Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 572] whom we feel it our duty to place among the most successful and representative agriculturists of Hickory township, was born in the above township, which was then a part of Neshannock, in the month of June, 1833.
Our subject's grandfather, also named Samuel McCreary, came to this country from his native place in Lancaster Co., Pa., with his wife in 1802, and settled in that part of Mercer County which is now a part of Lawrence County. He followed farming, and also raised cattle for market and indulged in other allied occupations until his failing powers demanded that he seek rest from his arduous work; his death took place in 1858, when he was aged eighty years. He worked hard and late with an industry that is seldom seen or even equalled, and he would be considered well-to-do to-day, for he owned upwards of six hundred acres of valuable land. He was a Whig in politics, and he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church. She bore him ten children, as follows: Enoch; Betsey; Thomas; Sarah; Findlay; William; Jane; Margaret; Nancy; and Martha.
Enoch McCreary received his education in the customary manner, chiefly in the winter months, in Neshannock township, and became a farmer at an early age; this occupation he steadfastly followed all the period of his life in Hickory township on the farm now owned by George Young. Politically, he was first a Whig and then a Republican. He married Margaret Pierson, daughter of Samuel Pierson, and to Mr. and Mrs. McCreary were given eight children: Pierson; Belinda; Samuel; Sarah; William; James; John; and Enoch. They were Methodists in their views on matters of a religious nature. The father passed away in March, 1856, aged fifty-three years, and the mother remained at the head of the family until July, 1885, when she was also called home to join those gone before at the age of eighty-six years.
Samuel McCreary, our subject, was educated in the schools of Hickory township, and his entire life, which has been devoted to general farming, has been passed in the township of his birth. Ever since the organization of the Citizens' National Bank of New Castle, he has been one of its directors. He has always voted the Republican ticket, and was elevated to the position of school director, where he so far distinguished himself as a man of excellent judgment, that he was rewarded with thirteen and a half years of office in that capacity. The family are regular attendants of the M. E. Church.
In 1857, Mr. McCreary married Elizabeth McDowell, daughter of Abel McDowell of Hickory township, and the union was blessed with six children: Emma J., who married Dr. W. L. Smith of New Wilmington, Pa., and has three children, Genevieve, Sam, and Gula; Mary A., who married J. E. Duff, a druggist of New Castle, and has one child, Dorothy; Margaret, who married Thomas W. Houston of Hickory township, and has borne him two children, Victor A. and Edwin; Edwin, who married Mary Riber of Hickory township, by whom he had two children, Norman and Kenneth King; and two that died in infancy.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 17 Jul 2001