BIO: G. W. MCELROY, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, historical editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, York Borough, Pg 32

G. W. McELROY, district attorney of the county of York, was born in Lancaster 
County, July 23, 1824.  He is a son of Daniel and Rebecca (Wishard) McElroy, and 
is of Scotch-Irish origin.  He is the youngest of nine children, only two of 
whom are living.  His father was born in the county of Donegal, Ireland, and his 
mother in Glasgow, Scotland, and came to America and settled in Lancaster 
County, Penn., where they died.  Our subject received a common school education 
in Lancaster County, and was afterward educated in the higher branches, under 
the kind favor and continued patronage of his brother, A. McElroy, Esq., who 
died at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia County, in the summer of 1876.  In 1841 he 
became the principal of the Ephrata Academy, which position he held for three 
years and then read law under Co. Reah Frazer, at Lancaster.  He was admitted to 
the Lancaster bar in 1846, and practiced there a number of years, during a part 
of which time he edited the Lancaster Intelligencer, and then went to Meadville, 
Crawford Co., Penn., where he remained until 1853, and then returned to 
Lancaster and continued practice until 1860.  In 1861 he enlisted in Company A, 
First Pennsylvania Artillery, and was about to be promoted when he was taken ill 
and was brought to York Hospital, but regaining his health, was placed in the 
commissary department, and there continued until 1864, when he was honorably 
discharged.  He was admitted to the York County bar December 20, 1864, and in 
1883 was elected district attorney of York County.  He was married in 1866 to 
Miss Anna M. Fisher, a native of York, and has had eight children born to him.  
He is a Democrat.