McDonough ILGenWeb

Robert McCutcheon, who has been successfully engaged in farming in McDonough County, Ill., for more than forty years, is a resident of Chalmers Township, that county. He was born August 11, 1826, in Port Patrick, Scotland, a son of Patrick and Margaret (Crawford) McCutcheon, the father being a native of County Down, Ireland. Robert McCutcheon and Elias Crawford were the grandfathers on the paternal and maternal side, respectively. Robert McCutcheon is the second in a family of four children born to his parents. He came to the United States at the age of twenty-one years and worked in Pittsburg as coachman and in the lumber business for five years. In 1856 he came to McDonough County and worked at farming in Chalmers Township. In 1862 he bought the farm of forty acres where he now lives, and has added to the original purchase from time to time until his present holding is 160 acres. When Mr. McCutcheon purchased it, this land was covered with timber, but he has developed it into one of the finest farms in the township.

Mr. McCutcheon has been thrice married, the first occurring in Ireland, in 1846, to Elizabeth McMillan, who bore him two children - William and Elizabeth (Mrs. Charles Magers). The mother died July 28, 1858. His second wife was Elizabeth Knox, a native of Pennsylvania, and this union resulted in eight children, four of whom are deceased. Those surviving are Christiana, (Mrs. William Kaiser); Margaret (Mrs. Charles Eddington); Robert, of Scotland Township, Mcdonough County; and Mary (Mrs. John Atkinson). The mother of this family died in 1872. In November, 1873, Mr. McCutcheon took for his third wife, Margaret Kennedy, who was born in Ireland, where, in girlhood, she attended public school. Eight children are the offspring of this union, namely: Catherine (Mrs. F. Whalen), Alice, Charles, Lucy (Mrs. Pennington), Mabel, Grace, Agnes and Harry. Religiously, Mr. McCutcheon is a member of the presbyterian Church. In politics he is on the Republican side and served the township as School Trustee and Director for a number of years.

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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, compiled by Dr. Newton Bateman, and Paul Shelby, 1907. Transcribed by Joanne Scobee Morgan