McIRVIN-Samuel - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Maj. Samuel McIrvin, grocer and farmer, Veedersburg, is a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, born in 1827, and came to Fountain county in 1835 with his parents, Hugh and Sarah (Ripley) McIrvin, both of whom were natives of Virginia. They settled in Richland township The Major’s father died there in 1838. He received his education in the common schools of Richland township In 1845 he began a two-years’ apprenticeship to learn the trade of blacksmithing, and in 1847 he enlisted in the 5th Ind. Vols., as a private soldier, in the Mexican war, and owing to the fact that the part of the army to which he belonged being detailed to follow Gen. Scott’s army to the city of Mexico, he served to the close of the war without once being engaged in battle. He returned home in 1849, and was married to Martha J. Webster, daughter of William and Nancy Webster, both natives of Ohio, and settlers at Newport in an early day. She is a native of Indiana, born in 1850. By this union he has five children: Elvessa (deceased), Alphonso, Blanch, Ureka, and Joseph K. In 1859 he resumed his trade till 1854, when he engaged in the mercantile business at Newtown, and in 1858 went to farming. in 1861 he enlisted and served three years in the 22d N. Y. Cav. At the time of his going out no cavalry troops were being raised in Indiana. He and three others arranged with the war department to receive 400 cavalry. They each raised a company for the army, which was received and placed in the 22d N. Y. Cav. The Major was appointed as captain of his company, and afterward promoted to the rank of major, which office he held till the term of his enlistment expired. The Major was in twenty-seven battles, and skirmishes too numerous to mention. He was in Gen. Pope’s retreat from Bull Run, in 1862, upon Washington, the battles of Chantilly, Centreville, and Leesburg, Virginia, Allodie, Upersville, Middlesex, and Culpepper; was with Gen. Grant in his march on Richmond in 1864, and fought in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg; was with Gen. Burnside at Fredericksburg; was in Gen. Wilson’s raid, and the cavalry raid south of Petersburg. The Major was taken prisoner at Warrenton Station, and paroled. In 1862 he was wounded by a saber in an engagement at Wilson’s Ridge, taken prisoner, and sent to the Libby prison pen, where he remained six months, subsisting on a half-ration of corn-bread and a potato a day, and “scarce remembering what meat meant.” In 1865 he returned to his family and farm. In 1875 he located in Veedersburg, where he now resides, and engaged in the grocery trade, which he still carries on. He is a Mason, lodge No.491. Besides his store he has a good farm of 160 acres under cultivation. In politics he is thoroughly republican.