MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE
Matthew Fontaine Maury, one of the foremost scientific men of the nineteenth century, was born in Spottslyvania County in 1806. At the age of nineteen, and as a midshipman, he began a voyage that extended around the world. In 1843 he was given charge of the National Observatory at the city of Washington, and the present Weather Bureau grew out of his suggestions. His knowledge of things maritime was so profound as to give him the title of "Pathfinder of the Seas." He instituted deep sea soundings, pointed out to Cyrus W. Field where an ocean cable should be laid, and wrote a standard work on physical geography. Offers of knighthood by the British government were refused, and he declined invitations to Russia and France. The last named country offered him the superintendence of the National Observatory at Paris. During the war of 1861 he supervised coast defenses for the Confederate government. After the surrender of Lee he went to Mexico, where he had a seat in the cabinet of the Emperor Maximilian, and he introduced the plant from which quinine is derived. From Mexico he went to England, where he was given the degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Cambridge. In 1868 he was recalled to his native land, and he settled at Lexington as professor of meteorology in Washington College. After five years of usefulness in this final position, he died at the age of sixty-seven. By his special request his remains were afterward taken to Richmond for re-interment and by way of Goshen Pass during the rhododendron season. For this beautiful water gap he had a particular admiration. The will of Commodore Maury is noteworthy for its Christian spirit and for the way in which it distributes among his children the many medals he received from the governments of Europe.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

McCORKLE, WALTER LISLE
Walter Lisle McCorkle, a well known attorney of New York, was born March 14, 1854, at Lexington, Virginia, son of William Henry and Virginia (Wilson) McCorkle. The family is an old one in America. Persons of the name came to America from the North of Ireland, in the early part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. A family of the name settled in Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1760, and from this branch Walter L. McCorkle is descended. Many of the family have been distinguished in the revolutionary, Mexican and civil wars. The ancient form of the name in classic Gaelic is MacCorkaill or Mac(Th)orkaill, the letter "t" followed by an aspirate being silent in Gaelic pronunciation. The name is derived from the personal name "Torquil" or "Corcaill," which is often found as applied to warriors and legislators in ancient Gaelic annals, and the full surname has the meaning of "the son or descendant of Corkaill." The references to the family are meagre in ordinary genealogical annals in Ireland and Scotland, but there is another family with a slightly kindred name, Mac Corquodell (in proper Gaelic, Mac (Th)orcadail, Mac (Th)orcaideil), which has the right to bear armorial insignia, which are thus heraldically described: Ar. a demi stag gu. naissant out of a fesse tortilla of the second and first. Crest: A stag standing at gaze, attired gu. Motto: Vivat rex.
Among those of the early generations of the family was Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, born near Harris' Ferry, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 23, 1746, and died in North Carolina, January 21, 1811. In 1756 his father removed to Thyatira, North Carolina, and settled on lands there. Samuel assisted in clearing and cultivating the farm and was afterwards graduated at Princeton in 1772. He studied theology, was licensed by the presbytery of New York in 1774, and after spending two years in Virginia, accepted a call from Thyatira, North Carolina. About 1785 he opened a classical school, which he called Zion-Parnassus, and which continued for ten or twelve years. In 1792 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dickinson. Dr. McCorkle published sermons,"Discourses on the Terms of Christian Communion," and "Discourses on the great First Principles of Deism and Revelation Contrasted" (1797). Another distinguished member of the family was Lieutenant John W. McCorkle, who fell at the battle of Cowpens in the revolutionary war. He was one of the first trustees of Washington College, Virginia, now Washington and Lee University.
William Henry McCorkle, son of Samuel McCorkle, was a farmer and planter, and held many positions of trust and honor in the state of Virginia.
Walter Lisle McCorkle was educated at classical preparatory schools in Lexington, and at Washington and Lee University, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1879. While at college, he was president of the Graham-Lee Literary Society. Early in life he was occupied in teaching, and pursued that line of work for several years in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and in Mason county, Kentucky. Returning to Washington and Lee University, he entered the law department, where he received instruction from such eminent professors as Charles A. Graves and Hon. John Randolph Tucker, with others. Having been admitted to the bar, he began the practice of his profession in Maysville, Kentucky, where he was identified with many important cases, and rapidly gained distinction as a lawyer. In 1881 he removed to New York City, and became associated with the firm of Miller Peckham, including the Hon. Wheeler H. Peckham, one of the most prominent attorneys of the city, and was subsequently associated with Elliott F. Shepherd, another distinguished attorney of the metropolis. In these associations he acquired valuable experience, and made an extensive acquaintance, which paved the way for his establishment as an independent attorney . He opened an office in the Drexel building, and has since given his attention chiefly to civil law, making a specialty of corporation, real estate and equity matters, and his practice has assumed large proportions. He has acted as counsel for many important business enterprises, including banks, building and loan associations, mining companies, the Produce Exchange, the English House of Tattersalls, and various real estate and industrial enterprises, whose success may be attributed in some measure to his valuable aid. One of the most genial and courteous Virginians to be found in New York, Mr. McCorkle has established lasting and valuable friendships, and is highly esteemed out of the profession, as well as in it. He was one of the founders of the Southern Society of New York, of which he was four years treasurer and president for two terms, and in which he still holds active membership. He was one of the organizers of the Produce Exchange Building and Loan Association, and acted many years as its counsel. He is also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, of the Society of Virginians of New York, the Society of Kentuckians, and the Sons of the Revolution of the state of New York. He was for a period of four years president of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Any organization which counts Mr. McCorkle among its members may rely upon his earnest and active cooperation in the pursuance of its objects. In politics he adheres to the principles of the Democratic party, and is earnest and forceful in the support of those principles. He has been a contributor to the "Banking Law Journal," and other periodicals, and is equally efficient as a writer as he is as a speaker. Mr. McCorkle is happy in his home life, as well as among his associates abroad, because of the charm of his personal character. He has a handsome residence in West Seventy-fourth street, New York.
He married, in November, 1888, Margaret, daughter of Charles A. Chesebrough. A son born to this marriage in Bronxville, Westchester county, New York, was christened Robert Chesebrough, and is now a member of the senior class in the school of electrical and mechanical engineering, at Lafayette College.
(Encyclopedia of Virginia Biographies, Vol. IV. Publ. 1915. Transcribed by Chris Davis)

McCORMICK, DAVID
David McCormick, farmer, Deer Creek Township, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, January 19, 1818, and is the eighth in a family of twelve children born to William and Mary (Clemer) McCormick, the father of Tennessee and the mother of Virginia. David McCormick removed with his parents to Montgomery County, Ohio, at quite an early age, where he remained until his eighteenth year. He then worked at the carpenter trade, but soon returned to the farm. He came to this county in 1.860 and now owns a fine improved farm in section 26. He was married December 20, 1838, to Miss Margaret Orellus, who died February 7, 1850, after bearing the following children: Levi (deceased), Mary, Rebecca, Absalom, Sarah J. (deceased), William and Henry. In 1850 he was united in marriage with Barbara Showalter, a native of Pennsylvania, born May 5, 1826, and to their union were born these children: Margaret, David F., Barbara I., Martha E. (deceased), and James. In politics Mr. McCormick acts with the Republican party.
(History of Miami County, Indiana: From the earliest time to the present. By Brant Fuller, Chicago. Contributed by Barb Z.)

Hon. Raven I. McDavid
While his business career at Greenville has been one of most enviable success, Mr. McDavid is most widely known as a trenchant and vigorous civic leader, one who has shown unusual force and sagacity in planning and advocating improvements for his home city and in concentrating civic energies where they would bring the greatest results and most benefits to the entire community. Mr. McDavid is now a member of the General Assembly of South Carolina.
He was born at Woodville in Greenville County October 16, 1883, son of Andrew W. and Nina (Evans) McDavid, who were also natives of Greenville County. The McDavids are one of the oldest families of the county. His great-grandfather McDavid was a Scotchman from County Antrim, Ireland, who came to America in the early part of the nineteenth century and about 1810 or 1812 settled in Greenville County, where his son James was born in 1813. James McDavid was the grandfather of Raven I. McDavid.
The latter received his early education at Woodville, and from there entered Davidson College in North Carolina, where he was graduated with the class of 1906. The same year found him located at Greenville, and for five years he was connected with the Bank of Commerce. In recent years he has given most of his time to building, real estate and property interests. He is a man of important financial resources and his different enterprises have been attended with most unusual success. He is owner of the McDavid Apartment Building and some other high class residential properties.
His civic service was especially notable during the four years he was a member of the City Council. During that time he was chairman of the Committee on Streets. As such he was the leader in the movement for street paving and street improvements, and when Greenville is referred to, as is frequently done, as one of the best paved cities in the South, Mr. McDavid might properly claim that enviable fame as the result of his individual leadership and strenuous efforts. He gave many months of his own time in getting necessary petitions signed by property owners and in formulating and having enacted the necessary legislation under which these improvements were carried out.
In the primary elections of 1918 Mr. McDavid received the democratic nomination for member of the Lower House, and was elected in November, taking his seat at the beginning of the session at Columbia in January, 1919. Mr. McDavid is a Pi Kappa Alpha college fraternity man and is also a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner.
He married Miss Marie Louise Henderson of Lexington, Virginia. Mrs. McDavid is a greatgreat-granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton, whose constructive statesmanship in uniting the battling colonies of North America into a firm and lasting union is a matter of record in every American history. Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler. Their son John Church Hamilton had a son Alexander Hamilton, and this Alexander Hamilton was father of the mother of Mrs. McDavid. Mrs. McDavid's parents were Francis W. and Maria (Hamilton) Henderson. Mr. and Mrs. McDavid have three children: Raven I. McDavid, Jr., Marie Hamilton McDavid, and Elizabeth Schuyler McDavid.
[History of South Carolina, Volume 3 Edited by Yates Snowden and Harry Gardner Cutler, 1920 – Transcribed by AFOFG]

McDOWELL, JAMES
McDowell, James, twenty-fifth governor of Virginia (1843-46), was born at Cherry Grove, Rockbridge county, Va., Oct. 11, 1795. He was a descendant of John McDowell, who emigrated from Ireland to American in the year 1735, and settled in Rockbridge county, Va., where he was killed by the Indians on Dec. 25, 1742. Among his issues was Col. James McDowell, who served in the war of 1812, and married Sarah, daughter of William Preston. James McDowell was their third child. He attended serveral private schools, entered Yale college, and completed his education at Princeton, N. J., where he graduated in 1810. He next studied law under Chapman Johnson, at Staunton, Va., but never practiced it. In 1831 he entered the legislature, and after the Nat Turner insurrection broke out he advocated gradual abolition of slavery. From this time Mr. McDowell was continuously in public life, and in the service of the state. His sister Elizabeth, was the wife of Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, and Mr. McDowell agreed with him in support of President Jackson's proclamation against South Carolina. His speech on foreign relations brought him to the front in 1833 as a rival of John Tyler for the senatorship, but he was defeated. In 1838 Mr. McDowell delivered before the Alumni association of Princeton college an address so able and eloquent that he was subsequently elected the orator on the occaion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the college. In December, 1842, Mr. McDowell was elected by the legislature governor, and on Jan. 1, 1843, entered on the discharge of his duties. Before the close of his term of three years Gov. McDowell was elected to a seat in the U. S. House of representatives, made vacant by the death of his brother-in-law, William Taylor. He served in congress with conspicuous ability until 1851. His most memorable effort in congress was his speech on the admission of California as one of the United States, which was not excelled in ability by any delivered on the floor. He died at Lexington Aug. 24, 1851, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, leaving an issue of nine children.
(Source: The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 5, Publ. 1894. Submitted by Linda Rodriguez)

McNUTT, ALEXANDER
Alexander McNutt, A Scotch-Irishman, who settled in Rockbridge County and served in the French and Indian war as lieutenant. He kept a journal of the campaign which he presented to Governor Fauquier. For some years he resided in Nova Scotia. During the revolutionary war he joined the American army at Saratoga, and was afterwards an office under Baron De Kalb in the South.
He died in 1811, and was buried in the Falling Spring churchyard, Rockbridge County, Virginia.
(Transcribed and Submitted by: Frances Cooley)

MONTGOMERY, HUMPHREY
Humphrey Montgomery, who settled on Buffalo Creek, was a son of Humphrey Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, and served under Captain Samuel Lapsley in 1777-79.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

MORRISON, JAMES D
James D. Morrison, a son of William, was a graduate of Washington College, and in the civil war was a captain in the 58th Virginia Infantry. He was sent to the Assembly in 1872, and five years later he founded the Rockbridge Citizen. He died in 1902, aged about seventy years. Captain Morrison married Laura Chapin, and his children were William, Kenneth, and Irene.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

MORRISON, WILLIAM McCUTCHEN
William McCutchen Morrison, son of James L. and Mary A. (McCutchan) Morrison, was born November 10, 1867, was graduated from Washington and Lee 1887, and in 1896 was ordained and sent to Luebo on the Congo. One of his journeys in that river valley was of 700 miles. He reduced the Baluba tongue to writing. On behalf of the Congo natives he appeared before the British Parliament. He was sued for libel, but acquitted.
(Source: History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, by Oren Frederic Morton. Publ. 1920.)