The McCabe family came to America from Tyrone County, Ireland, prior to the Revolutionary War. Owen McCabe settled in Cumberland County, present day Perry County, in central Pennsylvania. He and two of his sons, Robert and William, fought in the Revolution. Owen's grandson, Richard, became Pennsylvania's Secretary of State in 1820 before becoming a lawyer in Huntington County. Richard's cousin, James "Squire" McCabe, lived in Middletown, now Coraopolis, and was appointed as a magistrate of Pennsylvania. Squire's son, James H. McCabe, Sr., was born in 1814. James Sr. was instrumental in the building of the First Presbyterian Church in Middletown and served as the third Burgess of Coraopolis. His son, James H. McCabe, Jr., was a war musician during the Civil War and spent much of his three year service at Fort Delaware. He also served as President Lincoln's bodyguard as he lay in state in Philadelphia. After the war, James, Jr. married Arabella Sayer and had five children, three of which are represented by documents in this collection. Their son H. Dallas McCabe worked at an uncle's engineering firm in Pittsburgh and became the surveyor for the new town of Monessen between 1893 and 1898. H. Dallas became Monessen's council president and started various businesses and two banks within the town. The Big Spring tract of land in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, where H. Dallas's sister, Bertha McCabe, and her husband, Roy Hoskins, resided, consisted of about 300 acres on the southwest side of Dunning's Creek in present East St. Clair Township. In 1928, the state purchased part of the land and built the Reynoldsdale State Fish Hatchery, which covers 130 total acres and is still active today.
From the description of Papers of the McCabe family, 1776-1945. (University of Pittsburgh). WorldCat record id: 30396591
