - this land was subsequently surveyed to him by the surveyor of Lancaster County, Samuel Blunston." There is no date of the death of Andrew Ralston. He left three daughters and two sons. One of his daughters married one Hayes, another married one Mickey. David Ralston, the eldest son, remained at Big Spring on his father's farm. He was twice married, first to a Miss Scott, secondly to a Miss McClintock; both wives died at Big Spring. He removed to Westmoreland County, Penn., in 1806, and died there, in 1810, near Greensburg. By his first wife David Ralston had the following named Children: Elizabeth, married to Thomas Jacob; Jane first married to a Mr. Donald and second time to Mr. Taylor; Eleanor, married to Mr. Miller; James, married to Ruth Carson; Andrew, married to Miss Kirkpatrick. By his second wife David Ralston had the following named children: Agnes, married to Mr. Allsworth; Margaret, married to Mr. Moorhead; Ann, married to Mr. Banks; Mary, unmarried; Sarah, unmarried, and David, Jr. His son, David Ralston, was born at Big Spring, near Newville, this county, September 26, 1784; married Miss Lacey McAllister; he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church; they had four children: James McAllister, born near Newville, this county, January 14, 1823; David, Andrew, Mary E., wife of David Line. The father of these children died March 8, 1849, and the mother in 1863 in her seventy-third year. James McAllister Ralston, the eldest child, was raised on a farm, and when in his seventeenth year (in 1839) moved with his parents to the old farm (now owned by him) four miles west of Carlisle, and which was located by his great-grandfather, Archibald McAllister, 1728, who purchased over 1,000 acres of land on both sides of McAllister Spring from William Penn. The old foundation of the second mill built west of the Susquehanna River 120 years ago is on the above tract. He, Archibald McAllister, married Miss Jean McClure, near Carlisle, and their children were as follows: Daniel, who settled in West Virginia; John and James, who went to Savannah, Ga., and settled where Fort McAllister now stands; Richard, who laid out the town of Hanover, York Co., Penn., which was called McAllister until changed to Hanover, about 1825; Archibald, settled at Fort Hunter above Harrisburg, in Dauphin County, now called Rockville about 1750; Mary, married to Mr. McKnight, Jean, married to Mr. Ormsby, and settled in what is now Pittsburgh; and another married Mr. Williamson, and Andrew. The last named, Andrew McAllister, was born in the old McAllister farm in 1731. He married Miss Margaret Young, a daughter of James Young, and both husband and wife died in 1804, aged seventy-three and sixty- one, respectively: The children of Andrew and Margaret (Young) McAllister were: Elizabeth, wife of James Parker and who moved to Lexington, Ky., in 1800; Jean, married to Joseph Pierce, they settled in this county; Mary, married to Thomas McIntire; Archibald, unmarried; Margaret, who went with her eldest sister to Lexington, Ky., and married a Mr. Calhoun; James, unmarried, who resided on the old farm; Sarah, who died unmarried; Eleanor, unmarried: Lydia, married to Joseph Jacob; and Lacey, the youngest, who, as above stated, married David Ralston, the father of James McAllister Ralston, the subject of this sketch. During the last three days of June, 1863, Johnston's division of Gen. Ewell's corps of the Rebel Army encamped on the McAllister (now J. Mc. Ralston's) farm, and was then ordered to proceed directly twenty-five miles south, to participate in the battle of Gettysburg. Ewell's division contained the "Louisiana Tigers," and also the Virginia artillery.