Hugh Alexander, the pioneer ancestor of the family of which Mattie A. (Alexander) Shangle is a representative, was the eldest son of John of Lanark, and was born either in Scotland or in County Armagh, Ireland. He was probably a lad of twelve years when his father's family emigrated to America, 1736. Hugh Alexander learned the trades of wheelwright and carpenter, and practiced these trades in West Nottingham, Chester county, on the Octorara, in connection with agricultural pursuits. Prior to his residence in Nottingham, in 1757, he was the owner of land in Tyrone township, Cumberland county (now Perry county), in Sherman's Valley, Pennsylvania. There is a reliable tradition that Mr. Alexander and his wife fled several times from Sherman's Valley back to their old home on the eastern shore of Maryland from Indian raids, and returned to find their habitation burned. About 1758 he established himself permanently on his farm in Sherman's Valley. His tract contained eleven hundred acres. In 1777 he acquired tracts of land in Lost Creek and Kishacoquillas Valleys, and on the north branch of the Susquehanna. Hugh Alexander was one of the deputies from Cumberland county to the Continental congress, and this conference of deputies issued an address to the Associators or Patriotic Volunteers of Pennsylvania, made a declaration in favor of Independence, passed resolutions for raising six thousand troops for the "Flying Camp" of ten thousand, and made arrangements for the election of delegates from the counties to a constitutional convention. Hugh Alexander, William Clarke and James Brown were the first assemblymen from Cumberland. Mr. Alexander took his seat in that body January 13, 1777, and January 27, he was on a committee which reported a bill on excise, license and taxes, which passed into a law. His labors in the assembly were destined to a speedy termination, as his death occurred either in February or March, 1777.
Hugh Alexander married, 1752, Martha Edmiston, born 1733-34, of Lower West Nottingham, Cecil county, Maryland, daughter of David and Margaret (Donnel) Edmiston, the former of whom was born in 1700, died November 2, 1771. Their children were: Margaret, John, see forward; Mary, David and Hugh. Hugh Alexander married (second) Mrs. Lettice Thompson, about 1773, who bore him three children: James, William and Emily, twins.
John Alexander, eldest son of Hugh and Martha (Edmiston) Alexander, was born either in Nottingham, Chester county, or in Sherman's Valley, then in Cumberland, but now in Perry county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1756. His childhood and youth were spent on his father's farm in Sherman's Valley, near Landisburg, on the waters of Sherman's creek. He hastened with other volunteers to reinforce Washington's army on the Delaware in December, 1776, and participated in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, which turned the tide of victory and revived the desponding spirit of the nation. After the death of his father, in 1777, the settlement of his estate and the care of the younger children fell upon John and his step-mother, who were named as executors. In 1787, accompanied by his wife and three children, John Alexander removed to a tract of about one thousand acres in Little Valley, Pennsylvania, which lay four miles northeast from Lewistown, the county seat of Mifflin county, and one mile east of Freedom Iron Works. He was one of the founders of the Little Valley church, and for many years and until his death was an active ruling elder.
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