"Swamp" James McCandless

Immigrant 1819

	Date	Location	Notes	Sources
Birth	~1800-1810	County Down, Ireland
Marriage	between 1819 - 1830		To Jane "Jennie" McCandless
Death	~1847- 1850

Ancestry chart segment

 Generation 5               Generation 6                   Generation 7
 
                                                       +-- Unknown McCandless II
                                                       |   (????-????)
                        +-- "Swamp" James McCandless --+
                        |   (????-????)                | 
 Mary Jane McCandless --+                              +-- [unknown]
 (1832-1882)            |                                  (????-????)
                        +-- Jane "Jennie" McCandless 
                            (~1810-1881)       

Sources:

Children

(all children with Jane "Jennie" McCandless)

Name	Gender	Date of Birth	Birthplace	Spouse	Notes	Sources
John A. McCandless	M	23 Feb 1831		Hannah Stoughton
Mary Jane McCandless	F	10 Sep 1832		John C. Stoughton	Direct line
Moses McCandless (~1836)	M	~1836
Joshua McCandless	M	~1840		Lucinda McCandless
Julia Ann McCandless	F	~1848		Albert Ralston

Places of Residence

Location	Dates	Notes	Sources
County Down,Ireland	birth~1800/1810 - immigration 1819
Muddy Creek Twp., Butler Co. PA	1830-1840

Sources

Ref. Num.	Description	Image of original
1	1830 United States Federal Census, Muddy Creek Twp, Butler Co, PA, page 15. Census is not dated. Family headed by James McCandless: 1 male age 20-30, 1 female 15-20. Note: Jane "Jennie" McCandless should be 20 at this time. Also on the page are several other McCandless families including a family headed by Moses McCandless: 1 male 15-20, 1 male 40-50, 1 female <5, 1 female 5-10, 1 female 10-15, 1 female 20-30, 1 female 30-40. Note: The female in her 20's could also be Jennie. However, since the children for James and Jennie have birth years starting in Feb., 1831, it seems quite likely that they were already married. Next door to Moses McCandless is the family of Joseph Hockenberry, brother of Jennie McCandless' mother, Jane Hockenberry. There is also a family headed by Robert McCandless (age 30-40); this name matches one of the brothers who immigrated with James in 1819.
3	1840 United States Federal Census Muddy Creek Twp., Butler Co. PA, pg 3. James McCandless household with 2 males under age 5, 1 male age 10-15, 1 male 30-40; 1 female age 5-10; 1 female age 20-30. These ages correspond fairly well with those expected for Joshua b. ~1840, Moses b. ~1836, John b. 1831, James, Mary Jane b. 1832, and Jane b. 1810. Four other census were found for James McCandless households, in Franklin & Muddy Creek Twps, Butler Co. PA. Each has a young daughter, but the number of sons or age of sons do not match; see below in Research section.
3	1850 United States Federal Census, Franklin Twp., Butler Co., PA, Page 254, lines 10-14 lists widow Jane McCandless, 40 (?),widow, $2000 real estate value, living with four children: son John McCandless, 19 (farmer); daughter Mary J. McCandless, 17; son Moses McCandless, 14; and son Joshua McCandless, 10. Everyone was born in PA. Moses attended school within the census year. This census is dated 16 Aug 1850. A family headed by James M. McCandless lives next door.
4	1860 United States Federal Census, Franklin Twp., Butler Co., PA, pg. 48. Date of census 28 June 1860. Lines 10-17: Household of John M. McCandless, age 28,farmer, $2650 real estate, $913 personal estate; Hannah age 24; son Alfred, 6; dau. Zillaham, 3; son Baby, 1. Jane McCandless age 52, dau. Julyann 13; son Josiah, 22, farm laborer, $665 real estate, $6 personal estate. Note: This appears to be Jane "Jennie" McCandless with two of her children, Josiah & Julyann, living with another of her children, James, his wife and 3 children. All are born in PA.
5	1870 United States Federal Census, Clay Twp., Butler Co., PA, Page 20, lines 13-14 lists Jane McCandless, 60, living with her daughter, Julia McCandless, 23. Both are listed as having been born in PA. Jane's parents are not of foreign birth. Both can read, write, and speak English. They live next door to Jane's son John McCandless, his wife Hannah McCandless, and their family (lines 3-12). This census is dated 9 Jul 1870.
6	1880 United States Federal Census, Franklin Twp., Butler Co., PA, Enumeration district 42, Page 11. Date of census 7 Jun 1880. Lines 17-21: Julian Ralston, white female age 32,married, keeping house; dau. Laura Bell age 5, son Wm. L. age 4; son James M. age 1; mother Jane McCandless age 69, widowed. All were born in PA except Julian Ralston's and Jane McCandless' fathers were born in Ireland.
7	McCandless and Related Families, Pioneers of Butler County Pennsylvania , 1977, researched & compiled by Joseph A. Ferree, Sr.; ed. & publ. by Joseph A. Ferree, Jr., Natrona Heights. PA. Pg. 69 James McCandless, and p. 68 The Second Group of three Brothers (immigrants): "James McCandless, the second of the second group of three brothers, was born in County Down, Ireland ..." lists 4 children.	(complete text James McCandless, The McCandless and Related Families)
8	Pennsylvania Atlas & Gazetteer, 3rd Ed., DeLorme Mapping Company, Freeport MA, 1990, p. 57. Map includes portions of Butler County. One of the tributaries of Muddy Creek and present day Lake Arthur is Swamp Run. It flows through the northwest corner of Centre Twp. into Franklin Twp. (See The McCandless and Realted Families, p. 68, re. the "Swamp McCandlesses.
9	Reproduction Map of Butler County Pennsylvania 1858, Violet M. Covert 2005, p.25 Centre Twp. Map shows the farms of various owners in 1858. In northwestern Centre Twp., along Swamp Run, are various McCandless farms including those listed as belonging to R. McCandless, Geo. McCandless, J. McCandless, McCandless, (and a variety of other McCandlesses). These likely indicate the farms of the three brothers Robert, George, and James McCandless (or James' son Joshua).
10	Butler Co. Cemetery Inventory Vol. II, p.6 Mt. Zion Cemetery. Joshua J. McCandless b. 1859, d. 1918, "husband". Sarah Etta , "wife of Joshua J.", b. 1862, d. 1946. (Joshua J. McCandless is the son of John A. McCandless and Hannah Stoughton; grandson of "Swamp" James McCandless. Also a nephew of John C. Stoughton) pg. 2 Mt. Zion Cemetery. Hannah J. McCandless b. 1871, d. 1909. (This birth date disqualifies her as a daughter of Joshua J. & Sarah Etta McCandless. This gravestone is new and clearly legible; transcription confirmed by us in 2007. Identity currently unknown)
11	Personal correspondence from Elizabeth Wilson Williams.	N/A

Source notes

• No other James McCandless is found in the 1820 census for Butler Co. Since James was in his late teens, he may have been living with Robert or George, the two brothers who immigrated with him in the previous year.
• Daughter Julia Ann McCandless was born in ~1847, so it is reasonable that "Swamp" James McCandless died between 1847 and the 1850 census in which his wife appears as a widow. Julia Ann appears with her mother in the 1860 census (age 13, and the 1870 census (age 23); why she was not listed in the 1850 census is unclear. The Joseph A. Ferree book does not list Moses McCandless as a son of James & Jane "Jennie" McCandless; this appears to be an oversight.

Conjecture

In Joseph Ferree's publication, "The McCandless & Related Families", the "second group of three brothers", who arrived in 1819, were said to be cousins of the first McCandless immigrants, who arrived in Butler County in 1794. It is possible they were one generation younger, and so not likely first cousins as we use the term today. They married children or grandchildren of the first group of immigrant McCandlesses. Swamp James McCandless married a granddaughter of Tailor Billy McCandless.
On the other hand, they may indeed have been of the same generation as the first group of immigrant McCandlesses, but arrived in America much later in life. Only one census record has been found for a James McCandless living in Butler Co. PA in 1820; there are also records for a George McCandless and a Robert McCandless. The difficulty between these census and our other information is that these households have several children by 1820. James' wife Jane (Jennie) was born in Butler County, and their marriage had to occur after he arrived in 1819; their known children are born in the 1830's. If this 1820 census record is for our James McCandless, he arrived with a wife (her age over 44 in 1820)and several children already. This would argue that Jane "Jennie" McCandless was a second wife, and that the names of the earlier children are lost.
A better explaination presents itself with the 1830 census, where there is a different James McCandless aged 20-30, and wife aged 15-20. This James does not appear as a head of household in 1820. His age would have been 10-20, and his future wife's age 5-10 in 1820. Thus with only the heads of households named, these two individuals are not traceable by census.
The James McCandless whose census we see in 1820 may in fact be James, the son of William "Tailor Billy" McCandless, one of the first group of three brothers.

Research

Ref. Num.	Description	Image of original
R1	1820 United States Federal Census, Center Twp, Butler Co, PA, page 6. Lists James McCandless family: 2 males <10, 1 male 10-15, 1 male 16-18, 1 male >44, 1 female 10-16, 1 female 26-44. This is the only Jame McCandless found for Butler Co. in this census. Robert and George, the two brothers reported to have immigrated with James are also in Center Twp. All three appear to have come to the area in their 40's or older. Arguing against this being our James McCandless is the note in "The McCandless Families" by Ferree that he & his brothers arrived in 1819. His wife was born in Butler Co.,so their children would be born after 1820, and appear to have been born in the 1830's.
R2	1830 United States Federal Census, Center Twp, Butler Co, PA, page 15. Census is not dated. James McCandless family: 1 male 15-20,1 male 20-30, 1 male 50-60, 1 female 50-60. This fits with the 1820 census and possibly fits for the James McCandless who was a son of the first wave (1790's) of McCandless immigrants
R3	*Four additional James McCandless households found in Butler County, 1840; none match data known for the James McCandless of this page.