John R. McQuigg
Brigadier General, U.S. Army

John R. McQuigg was born on 5 December 1866 in Wooster, OH, the son of Samuel S. and Jane McKinney McQuigg. McQuigg's father and paternal grandparents were from County Antrim / County Londonderry area of Ireland having been born there.

McQuigg lived in the Wooster community from the time of his birth until 1891, at which time he went to Cleveland. By vocation McQuigg was a lawyer; by avocation he was a soldier.

At the outset of the war with Spain, he organized the Cleveland Grays into three companies and later recruited the 112th Engineers. It was this job of organization that gained him state and nationwide attention. For thirteen years he commanded that Battalion and, when World War I broke out in 1914, his lean figure, his campaign hat cocked over one eye, and his black mustache were familiar sights to thousands of Ohioans.

In 1917, McQuigg threw himself, with renewed ardor, into the preparations the nation was making to enter the World War. His organization was one of the crack units this country sent to France, and he served with distinction.

McQuigg, who commanded the 112th Engineers, 37th Division, in France during WWI, was for three terms mayor of East Cleveland and was prominent as an attorney and business man.

When Ohio troops went to Mexico, McQuigg was 51, and deemed too old for an arduous campaign. He regretfully saw his troops depart without him. But he did not stay behind long. New orders sent him to Mexico where he rejoined his troops.

A general nervous and physical breakdown caused his death. In the summer of 1927 he literally got out of a sick bed to go with "his boys" of the 73rd Brigade, to Camp Perry. He paraded in a drenching rain storm.

Honors

• Brigadier General McQuigg served as National Commander of the American Legion during 1925.

• During World War II, the Liberty Ship USS John R. McQuigg was commissioned in his name.

Death and Burial

Brigadier General John R. McQuigg died on 26 October 1928 in East Cleveland, OH, following a year's illness. He is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, OH.

General McQuigg was survived by his widow, Gertrude Imgard McQuigg, also a native of Wooster, by two children, Pauline and Donald, who, with their mother, were at the bedside when he passed away, by two sisters, Hinda and Stella, of North Market Street, Wooster, and one brother, William, living in the west.