James McKenna

JAMES A. “UNCLE JIMMIE” MCKENNA (November 6, 1853 - November 4, 1940) was a late nineteenth-century pioneer and prospector. Born in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, McKenna left his home as a young man in 1877. In search of adventure and money, he worked his way to New Mexico’s Black Range Mountain to mine silver. Together with W. J. “Oxy Bill” Hamlett, “Uncle Jimmie’s” tales were recorded in Hamlett’s blacksmith shop and typed up by Sister Foley at the Holy Cross Sanatorium in Deming, New Mexico. McKenna resided at Holy Cross until it burnt down in the late 1930s, whereupon McKenna went to live with a niece in St. Petersburg, Florida. McKenna died in 1940.