JAMES C. McELWAIN was born May 14, 1821, near Russellville, Ky.; removed with his parents in childhood to Todd County, where he was reared and still resides. He is the son of Alexander, a native of the city of Cork, Ireland, where he was born in 1780, and emigrated with his widowed mother to Maryland, in 1790, thence to Logan County, Ky., about 1800 (whither his mother and family followed him), and purchased 1,000 acres of land south of Shakertown, where the mother died. Alexander married Mary W. Frazier, of Logan County, Ky., and to them were born: Frances (Parrish), Eliza J. (Young), Mary (Young), John W., Caroline (Harrel), James C., and Alexander B. James C. was married in 1841 to Miss Mary, daughter of Gabriel L. Yancy, of Todd County, and this union was blessed with: Clementine (Chiles), Maria L. (Bronaugh), James W., Mary W. (Hord) and Edward L. After the death of his wife in 1861, subject married, in 1862, Miss Elizabeth A., daughter of George 0. Thompson, of Hopkinsville, Ky., and from this union sprang: Ellen G., George A., Gertrude and Carrie. Mr. McElwain is engaged in the business of farming, owning 225 acres of very fine land, which he is successfully cultivating in wheat, corn and tobacco. He is a Cumberland Presbyterian, a Granger, formerly an Old Line Whig, but now a Democrat.
