Journalist. He gained worldwide recognition as a 19th-century American war correspondent, who received the name of "Liberator of Bulgaria" after publishing articles describing the massacre of Bulgarian civilians by Turkish soldiers and irregular volunteers in 1876. Born the son of Irish immigrants, he was six years old when his father died. Starting young, he was a farmhand and, as a bright student, attended school in the winter. He went to Illinois and taught school for two terms. In 1863, he moved to St. Louis, where he worked for four years as a bookkeeper and newspaper writer. Starting in June of 1868, he traveled about Europe for two years learning French, German, and Latin and law. General Philip Sheridan, a distant cousin according to sources, lived near his hometown and became a mentor, leading him to a career in journalism. In Paris with Sheridan, he was hired to report to the "New York Herald" on the Franco-Prussian War, while traveling with the French Army. At the end of the war in January of 1871, he barely escaped execution and was rescued through the intervention of the U.S. Minister to France. He was one of the first to report on the war and many of his vivid-worded articles began to be reprinted in various European newspapers. His graphic descriptive powers held readers attentions. Defying a Russian ban of foreign correspondents, he accepted the task of the correspondent to St. Petersburg. In the freezing winter in 1871, he toured Russia, learning the Russian language and traveling on horseback for a 400-mile ride to witness the fall of the city of Khiva to the Russian Army. In 1873, he married Varvara "Barbara" Elgaina, the daughter of an old Russian noble family, and they had a son the next year. His wife was a prolific journalist along with publishing in 1890 a novel in English, "Xenia Repunina." In 1874 for 10 months, he covered the Third Carlist War in Spain. Besides the "New York Herald," he started writing for the "London Daily News." Documenting on Russian military, he published his 504-page textbook, "Campaigning on the Oxus and the Fall of Khiva" in 1874. In the 21st century, his textbook is available in print or Kindle. In June of 1875, he sailed with British explorer Sir Allen William Young on the "HMS Pandora" expedition to the Arctic seas, which led to the publishing of the book "Under the Northern Lights." Continuing to travel, he went to Key West, Florida and onto Spanish Cuba. In 1876 he was hired to investigate the reported atrocities in Bulgaria by Turkish forces, sending daily dispatches to the "London Daily News," and for this, he is considered a hero of the people of Bulgaria. He suffered from a broken leg traveling with the troops. His reporting was of such a high degree importance that newspapers printed a full page and a half to cover this history-making story. His newspaper articles were a major factor in preventing Britain from supporting Turkey in the Russian-Turkish War of April 24, 1877 through March 3, 1878, which led to Bulgaria gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire. For 500 years, the Ottoman Turks ruled the Bulgarians. He was planning to go to Berlin for an International Congress, but an epidemic of typhoid came through the country and staying to nurse a colleague, he became ill. In 1878, three months after the war ended, MacGahan died from typhoid fever in Constantinople. Initially, he was buried there but later repatriated to Ohio for burial. After his death, his widow and four-year-old son, Paul, returned to the United States, settling in New York City. To honor a native son, a full larger-than-life statue of him was erected near the Perry County, Ohio courthouse. In June, the annual MacGahan Festival is held in New Lexington, and a graveside memorial led by the Eastern Orthodox Church is held with his descendants attending. There are numerous streets throughout Bulgaria named in his honor.