Andrew Ryan McGill was governor of Minnesota in 1887 and 1888. A remarkable period of development and prosperity is marked in the history of the state. He was born in Saegertown, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1840. He was of Irish and English ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Patrick McGill, came from County Antrim, Ireland, to the United States about 1774, when he was but twelve years of age.
He was, with an older brother, connected with the American army during the Revolutionary War. Following the war, he settled in Pennsylvania, first in Northumberland County, and later emigrated to the western part of the state. He secured a large tract of land in what became Crawford County. This land became the “old homestead” of the McGill family. The first house, built by Patrick McGill, is still standing on the present site of Seager Town.
Governor McGill’s father was Charles Dillon McGill, and his mother’s maiden name was Angeline Martin. She was of Waterford, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Armand Martin, who served in the war of 1812, and a granddaughter of Charles Martin, who served in the Patriot army during the revolution. After the war, he was appointed by Washington as an officer of the Second United States Infantry.
He resigned from the regular army and became a major general of the Pennsylvania troops. Governor McGill’s mother was a woman of strong character, high Christian conduct, and rare mental qualities. She died when he was seven years old, but not before she impressed some of her characteristics upon him and shaped the course of his life.
The boy who was to become the Governor of a vast Commonwealth was reared to young manhood in his native valley of the Venango. This was a rather secluded locality, “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.” He attended the public schools and Saegertown Academy. These were high-quality, practical, and thorough schools.
He was a good student, studious, and industrious, and he made the most of them. When he was nineteen years old, or in 1859, he set out to live on his own. He had not set much aside for his education, and he did everything he could. He moved to Kentucky and became a teacher.
Andrew Ryan McGill was successful as a teacher, but in a year or so, when the war clouds lowered, Kentucky became an unpleasant place of abode for a Northern man of Union sentiments, and, in the spring of 1851, the Rebellion War having begun, he returned to the North. He then went to the Northwest, and on June 10, 1861, he arrived in Minnesota. Thus, he re-engaged in teaching and became the principal of St. Peter’s public schools.
The following year, on August 19, 1802, he enlisted in the Union Army in Company D, Ninth Minnesota Infantry. He was made an orderly sergeant of the company. His muster-till dated from the second day of the massive Indian outbreak, in which his army’s regiment took part. A year later, due to ill health, he was discharged from the service for disability. Not long after leaving the military, he was elected superintendent of schools for Nicollet County and served two terms. He has now become somewhat prominent in the public domain.
In 1865 and 1866, Andrew Ryan McGill edited the St. Peter Tribune, a public paper with which he was connected as publisher for several years thereafter. He was elected clerk of the District Court for Nicollet County and served for four years. During this time, he studied law under Hon. Horace Austin, then Judge of the District Court, who admitted him to the bar in 1868. Two years later, Judge Austin became governor. Mr. McGill was appointed his private secretary.
In 1873, Andrew Ryan McGill was appointed State Insurance Commissioner and held the position for thirteen years. His service acceptability and general efficiency may be inferred from his length. His reputation as an authority on insurance became far-reaching, and his reports are still regarded as among the most valuable ever issued on the subject. In 1886, the Republicans nominated him for governor.
The canvass that followed was one of the most active, and the election was one of the closest in the state’s history. The temperance question was to the fore, and the Republican Party declared for local option and high license. The saloon friends did not want a high license system, and the Prohibitionists did not want a license system at all. Both of these elements were against McGill.
Further, his Democratic opponent had the support of all liquor interests, both inside and outside the Republican Party. In addition, he had the support of large numbers of the Prohibitionists, who resented any state license, whatever. McGill was a man of unassailable character and manly deportment, and he conducted his campaign in a dignified manner. He was elected, and under all circumstances, his election was a remarkable triumph for the principles he advocated for and for himself personally.
Andrew Ryan McGill was one of the most effective chief executives the state had ever had. His administration covered a period when the state was developed and improved as never before or since. This was when its business interests were most rapidly advanced and when it was busy and bustling. And yet his opponents predicted that if elected, he would “ruin the state,” a familiar party cry. The records and history of his term show what was accomplished. One of the most influential laws enacted under his administration was the high license law.
This aimed to improve the control of liquor traffic and has become the model for similar legislation in other states. It was the principle involved in the Hub law on which the campaign was fought out. Governor McGill, having won the election, insisted on the passage of the law, and it was through his efforts and influence that the legislation was secured. Of its wisdom and salutary effects, it is perhaps sufficient to say that its repeal has never been attempted.
Other significant measures placed on the statute books during Governor McGill’s administration were railway laws relating to the transportation, storage, and grading of wheat. Watering railroad stock, etc.; New legislation was materially strengthened and improved; the tax laws were simplified; contracts detrimental to labor were abolished; the State Soldiers’ Home and the State Reformatory were established; the Bureau of Labor Statistics was created; and numerous other important measures were inaugurated.
Governor Andrew Ryan McGill may await posterity’s judgment. Upon his retirement from the chief executive’s chair, Governor McGill became engaged in banking and trust business. He finally retired in 1800 due to ill health. He is not in active business, although he is vice president and director of two active concerns, one an investment company and the other a manufacturing company. He is also a state senator from the Thirty-seventh Senatorial District of Minnesota, elected in 1898 for four years.
McGill lives in St. Anthony Purk, a suburb of St. Paul, where he has a pleasant residence. Governor McGill has been twice married. His first wife was Eliza E. Bryant, a daughter of Charles S. Bryant, A. M., a lawyer and author of prominence, formerly of St. Peter. His history of the Sioux War in Minnesota is the most authoritative on the subject. She died in 1877, leaving two sons, including Charles II. And Robert C., and a daughter named Lida B. Met Sill. The oldest son, Captain Charles H. McGill, served during the Spanish War as assistant adjutant general, with the rank of captain.
In 1880, Governor Andrew Ryan McGill married Mary E. Wilson, a daughter of Dr. J. C. Wilson of Edenborough, Pennsylvania. Through this marriage, there are two sons named Wilson and Thomas McGill. The ex-Governor is a gentleman of admirable personal qualities. Plain, unassuming, frank, and open, he attracts acquaintance and admiration at the same time. He has a quiet, dignified manner but is readily accessible to all, regardless of rank or station.
He is a man of vast knowledge and sound ideas, a staunch friend, and firm in his convictions. He does not know how to trim and trick, nor does he want to learn. Andrew Ryan McGill died on October 31, 1905, in Saint Paul Minnesota at 65. His excellent services will not be forgotten in the state’s history.
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