Andrew Ryan McGill

Who was Andrew Ryan McGill?

Andrew Ryan McGill was an American politician of the United States Republican Party. He served as the tenth Governor of Minnesota from January 5, 1887 to January 9, 1889.

Andrew Ryan McGill, the son of Angeline and Charles McGill, was born in Saegertown, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1840. Andrew's father, Charles Dillon McGill, was the youngest son of Patrick and Anna McGill. Patrick had emigrated from County Antrim, Ireland, about 1774, settling in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. In 1795 Patrick and Anna moved their family to the western part of Pennsylvania, homesteading several hundred acres in Crawford County. Andrew's mother, Angeline Martin, was the eldest of Armand and Mary Martin's nine children. The Martin family also owned land in western Pennsylvania. Armand's brother, Lieutenant General Charles Martin, who commanded troops stationed at Fort de Boueff in the late 1790s, settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

In 1859, at the age of nineteen, Andrew Ryan McGill moved from Pennsylvania to Kentucky to become a schoolteacher. When the Civil War began and teaching, work was no longer feasible in Kentucky, McGill left for Minnesota, arriving June 10, 1861.