Sullivan County PA Archives Biographies.....McCARTNEY, William James 1837 - 
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  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
  Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 17, 2007, 10:05 pm
  
  Author: Thomas J. Ingham (1899)
  
       WILLIAM JAMES McCARTNEY, one of the busiest, most energetic and most
  enterprising men of Sullivan county, Pennsylvania, has for several years been
  identified with the Lopez Manufacturing Company, of Lopez. Endowed by nature
  with a strong character, he was so surrounded in childhood that his latent
  powers were developed and strengthened and he became a successful business man.
  In the prosecution of his business there has been manifest one of the most
  sterling traits of his character - his desire to carry forward to the highest
  perfection attainable anything that he undertakes.
  
      Mr. McCartney was born in county Tyrone, Ireland, October 10, 1837, a son of
  James McCartney, a prominent contractor and builder and merchant near Dungannon,
  that county. Our subject attended school in Belfast, Ireland, until nine years
  of age when the family removed to Manchester, England, where he learned the
  carpenter and joiner's trade, and then worked at the same in that country for
  two years. At the end of that time he went to sea as carpenter's mate, but a
  month later was promoted as ship's carpenter, and he later purchased a half
  interest in a vessel, remaining upon the water for thirty years. He first landed
  in America in 1859, and in 1880 took up his residence here, locating first at
  Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked at his trade for a time. Subsequently he
  was made general foreman and superintendent of construction for a large firm of
  contractors, and on leaving their employ he engaged in contracting on his own
  account. In 1884 he removed his machinery, which he had previously purchased for
  a door, sash and blind factory, to Sheepshead Bay, New York, and operated the
  same in partnership with J. Y. McKane for a short time, selling his interest in
  1887 on account of an injury he had received and going into the country for his
  health. While idle, he conceived the idea of manufacturing kindling wood for the
  city markets, and soon afterward built a large plant at Lopez, Pennsylvania,
  which, with two partners, he operated for several years. At one time the plant
  was totally destroyed by fire, but was promptly rebuilt, and finally sold to the
  combine which now owns it. He established the present industry, built and
  equipped the plant, and when it was burned he rebuilt and established the Lopez
  Manufacturing Company, and now has one of the leading industries of Lopez,
  manufacturing fifteen hundred gross of clothes-pins per day, and also a large
  quantity of broom-handles, curtain-poles, mine rollers, cant-hook handles,
  dowels, wooden novelties, etc. Under the management of our subject the firm does
  an extensive and profitable business.
  
      In 1881 Mr. McCartney was united in marriage with Miss Margaret O'Hanlon, at
  Malden, Massachusetts. She is a native of county Louth, Ireland, and there Mr.
  McCartney first met her. They have no children living. Socially, he is a member
  of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Foresters, and politically is
  identified with the Republican party.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
          Extracted from: 
            
          History of Sullivan County Pennsylvania
          by Thomas J. Ingham
            
          Compendium of Biography
            
          The Lewis Publishing Company
          Chicago: 1899
    
    
  
  
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