Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/McGill, Alexander Taggart

McGILL, Alexander Taggart, clergyman, b. in Cannonsburgh, Pa., 24 Jan., 1807; d. in Princeton, N. J., 13 Jan., 1889. He was graduated at Jefferson college, was a tutor, and then removed to Georgia, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. He was appointed by the legislature to survey and map the northwest corner of the state, and after this work was completed in 1831 he returned to Cannonsburgh for the purpose of fitting himself for the ministry. After studying in the Associate Presbyterian seminary, where he was graduated in 1835, he was ordained at Carlisle, Pa., and was pastor of three small churches in Cumberland, Perry, and York counties till 1838, when he connected himself with the old-school Presbyterian church. Soon afterward he became pastor of the 2d Presbyterian church of Carlisle, and in 1842 professor of church history in Western theological seminary, Alleghany, Pa. In 1848 he was moderator of the general assembly, which met in Baltimore. In the winter of 1852 he filled a professorship in the Presbyterian seminary at Columbia, S. C., and in 1853 returned to his former chair in Allegheny. In 1854 he was transferred to the professorship of ecclesiastical, homiletic, and pastoral theology at Princeton theological seminary, and in 1883 he was retired as emeritus professor. He received the degree of D. D. from Marshall college, Mercersburg, Pa., in 1842, and that of LL. D. from Princeton in 1868. Many of his sermons and speeches have been printed. He was a frequent contributor to reviews, and, besides assisting in the composition of other works, was the author of a volume on “Church Government," and two on “Church Ordinances," which he prepared for the press.—His son, George McCulloch, surgeon, b. at Hannah Furnace, Centre co., Pa., 20 April, 1838; d. near Fort Lyon, Colorado, 20 July, 1867, was graduated at Princeton in 1858 and at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1861. He was commissioned assistant surgeon in the U. S. army to date from 16 April, 1861, in June, 1863, was made medical inspector, and in May, 1864, was acting medical director of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. For gallantry at Meadow Brook he received the brevet of captain. In June, 1864, he was made acting medical inspector of the Army of the Potompn, and served as such until January, 1865. At the close of the war he was brevetted major. During the cholera year of 1866 he attended the victims of the epidemic on Hart's and David's islands. New York harbor, receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. He was then ordered to the west, and while he was on the march from Fort Harker, Kansas, to Fort Lyon, the cholera broke out. Incessant labor then, which earned for him the brevet of colonel, with grief at the death of his wife, was the cause of his death.—Another son, Alexander Taggart, jurist, b. in Allegheny City, Pa., 20 Oct., 1843, was graduated at Princeton in 1864, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Jersey City, N. J. He was elected to the legislature in 1874, re-elected the following year, and was prosecutor of the pleas of Hudson county in 1878-'83 and then president of the county courts till May, 1887, when he was chosen chancellor of the state of New Jersey.