McGAUGHEY, Walter - Putnam

Illustrated 1910: B. F. Bowen & Company, Publishers Indianapolis, Indiana Author: Jesse W. Weik

Page: 601

The family of this name emigrated from Scotland in the sixteenth century and settled in the north of Ireland when the Scotch form of the name (Macgaughey) was changed to the familiar Irish "Mc." In 1732 they came to the American colonies and William McGaughey, great-grandfather of the well known Putnam county physician, who was born in 1762. located in Pennsylvania. He had two sons. Andrew and William, family names which have been handed down through generations. Both sons joined Washington's army and served for seven years. After the war. Andrew went to Vincennes. while William. the youngest, located in Kentucky, and it is from him that the Putnam county branch has descended. December 2, 1778, he married Prepare Clark, who was born in 1771 and died May 10, 1833. By this union there were ten children, seven boys and three girls. Michael, one of the former, born March 20, 1812 came to Indiana in early manhood and settled in Putnam county September 23, 1837. He married Sarah Lane, a native of Putnam county, by whom he had twelve children, ten sons and two daughters. He prospered as a farmer and became the owner of six or seven hundred acres of land. He was among the first of the county's pioneers and survived until 1864. William McGaughey. eldest of his sons, was born in September, 1839 and reared in Russell township, Putnam County. He married Emma, daughter of Addison Campbell, a well-known millwright of the county, and the former now resides at Bloomingdale. in Parke county. Indiana. William and Emma (Campbell) McGaughey had three children: Charles Grant, born December 1, 1868 is a resident of Colorado Springs. Colorado: Clara, the youngest, was born in November, 1874 and was afflicted with blindness.

Walter M. McGaughey, the second of these three children, was born in Parke county. Indiana, May 4, 1871. His father was born September 16, 1839, near Fincastle, Putnam county, Indiana, and followed farming pursuits all of his life. He lived in Russell township for a number of years and then moved to the northern part of the county where he died in 1874, on his homestead. He served as a Union soldier in Company B, Seventy eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and during his campaigning contracted the disease which eventually caused his death. Walter M. McGaughey was two and a half years old when brought to Putnam county by his parents. He attended the district schools and worked on the farm during the summers until the fifteenth year of his age. Later he spent six months in the Danville (Indiana) Normal School and at the age of sixteen years secured a license to teach but was refused a school on account of his youth. He worked on the farm during the following summer and fall and next year taught school at Russellville. After this practical experience he returned to Danville for another term in the normal and during the succeeding three winters taught at Hebron school, meantime spending three months of each year at Danville. In the fall of 1894 he entered DePauw University and took a scientific course in chemistry and mathematics. Such was his diligence that he was able to take the regular four-year course in three years. In the fall of 1894 he took charge of the high school at Fincastle but after a stay of six months resigned as principal and returned to school. For the last six months of his graduation year, 1896-7. he had charge of the physics department in Greencastle high school, but kept up his college work and was graduated in 1897. He taught in the Greencastle high school during the following year and was occupying this position when the Spanish-American war opened. He enlisted and served as sergeant-major with Lieutenant Colonel Fee spending the summer at Camp Alger, in Washington, and Camp Mead, in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania. Being mustered out, he resumed his work in high school in the spring of 1898 and in the following fall entered the Indiana Medical School, at Indianapolis. While there he had charge during his first and second year of the class in mathematics in the city night school besides being tutor in chemistry." at the medical college. During his last year he was substitute teacher in mathematics at the Manual Training High School, was graduated in May, 1902, and began the practice in Greencastle. In 1903 he became city health officer, and next year was appointed surgeon of the Big Four railroad, which position he has since held. While in college Doctor McGaughey became a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and later joined the order of Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the county, state and national medical associations and the pension examining board. He is engaged in general practice and surgery and has met with success as the result of close application to business and especial qualifications for the duties of his profession.

On June 13, 1901, Doctor McGaughey married Elizabeth B., daughter of James E. and Margaret E. Matthews. She is a native of Greencastle and her father was a manufacturer of kegs and barrels. Doctor and Mrs. McGaughev have one daughter. Margaret Emily, born February 4, 1906.