JOHN W. McCOY
Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Monongalia, Marion and 
Taylor Counties, West Virginia 

JOHN W. McCOY, a pleasant gentleman and lawyer of ability and 
experience, who has served efficiently as prosecuting attorney 
of Tyler and Marion counties, is a son of Joseph and Jane (Martin) 
McCoy, and was born in Tyler county, Virginia (now West Virginia), 
September 14, 1826.

William McCoy, son of Joseph McCoy, and grandfather of John W. 
McCoy, came from Ireland to Lewiston, Mifflin county, 
Pennsylvania, in 17--, settled there and remained there the rest 
of his life. Some time in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century Joseph McCoy, the elder, moved from Ireland with the 
rest of his family, wife and six children, and settled in eastern 
Pennsylvania. In 1806 Joseph McCoy and his brother, John McCoy, 
the former under twenty-one, and the latter about that age, left 
Pennsylvania, came to Pittsburgh, and from thence down the Ohio 
river and stopped at what is now Tyler, and both settled on Middle 
Island creek, nearly two miles below where Middlebourne, the 
county seat, now stands; both were farmers, and lived to a good 
old age. Hon. John McCoy served sixteen terms in the Virginia 
house of delegates, was a member of the state senate at the 
time of his death, and had to make his trips to Richmond, a 
distance of three hundred miles, on horseback, and rode the 
same horse for years, in going and returning.

Joseph McCoy, father of John W. McCoy, was born in Ireland in 
1786, and died in Tyler county in October, 1878, at the ripe old 
age of ninety-two years. He was a democrat, as were all of the 
name, except his brother Abraham, and followed farming. He was 
a member of the Methodist church, and wedded Jane Martin, who 
was a daughter of ______ Martin. Their family consisted of four 
sons and four daughters. One of the sons, Joseph M., died when 
but a small lad, and another, Robert Dilworth McCoy, died in 
Missouri, unmarried, at about twenty-eight years of age.

John W. McCoy was reared on the farm, and received his education 
in the county schools and the Northwestern academy, at Clarksburg, 
and read law with John W. Hornor, of Middlebourne. He was admitted 
to the bar, and practiced in Tyler county until 1868, when he 
came to Fairmont, where he has remained ever since in the 
enjoyment of a good practice. He is a careful lawyer and good 
counsellor, and an argumentative speaker. He does a general 
practice, and has conducted many important cases in his forty 
years' experience as a lawyer. Mr. McCoy is a democrat in 
politics, and served one full and part of another term, from 
1857 to 1862, as prosecuting attorney of Tyler county, and two 
terms as prosecuting attorney of Marion county. In 18__, Mr. 
McCoy was elected as judge of a court of oyer and terminer, 
for the counties of Marion, Marshall and Wetzel, but the state 
constitution was amended and the office was abolished before 
the time came for him to take his seat on the bench. His duties 
while prosecutor were so faithfully discharged that he was 
selected by his party as a candidate for the judgeship as one 
in whose ability they could trust the legal affairs of the 
district.

Mr. McCoy is very pleasant and courteous, and wins friends, 
wherever he goes, by his affability, candor and honesty.

In May, 1855, John W. McCoy was united in marriage with Delia M. 
Evans, Of Morgantown, Monongalia county. To their union have been 
born nine children: Joseph M., married Ella Peterson, and is 
superintendent of a division of the pension department at 
Washington, D.C., where he was formerly a special examiner; 
Maria C., wedded Dr. L.L. Orr, and died at Mountain Lake park, 
Maryland, in 1883; William R., now in the west; Mary J.; James 
E., who is proprietor of a job printing office at Fairmont, and 
married Hallie K. Hall; John B., who has a position with Hon. 
John T. McGraw, of Grafton, Taylor county; Sarah R., married 
Dr. Charles T. Nesbit, a successful physician of Fairmont, and 
whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; Earnest, at home; 
and Paul, now a student at the West Virginia State University, 
at Morgantown, Monongalia county. 


Carol P McCoy
11 Johnson Rd., Falmouth, ME 04105
Cmccoy3333@aol.com
fax 207-781-7515
phone 207-781-2420