LAKE COUNTY OHIO
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File contributed to the Lake County, Ohio Biographies Project by
Deb Breniser
rbcobb@ncweb.com
January 6, 2000
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This biography is taken from Biographical History of Northeastern Ohio, 
Embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake; Lewis Publishing Company, 
1893. 

James McVitty

James McVitty, a prominent and wealthy produce dealer of Perry, Lake County, 
Ohio, was born in county Monaghan, North Ireland, in August 1841. His father, 
William McVitty, a native of the same county, was son of Alexander McVitty, who 
was born in Scotland, of Scotch extraction, and who settled in North Ireland, 
and there started the family name. Grandfather McVitty died in Monaghan County,.
William McVitty came to America in 1850 on a prospecting tour, and liking the 
country, returned and brought his family here in 1854. They settled in Perry 
Township, this county, and here he spent the rest of his life, and died at the 
age of seventy-eight years. His wife's maiden name was Margaret Gibson, and she,
too was a native of county Monaghan and of scotch descent. She reared to 
maturity seven children, of whom James, the subject of this sketch, was the 
fourth born. She died at the age of seventy-six years. Both she and her worthy 
husband were consistent members of the Episcopal Church.
  James was thirteen years old when the family came to America, and while the 
rest of them came to Ohio, he remained in New Jersey and worked at gardening for
two years, the end of which time he joined his parents in Lake county. He had 
attended school for a time in Ireland, and after coming to Ohio, went to school 
during the winter and did farm work by the month in summer. He lived with one 
man in Madison Township three years, and in this way secured his start in life. 
In 1866 he engaged in the produce business, buying and shipping produce of all 
kinds, and in this he has continued up to the present time, being now one of the
most extensive buyers and shippers in northeastern Ohio. In 1881, in connection 
with his other business, he began the raising of onions, and is now probably the
largest onion grower in the state. At this writing he has seventeen acres in 
onion beds, the annual product from which is 8,000 to 12, 000 bushels. besides 
what he raises he also buys and ships many hundred carloads, shipping to all the
large cities of the United States. Mr. McVitty began life without a dollar, and 
that he has succeeded is due to his own untiring energy and good management. His
career as a moneymaker has, indeed, been a marvelous one.
  Mr. McVitty married Olive Kewley, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. She is a lady 
of much culture and refinement and has traveled extensively, spending her 
winters in Florida or on the pacific coast. She is a Methodist and her husband a
Congregationalist. Politically he is a Republican.