From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 714-715.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


DAVID McCONAUGHEY

David McConaughey, deceased, came from Ireland to America in 1832, 
and located in Ohio county, W.Va.  For several years he was with the 
Exchange bank of Wheeling.  In the course of time Mr. McConaughey 
returned to the mercantile business at Haneytown.  While there he 
bought a large tract of land on Grave creek, seventeen miles east of 
Moundsville, in Marshall county. The prosperous town of Cameron is 
now situated on a portion of this land.  He built on this the large 
frame house now occupied by his widow and youngest children, it being 
the first house erected on Grave creek, with the exception of a few 
log huts east of Moundsville.  In 1846 he married Anna, the oldest 
daughter of Samuel and Mary Davidson, the latter came from Ireland in 
1838, and located in Ohio.  Immediately after their marriage they 
came to their, then new, home on Grave creek, where they passed the 
remainder of their lives.  Death claimed this most highly esteemed 
man in his seventy-sixth year of his age.  He had united with the 
Presbyterian church while living in his native country, and his wife, 
believing in the same religious tenets, they raised their famly of 
eight children in that faith.  The children are named as follows:  
Martha L., married E. P. Richardson, of the firm of Richardson & 
Spragg, hardware merchants of Cameron; Samuel D., married Lizzie D., 
daughter of Robert Hicks.  She soon after died, and in a few years he 
married the second time, Orilla Heskett, of Belmont county, becoming 
his wife.  He is engaged in speculating and farming, his property 
adjoining the old homestead; Robert A., married Anna Renner, of 
Springfield, Ohio.  He is engaged in the dry goods business in 
Cameron; Sallie A., married Lindly Hoge, of Belmont county, Ohio,  
Six years after her marriage she died, leaving one child, Anna Pearl, 
who has since made her home with her maternal grandmother; James B., 
married Virginia Floyd, of Marion county, where he is now engaged in 
the general mercantile business; Mary U. died in her early womanhood; 
David W., the youngest son and his father's namesake, inherits the 
old homestead where he is now living with his mother, his youngest 
sister, Isabella F., and his niece, Anna Pearl Hoge.  David W. is 
still a young man, but he has obtained a reputation for business 
ability and probity which many an older man might well envy.  When 
the B.& O. railroad was completed the town of Cameron sprang into 
existence, the naming of the new town was left entirely with the 
elder David McConaughey, who christened it Cameron, in honor of his 
friend Samuel Cameron, who was a prominent official of the railroad.  
The family has been prominently identified with the settlement of 
this community and is held in very high favor in this section of the 
state.
   

(Linda Fluharty)