BIOGRAPHY: William Brown McNITT, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 656-657.

  WILLIAM BROWN MCNITT, Milroy, Mifflin county, Pa., was born at the old 
homestead in Armagh township, Mifflin county, July 23, 1864.  He is a son of 
Thomas Brown and Sarah Ann (Gourley) McNitt.  Mr. William McNitt's great-
grandfather, William Alexander McNitt, was of Scotch descent.  He was one of 
five brothers who came to this country in the latter part of the last century, 
and settled in the Kishacoquillas valley.  William McNitt married Mary Brown.  
They had seven children:  Alexander;  Thomas B.;  William;  Elizabeth;  Jane;  
Catharine;  and Mary Ann.  William McNitt's maternal grandparents were Joseph 
and Margaret (McNitt) Gourley.  They had two children:  Sarah Ann (Mrs. Thomas 
B. McNitt);  and James Gourley, who married Mary Jane McNitt.  They have one 
child.  Mr. And Mrs. Gourley are both dead.  Mr. Gourley died when his daughter, 
Sarah Ann, was fourteen.  Thomas B. McNitt, father of William B. McNitt, was 
born at the homestead, April 20, 1816.  He was educated in the common schools of 
his native township, and remained at home working with his father on the farm.  
At his father's death, Thomas McNitt succeeded to the homestead.  The children 
of Thomas and Sarah Ann (Gourley) McNitt are:  William Alexander, born July 30, 
1858, died March 28, 1860;  Robert Bruce, married Caroline Reed, has one child;  
Margaret;  William Brown;  and Joseph Gourley.  Mr. Thomas McNitt was a 
successful farmer, one who not only kept but improved that which he had 
inherited.  He died May 20, 1883.  Mrs. Thomas McNitt attends the Free church at 
Milroy.
  William Brown McNitt attended the public schools of Armagh township.  He 
remained at home, and, under his father's careful training, acquired a thorough 
and practical knowledge of farming.  When his father died, William McNitt and 
his brothers took charge of the estate and have been very successful in farming 
and raising cattle.  The McNitt brothers are progressive business men, 
interested not only in the better cultivation of the land, but also in the 
improvement of farming operations.  They are members of the Republican party.  
The homestead farm on which William Brown McNitt resides is part of the original 
grant made to the first McNitt brothers.  Mr. William McNitt attends the 
Presbyterian church at Milroy, Pa.
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:  According to Joseph Cochran's 1870 book "The History of 
Mifflin County", the five McNitt brothers who settled in the Kishacoquillas 
valley sometime between 1752 and 1754 were Robert,  John,  William,  Alexander, 
and James.  In the above biography of William Brown McNitt, the author 
identifies his great-grandfather as 'William Alexander McNitt', who married Mary 
Brown.  I believe this is a typo and that instead of 'great-grandfather', it 
should read 'grandfather' and that his 'great-grandfather' was either William or 
Alexander McNitt, but not William Alexander McNitt.