Major John McMahon

SINTON’S ASSOCIATE
He is an Octogenarian and has a Mexican War Pension.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer, Cincinnati Enquirer, OH, 31 Aug 1903 p6

Ironton, Ohio, August 30 – Major John McMahon of this city, who has only recently passed his eighty-second birthday, is probably the only Mexican War pension in this section of the Ohio valley.

Major McMahon was born in what is now Rome Township, this county when this part of Ohio was a wilderness with a few widely scattered inhabitants. He served as a Lieutenant in the Mexican War and figured in many of its decisive engagements.

Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted in the cause of the Union. He was made a Major of Battalion in the Second West Virginia Cavalry, recruited from the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, contiguous to the conjunction of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers.

During his early life in this county, Major McMahon was associated with the late David Sinton, the Cincinnati iron master who began his career as a cinder raker at Olive Furnace, one of the many historic charcoal furnaces of the Hanging Rock Iron region.

[Photo of David Sinton]

Major McMahon relates that the attention of the furnace company was peculiarly called to Mr. Sinton. While Sinton, McMahon, and others were working on the cinder dump one day, back in the antebellum days, a lumbering ox team was driven up to the furnace with a load of charcoal. The driver suggested that the men guess the weight of it.

They did so, and Sinton estimated it almost to a pound. The furnace master was present and, appreciating the Judgement of his employee, soon gave him a position to work half of the time in the office.

From this time, his advance was rapid, and before he left Lawrence County, Mr. Sinton was considered one of the shrewdest ironmen in the region. He laid the foundation of his fortune here and later made a name in Queen City.

Major McMahon is still in the enjoyment of fairly good health and mingles with his friends almost daily. His mental faculties are clear, and he has a rich fund of reminiscences concerning men and affairs in the pioneer days.