HADLEY
Hugh and Margaret McCreary were my 5th great-grandparents. The maiden name of Margaret has long been a mystery. Before their appearance in southwest Pennsylvania, solid documentation has been largely absent. My McCreary kinsman, with Hugh & Margaret as Most Recent Common Ancestors with me, has a number of autosomal DNA matches with Hadley people. As do I. Joshua Hadley Sr. (b. 1703, Westmeath Ireland) had a number of kids by 2 wives, & descendants of about half of those kids have atDNA matches with me. Plus a sister of Joshua.
Augusta County Virginia & vicinity was once a place where Hadley ancestors of people who are my atDNA kin were near McCreary people whose descendants are also my atDNA kin. The lands of Joshua Hadley Sr. were near the James River, vicinity of Eagle Rock & Bessemer, current Botetourt County Virginia. From c. 1746 for about a decade. I have autosomal DNA matches from descendants of Joshua’s sister Ruth Hadley Lindley & from descendants of Joshua’s kids Thomas Jefferson Hadley, Simon Hadley, Mary Hadley, Joshua Hadley Jr., Hannah Hadley, & Catherine Hadley Holliday. Too many to be chance, & not apparently connected to me by any other route.
These Hadley lands in current Botetourt County Virginia were upstream on the James River, close to the Looney’s Creek lands of James John Jr. McCreary Jr. (brother of John Andrew McCreary & Agnes Crawford), who was an ancestor of more of my atDNA matches. The few miles separating Hadley & McCreary land in the early 1750s is the closest place & time that I can place these 2 families, both of whom have multiple atDNA matches with me.
Our Hadley males of interest reportedly had yDNA Haplogroup R1b, whose phylogenetic sequence of SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) markers included a marker for Alpine Celt, & a Terminal SNP (most recently obtained so far in the phylogenetic chain) = BY31340. There are other yDNA kinds of Hadleys who are not even remote kin. See https://www.familytreedna.com/public/hadley/default.aspx?section=yresults
Most of our Hadley people were Quakers. The French & Indian War (from 1755) put the people of Augusta County Virginia vicinity in harm’s way. In 1756, the family of our Joshua Hadley Sr. left this area for a Quaker community at Cane Creek, at Snow Camp in current Alamance County NC. If my 5th great grandma Margaret was Joshua’s daughter, I think that perhaps she did not go to N.C., but was already acquainted with husband Hugh McCreary, who was not a Quaker, & was atDNA kin to several McCreary people in the vicinity of Hadley land in Virginia. I expect that the Quakers expelled her. Hugh & Margaret McCreary likely wed near the end of the war. It is hard to imagine them heading north into danger during the war.
Current Botetourt County Virginia was the site of Captain Audley Paul’s Fort, built in 1757. This may have been the closest refuge for the nearby McCreary kin at Looney’s Creek, & just downstream near the James River. A highway marker is en route to Natural Bridge. Audley Paul was with the Braddock expedition in 1755. Also on this expedition was George Wilson, then husband of Elizabeth "Betsy" Crawford McCreary (yep, ancestor of one of my atDNA matches); daughter of John Andrew McCreary & Nancy Agnes Crawford. After the war, Lt. Col. George Wilson & family settled in southwest Pennsylvania, not far from the future home of my ancestors Hugh & Margaret McCreary in Fayette County Pennsylvania. At one point during the French & Indian War, George Wilson was on a southwest Pennsylvania expedition with an aim of retrieving prisoners of the Indians. It is not clear whether this was in regard to the 2 McCreary boys (John & William; brothers of his wife Betsey McCreary) who had been captured by Wyandot (Huron) & taken to Detroit, as these guys escaped from Detroit in the company of Christopher Gist, in 1759, & made their way to Fort Niagara.
Some Rachel McCreary appears in Quaker records, & may have been a daughter of John Andrew McCreary & Nancy Agnes Crawford. She reportedly married William Jameson, possibly associated with Rockbridge County Virginia, adjacent to Botetourt. The documentation needs verification.
The French & Indian War had a considerable impact upon North Carolina, due to an influx of people escaping the war, & the violence of Cherokee incursions into central North Carolina. This war slowed the development of this colony, & left Britain with a large war debt. Heavy subsequent taxation upon the colonists was a factor leading to the Revolutionary War. Most of the NC Hadley men credited with service in this war were from the line of our Joshua Hadley Sr., but were in largely supportive roles rather than actual soldiers. However, Thomas Jefferson Hadley (1728-1781), son of Joshua Hadley Sr., was a militia captain & Member of the NC Provincial Congress in 1776. Quaker records show him to have been expelled. Thomas was a trader near current Fayetteville NC. His large River Plantation house is long gone. When Tories killed him in 1781, his son Benjamin narrowly escaped. A descendant of Benjamin has an atDNA match with me.
INTRODUCTION
Emma Jane McCreary married Joseph Pierce Muffley in Quincy, Illinois, on March 18, 1882. Her McCreary ancestry can be traced back to Hugh McCreary (born 1744). This blog features the various ancestries of Emma Jane. She was a great-grandmother of Gary Muffley.
HUGH McCREARY FAMILY IN FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Hugh McCreary (born about 1744) was a great-great grandfather of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley (great-grandmother of Gary Muffley). Hugh was born in Cumberland Township of Lancaster (later York, then Adams) County, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Margarete began having children in that area, before the move to Westmoreland (later Fayette) County Pennsylvania, which apparently occurred after the Revolutionary War. Their son James McCreary (my ancestor) was born in 1768, before the move west. Later, James married Mary Dougherty (born in 1776 in future Fayette Co.).
There were already several Dougherty families in Westmoreland/Fayette County before the war. Because of Indian attacks, Captain James Dougherty of future Fayette County reportedly led a company of militia near the end of the Revolutionary War. Mary Dougherty’s parentage remains a mystery. In the 1790 census (4 years before Mary’s marriage), Franklin Township had John Dougherty and Michael Dougherty households. The former was likely the distiller mentioned in 1785. One wonders about a potential Dougherty role in the Whiskey Rebellion, which began in 1791 south of Pittsburgh.
In 1783, Fayette County was created from Westmoreland County. That year, Hugh McCreary was a member of an unusually well-behaved Grand Inquest in a newly formed court at Uniontown. On December 8, 1789, Hugh McCreary acquired a land warrant in Menallen Township, in a portion that later became Redstone Township. His land was surveyed on Dec. 22, 1789. Record of his land transaction can be found under “Warrant Register”, on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website. His land entry shows a Survey Copy (click on “Copied Survey Books”) in Book C133, pg. 121 Menallen. At that site one can view a map of the Hugh McCreary land, which sat astride 3 streams feeding into a branch of Dunlap Creek. Click here for photos.
I have located this land. Using a topographical map on CD-ROM, I make the lower junction of the streams to be at 39° 57.429´ north latitude & 79° 50.110´ west longitude. Roderick Road (T551) traverses this land, which lies just southwest of Brier Hill village. Brier Hill is on Thomas Jefferson’s National Road (U.S. 40), northwest of Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Hugh McCreary’s neighbors to the northwest (Jacob Lindsey) and north (Peter Colley) had land sitting astride Four Mile Run. Bunker Hill Road connects Four Mile Run with this branch of Dunlap Creek.
The map of Hugh’s land shows some neighbors who appear in various historical records. A notable neighbor to the west was Rev. James Dunlap, who had been installed at Dunlap’s Creek Presbyterian Church in 1782. Hugh McCreary and his son John appear in a Session Book of Dunlaps Creek Congregation (book in the Uniontown library). Hugh McCreary’s name appears in an entry of August 27, 1795: “The Session declined to hear any more such transient complaints between Hugh McCreary & Robt. Adams. Concluded with prayer”. His son John McCreary was a collector for the year 1800, likely just before his move to Ohio. Our McCrearys have not yet been found in cemetery records of Dunlap’s Creek Presbyterian Church. Their headstones may be gone, illegible, or located elsewhere. There is a Fayette County volunteer who has so far photographed and catalogued over 110,000 tombstones (as of September, 2008), and has yet to put most online.
Directly north of the Hugh McCreary family in Fayette County Pennsylvania lived Peter Colley, whose 2 _ floors home and tavern, and barn, still stand at Brier Hill beside the National Pike (now U.S. 40). The upper house portion has a cornerstone reading “P & H. Colley, 1796”. Peter Colley built the lower rear tavern portion before the building of the Cumberland Road (National Pike) along the line of the earlier Braddock’s Road. He was known as the first innkeeper on the National Pike to have made and displayed a barrel of money. The rear lower tavern portion was used by wagon drivers from 1801. The National Road, authorized under the Thomas Jefferson administration, reached Redstone Township in 1818. California State University archaeologists under Dr. Ronald Michael have researched (1972-1973) the tavern, and adjacent barn. While so doing, they discovered the macadamized National Road, 10 feet in front of the tavern and 12 inches under the current surface, and analyzed construction techniques. The original specifications called for two strata of broken stone, tested for ability to pass through 7 inch & 3 inch diameter iron rings, respectively. The Peter Colley Tavern and barn are on the National Register.
The Peter Colley family lived in the upper front part of the house (facing the National Road), and a non-connecting tavern catering to wagon drivers was below at the rear. There are remains of an outdoor bake over, outbuilding, stone-lined cistern, 9 post holes, dirt and flagstone walkways, modern water and sewer, and 8 shallow refuse pits. Excavations inside the buildings revealed two layers. Dr. Michael’s team collected 3047 ceramic pieces from the upper layer, and 1843 pieces from the lower layer. There was a wide variety of types and quality, so that socioeconomic status of the owners was not clear from that data alone. Ceramic pieces included (most numerous to least): White paste earthenware, ironstone, red ware, yellow ware, porcelain, stoneware, pearl ware, and cream ware (all upper level), and similar ordering at the lower level. Inside the house, an original chimney was discovered between the two fireplaces. The buildings remained in the hands of the Colley family, and the tavern was used until the 1880s. This was then a farmhouse, and later as a residence owned by the Brier Hill Coke Company. It has been empty since the 1960s.
Due south of the Peter Colley house/tavern and barn at Four Mile Run is a ridge, beyond which lay the land of the Hugh McCreary family in the valley of an arm of Dunlaps Creek. Surely, the McCreary family members had visited the Colley family &/or tavern. Peter Colley was reportedly born aboard ship in the Atlantic on February 2, 1757 (so he was a bit younger than our Hugh McCreary, who was born about 1744). Peter Colley’s 1837 will is found at this link. Peter asked to be buried at the Fairview Meeting House, by his wife (Hannah Kroft Colley). Their kids included John, David, Abel, Solomon, and George. Abel Colley also ran a tavern.
In 1796, Jacob Lindsey purchased land to the northwest and adjoining Hugh McCreary’s plantation. Neighbor Hugh McCreary is mentioned in a Jacob Lindsey land purchase document. See www.clanlindsay.com/sln_v2_n3.pdf & search for “McCreary”. Jacob Lindsey’s estate was called “Wilmington”, and was on Four Mile Run. Hugh McCreary’s other neighbors at the time the Hugh McCreary land map was made include: William Rose (SW), James Briant (SE), Thomas Stokely (E), & Robert Adams (NE). Later, the Quaker Fitz Randolph family were neighbors of our Hugh McCreary, as were Thomas Stockley and Robert Adams. See http://files.usgwarchives.org/pa/fayette/land/fitzran.txt
Hugh “McCrearey” was in the 1790 census for Menallen Township (in the part which became Redstone Twp. in 1797). In 1790, his son James McCreary would have been 22. James’ sibs included: John, Archibald, Jane, Mary, Nancy, Margaret, Rhody, Sarah & Elizabeth. James McCreary and Mary Dougherty were wed on March 11, 1794, and before 1800 they moved to Warren County, Ohio. James and Mary Dougherty McCreary were the grandparents of John Skinner McCreary, the first McCreary ancestor for whom I have photos.
John Skinner and Margaret Williamson McCreary family:
Christine, Silas, Alice, Emma, Lincoln, Marilla. Not born yet: Hiram (Harry) & George.
James and Mary Dougherty McCreary may have migrated to Warren County, Ohio, in 1798. They may or may not have preceded James’ brother Archibald down the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, or more likely all traveled together. In 1799, Archibald McCreary of Redstone Twp., Fayette Co. Penn. sold some land in Hamilton County, Ohio. Archibald later settled in Miami County, Ohio.
Voyages from Fayette County Pennsylvania to the vicinity of future Cincinnati, would then have been by keelboat, &/or flatboat from Brownsville (just northwest of the McCreary home) down the Monongahela River, joining the Ohio River at Pittsburgh.
Steamboat travel didn’t start until 1814. In that year, Henry Miller Shreve of Brownsville, Fayette County, constructed the “Enterprise” steamboat. This was the first steamboat to go to New Orleans and back up to Pittsburgh. The Henry Shreve home still stands in Brownsville. Shreveport, Louisiana, was named after him.
The migration of our James and Mary Dougherty McCreary family down river to Ohio was preceded by several other settlers from Redstone Twp., Fayette Co. Many settled at the mouth of the Little Miami Rivers, now part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. One of the Redstone settlers to Ohio was Maj. Benjamin Stites Jr., distant kin of Lara, Kirk, and Moria Muffley.
The census of 1800 finds our Hugh McCreary family in Redstone Twp., Fayette County: Hugh, wife Margarete, and 4 younger females. Margarete died between 1800 and 1806. Hugh’s will was drawn up in 1806. Hugh McCreary died in 1808, and his will was probated on October 6, 1808. Witnesses to the 1806 will had included Nancy, Margaret, Jane, Elizabeth, Rhody & Sarah (no Mary), plus Charles McCormick, Caveler X Wheaton, William Rose (presumably the neighbor to the southwest; he actually died just before Hugh). There was mention of a grandson John Crawford, so one of Hugh’s & Margarete’s seven daughters presumably married a Crawford. Hugh’s sons James & John were to get the land, but by then both were living in Ohio. It is unclear what happened to the plantation. Charles McCormick was then leasing the land, according to the 1806 will.
The National Road (or Cumberland Road) was authorized in 1806 under the Thomas Jefferson administration. The road replaced Braddock’s Road and was to connect the Potomac and Ohio waterways. The National Road (U.S. Highway 40) runs northwest from Uniontown, county seat for Fayette County. The road probably passes within a mile or so of the Hugh McCreary land. Today, along this road lie historic Searight’s Tollhouse, Searight’s Tavern, and Peter Colley’s Tavern and barn. Click here to learn more about the historic places in Fayette County.
The 1810 census of Fayette County Pennsylvania does little to clarify the situation as to descendants of Hugh and Margarete McCreary remaining in Fayette County. However, there is an interesting sidelight. Anne McCreary (b. 1732 near Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim) is thought by some to be kin to our line of McCreary. She married John Moore, they lived at one point in Fayette County, and they operated a tavern on the National Road, probably within 4 miles southeast of Farmington. In the 1810 census, the widow Anne Moore appears in Wharton Twp., and probably had her daughter Sarah in the household. Nearby lived Andrew Moore, probably the son of Anne McCreary Moore, and colonel in the War of 1812. Anne reportedly operated the tavern herself awhile, and moved west in 1812. Col. Andrew Moore reportedly later operated the tavern, and was very likely the Andrew Moore in Wharton Twp. in the 1820 census.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website, above, shows some land transactions by the Anne McCreary Moore’s family. These fit nicely with family history mention of Sandy Creek, Wharton Township, and the National Road. On Feb. 2, 1787, a land warrant was obtained for Robert Moore. The plantation was called “Prospect” and was for “Robert Moore son of John in trust”. Robert would have been a brother of Andrew Moore. On the land was a piece of a road between Morgan’s Town (Morgantown, W.Va.) and Ft. Cumberland (Cumberland Maryland), and a bit of Sandy Creek. Adjacent to the north was land of “Heirs of Robert McCreery”, and to the west was land of Andrew McCreery; these would almost certainly be brothers of Anne McCreary Moore. To the east of Prospect was land of James McDonald, and beyond McDonald’s land to the east lay another piece of land of Robert Moore. This land was on Little Sandy Creek, was acquired by Robert Moore in 1789, and passed to his brother Col. Andrew Moore in 1834. The 1788 land of James McDonald was bordered on the northwest by Heirs of Robert McCreary & land of Samuel Moore, southwest by Ann Moore, and east by Robert Moore. Even that easternmost land of the McCreary-Moore families may not have been adjacent to the National Road, so the tavern was possibly not on any of this land.
After leaving Fayette County Pennsylvania, my ancestors James and Mary Dougherty McCreary lived the rest of their days in Warren County Ohio. Their story will be the subject of future blog entries. Later generations of McCreary are covered in my Muffley Blog. Descendants of James McCreary and his brother John McCreary (went to Guernsey Co. Ohio) have some information on those brothers’ lives, but less is known about brother Archibald McCreary, who lived in Miami County, Ohio. The lives of the seven sisters of these three brothers also remain virtually unknown.
There were already several Dougherty families in Westmoreland/Fayette County before the war. Because of Indian attacks, Captain James Dougherty of future Fayette County reportedly led a company of militia near the end of the Revolutionary War. Mary Dougherty’s parentage remains a mystery. In the 1790 census (4 years before Mary’s marriage), Franklin Township had John Dougherty and Michael Dougherty households. The former was likely the distiller mentioned in 1785. One wonders about a potential Dougherty role in the Whiskey Rebellion, which began in 1791 south of Pittsburgh.
In 1783, Fayette County was created from Westmoreland County. That year, Hugh McCreary was a member of an unusually well-behaved Grand Inquest in a newly formed court at Uniontown. On December 8, 1789, Hugh McCreary acquired a land warrant in Menallen Township, in a portion that later became Redstone Township. His land was surveyed on Dec. 22, 1789. Record of his land transaction can be found under “Warrant Register”, on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website. His land entry shows a Survey Copy (click on “Copied Survey Books”) in Book C133, pg. 121 Menallen. At that site one can view a map of the Hugh McCreary land, which sat astride 3 streams feeding into a branch of Dunlap Creek. Click here for photos.
I have located this land. Using a topographical map on CD-ROM, I make the lower junction of the streams to be at 39° 57.429´ north latitude & 79° 50.110´ west longitude. Roderick Road (T551) traverses this land, which lies just southwest of Brier Hill village. Brier Hill is on Thomas Jefferson’s National Road (U.S. 40), northwest of Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Hugh McCreary’s neighbors to the northwest (Jacob Lindsey) and north (Peter Colley) had land sitting astride Four Mile Run. Bunker Hill Road connects Four Mile Run with this branch of Dunlap Creek.
The map of Hugh’s land shows some neighbors who appear in various historical records. A notable neighbor to the west was Rev. James Dunlap, who had been installed at Dunlap’s Creek Presbyterian Church in 1782. Hugh McCreary and his son John appear in a Session Book of Dunlaps Creek Congregation (book in the Uniontown library). Hugh McCreary’s name appears in an entry of August 27, 1795: “The Session declined to hear any more such transient complaints between Hugh McCreary & Robt. Adams. Concluded with prayer”. His son John McCreary was a collector for the year 1800, likely just before his move to Ohio. Our McCrearys have not yet been found in cemetery records of Dunlap’s Creek Presbyterian Church. Their headstones may be gone, illegible, or located elsewhere. There is a Fayette County volunteer who has so far photographed and catalogued over 110,000 tombstones (as of September, 2008), and has yet to put most online.
Directly north of the Hugh McCreary family in Fayette County Pennsylvania lived Peter Colley, whose 2 _ floors home and tavern, and barn, still stand at Brier Hill beside the National Pike (now U.S. 40). The upper house portion has a cornerstone reading “P & H. Colley, 1796”. Peter Colley built the lower rear tavern portion before the building of the Cumberland Road (National Pike) along the line of the earlier Braddock’s Road. He was known as the first innkeeper on the National Pike to have made and displayed a barrel of money. The rear lower tavern portion was used by wagon drivers from 1801. The National Road, authorized under the Thomas Jefferson administration, reached Redstone Township in 1818. California State University archaeologists under Dr. Ronald Michael have researched (1972-1973) the tavern, and adjacent barn. While so doing, they discovered the macadamized National Road, 10 feet in front of the tavern and 12 inches under the current surface, and analyzed construction techniques. The original specifications called for two strata of broken stone, tested for ability to pass through 7 inch & 3 inch diameter iron rings, respectively. The Peter Colley Tavern and barn are on the National Register.
The Peter Colley family lived in the upper front part of the house (facing the National Road), and a non-connecting tavern catering to wagon drivers was below at the rear. There are remains of an outdoor bake over, outbuilding, stone-lined cistern, 9 post holes, dirt and flagstone walkways, modern water and sewer, and 8 shallow refuse pits. Excavations inside the buildings revealed two layers. Dr. Michael’s team collected 3047 ceramic pieces from the upper layer, and 1843 pieces from the lower layer. There was a wide variety of types and quality, so that socioeconomic status of the owners was not clear from that data alone. Ceramic pieces included (most numerous to least): White paste earthenware, ironstone, red ware, yellow ware, porcelain, stoneware, pearl ware, and cream ware (all upper level), and similar ordering at the lower level. Inside the house, an original chimney was discovered between the two fireplaces. The buildings remained in the hands of the Colley family, and the tavern was used until the 1880s. This was then a farmhouse, and later as a residence owned by the Brier Hill Coke Company. It has been empty since the 1960s.
Due south of the Peter Colley house/tavern and barn at Four Mile Run is a ridge, beyond which lay the land of the Hugh McCreary family in the valley of an arm of Dunlaps Creek. Surely, the McCreary family members had visited the Colley family &/or tavern. Peter Colley was reportedly born aboard ship in the Atlantic on February 2, 1757 (so he was a bit younger than our Hugh McCreary, who was born about 1744). Peter Colley’s 1837 will is found at this link. Peter asked to be buried at the Fairview Meeting House, by his wife (Hannah Kroft Colley). Their kids included John, David, Abel, Solomon, and George. Abel Colley also ran a tavern.
In 1796, Jacob Lindsey purchased land to the northwest and adjoining Hugh McCreary’s plantation. Neighbor Hugh McCreary is mentioned in a Jacob Lindsey land purchase document. See www.clanlindsay.com/sln_v2_n3.pdf & search for “McCreary”. Jacob Lindsey’s estate was called “Wilmington”, and was on Four Mile Run. Hugh McCreary’s other neighbors at the time the Hugh McCreary land map was made include: William Rose (SW), James Briant (SE), Thomas Stokely (E), & Robert Adams (NE). Later, the Quaker Fitz Randolph family were neighbors of our Hugh McCreary, as were Thomas Stockley and Robert Adams. See http://files.usgwarchives.org/pa/fayette/land/fitzran.txt
Hugh “McCrearey” was in the 1790 census for Menallen Township (in the part which became Redstone Twp. in 1797). In 1790, his son James McCreary would have been 22. James’ sibs included: John, Archibald, Jane, Mary, Nancy, Margaret, Rhody, Sarah & Elizabeth. James McCreary and Mary Dougherty were wed on March 11, 1794, and before 1800 they moved to Warren County, Ohio. James and Mary Dougherty McCreary were the grandparents of John Skinner McCreary, the first McCreary ancestor for whom I have photos.
John Skinner and Margaret Williamson McCreary family:
Christine, Silas, Alice, Emma, Lincoln, Marilla. Not born yet: Hiram (Harry) & George.
James and Mary Dougherty McCreary may have migrated to Warren County, Ohio, in 1798. They may or may not have preceded James’ brother Archibald down the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, or more likely all traveled together. In 1799, Archibald McCreary of Redstone Twp., Fayette Co. Penn. sold some land in Hamilton County, Ohio. Archibald later settled in Miami County, Ohio.
Voyages from Fayette County Pennsylvania to the vicinity of future Cincinnati, would then have been by keelboat, &/or flatboat from Brownsville (just northwest of the McCreary home) down the Monongahela River, joining the Ohio River at Pittsburgh.
Steamboat travel didn’t start until 1814. In that year, Henry Miller Shreve of Brownsville, Fayette County, constructed the “Enterprise” steamboat. This was the first steamboat to go to New Orleans and back up to Pittsburgh. The Henry Shreve home still stands in Brownsville. Shreveport, Louisiana, was named after him.
The migration of our James and Mary Dougherty McCreary family down river to Ohio was preceded by several other settlers from Redstone Twp., Fayette Co. Many settled at the mouth of the Little Miami Rivers, now part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. One of the Redstone settlers to Ohio was Maj. Benjamin Stites Jr., distant kin of Lara, Kirk, and Moria Muffley.
The census of 1800 finds our Hugh McCreary family in Redstone Twp., Fayette County: Hugh, wife Margarete, and 4 younger females. Margarete died between 1800 and 1806. Hugh’s will was drawn up in 1806. Hugh McCreary died in 1808, and his will was probated on October 6, 1808. Witnesses to the 1806 will had included Nancy, Margaret, Jane, Elizabeth, Rhody & Sarah (no Mary), plus Charles McCormick, Caveler X Wheaton, William Rose (presumably the neighbor to the southwest; he actually died just before Hugh). There was mention of a grandson John Crawford, so one of Hugh’s & Margarete’s seven daughters presumably married a Crawford. Hugh’s sons James & John were to get the land, but by then both were living in Ohio. It is unclear what happened to the plantation. Charles McCormick was then leasing the land, according to the 1806 will.
The National Road (or Cumberland Road) was authorized in 1806 under the Thomas Jefferson administration. The road replaced Braddock’s Road and was to connect the Potomac and Ohio waterways. The National Road (U.S. Highway 40) runs northwest from Uniontown, county seat for Fayette County. The road probably passes within a mile or so of the Hugh McCreary land. Today, along this road lie historic Searight’s Tollhouse, Searight’s Tavern, and Peter Colley’s Tavern and barn. Click here to learn more about the historic places in Fayette County.
The 1810 census of Fayette County Pennsylvania does little to clarify the situation as to descendants of Hugh and Margarete McCreary remaining in Fayette County. However, there is an interesting sidelight. Anne McCreary (b. 1732 near Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim) is thought by some to be kin to our line of McCreary. She married John Moore, they lived at one point in Fayette County, and they operated a tavern on the National Road, probably within 4 miles southeast of Farmington. In the 1810 census, the widow Anne Moore appears in Wharton Twp., and probably had her daughter Sarah in the household. Nearby lived Andrew Moore, probably the son of Anne McCreary Moore, and colonel in the War of 1812. Anne reportedly operated the tavern herself awhile, and moved west in 1812. Col. Andrew Moore reportedly later operated the tavern, and was very likely the Andrew Moore in Wharton Twp. in the 1820 census.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website, above, shows some land transactions by the Anne McCreary Moore’s family. These fit nicely with family history mention of Sandy Creek, Wharton Township, and the National Road. On Feb. 2, 1787, a land warrant was obtained for Robert Moore. The plantation was called “Prospect” and was for “Robert Moore son of John in trust”. Robert would have been a brother of Andrew Moore. On the land was a piece of a road between Morgan’s Town (Morgantown, W.Va.) and Ft. Cumberland (Cumberland Maryland), and a bit of Sandy Creek. Adjacent to the north was land of “Heirs of Robert McCreery”, and to the west was land of Andrew McCreery; these would almost certainly be brothers of Anne McCreary Moore. To the east of Prospect was land of James McDonald, and beyond McDonald’s land to the east lay another piece of land of Robert Moore. This land was on Little Sandy Creek, was acquired by Robert Moore in 1789, and passed to his brother Col. Andrew Moore in 1834. The 1788 land of James McDonald was bordered on the northwest by Heirs of Robert McCreary & land of Samuel Moore, southwest by Ann Moore, and east by Robert Moore. Even that easternmost land of the McCreary-Moore families may not have been adjacent to the National Road, so the tavern was possibly not on any of this land.
After leaving Fayette County Pennsylvania, my ancestors James and Mary Dougherty McCreary lived the rest of their days in Warren County Ohio. Their story will be the subject of future blog entries. Later generations of McCreary are covered in my Muffley Blog. Descendants of James McCreary and his brother John McCreary (went to Guernsey Co. Ohio) have some information on those brothers’ lives, but less is known about brother Archibald McCreary, who lived in Miami County, Ohio. The lives of the seven sisters of these three brothers also remain virtually unknown.
THE WHISKEY REBELLION
McCreary, Dougherty, and other kin in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, surely were much affected by events of the Whiskey Rebellion, 1791-1794. There was some John Dougherty, who was listed as a distiller in a 1785 tax list for Franklin Township, Fayette County. He was likely the same John Dougherty which appeared in the 1790 census of Franklin Township, and his household was consistent with the presence of my ancestor Mary Dougherty (who married James McCreary in 1794). There were other Doughertys on the scene who may have been her parents. Hugh McCreary’s farm lay between Brownsville (scene of discussions against the whiskey tax) and Uniontown (where a tax man’s office was vandalized in 1793, a “Liberty Pole” was later set up, and Alexander Hamilton had a headquarters while crushing the rebellion). The Whiskey Rebellion also involved Westmoreland County, home of my Muffley & Yockey kin. My Johannes & Maria Barbara Yockey Muffly family was then living in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, perhaps 30 miles from The Forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh).
At the end of the American Revolution, western Pennsylvania was in an economic depression, from which recovery was slower than in the east. Men who had fought in the Revolution were unpaid, and their livelihoods had suffered while they were away. Indian attacks continued, and the federal government gave insufficient help. There were foreclosures, and people became impoverished. It is all the more remarkable that our Hugh McCreary had actually been able in these hard times to buy land in 1789.
Farmers in Fayette, Westmoreland, Allegheny, and Washington counties found that markets over the mountains to the east were so remote that it was not economically feasible to transport grains that far. However, if grains were turned into whiskey, it was just possible to eke out a living. In some cases, local people such as John Dougherty took a percentage for distilling grains brought to them, and then returned to the farmers their yield in the form of whiskey. Whiskey was a widely accepted form of alternate currency.
By this time, Americans’ national drink had turned from rum to whiskey. The Scots and Scots-Irish had brought skills in making whiskey (= “uisce beatha”, or “water of life” in Gaelic) to America, and some of the best whiskeys in America were produced in the area centered on the Forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh). For example, there was Monongahela Rye, probably first produced accidentally when rye whiskey spent a long time being sloshed about in oak barrels while being shipped long distances (see “Rye is Popular Again”). The fame of these whiskeys had spread as far as New Orleans and Philadelphia. Over a quarter of America’s stills were located in counties around the Forks of the Ohio.
George Washington had considerable land holdings in the west, including land at New Boston (now Perryopolis), in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Washington leased this land to his Quaker friend Col. Israel Shreve, who built a distillery there in 1790, and this distillery (it still stands today) was active during The Whiskey Rebellion. The Shreve distillery was likely not far from the home of distiller John Dougherty (possibly my ancestor), and the Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church (possibly attended by our Doughertys). Israel Shreve was the father of Henry Shreve of Brownsville. In 1814, Henry constructed the Enterprise, the first steamboat to go downriver to New Orleans and back to Pittsburgh; Shreveport, Louisiana, was named after him.
In March, 1791, Alexander Hamilton’s whiskey tax came into effect. Initially, different rules applied to large distillers and small distillers, putting the latter in southwest Pennsylvania at a competitive disadvantage. Small distillers might pay more than double the rate of large distillers. Economic hard times just got worse, as American wealth was redistributed from the many to the few. The whiskey tax was the first federal tax on a domestic product, at a time when there was no income tax to inconvenience the wealthy. “With independence won, a U.S. Congress’s imposing hated excise would seem, to some, the ultimate in ideological betrayal.” Hamilton was “…dropping a very smart bomb on a target he’d been softening for years” (William Hogeland’s “The Whiskey Rebellion”). Hamilton was a fan of David Hume, who proposed concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. Hamilton believed that only the rich were fit to govern, but his tax plan put the main burden upon small farmers. Robert Morris, the “Financier of the Revolution”, saw the whiskey tax as a way to pay interest to the bondholding class. Those in southwest Pennsylvania who resisted the tax treated the whiskey tax as “the last intolerable stroke in a long flogging”.
Washington County, next west of Fayette County, was a focus of resistance activities. On July, 27, 1791, there was a discussion of the tax at a meeting in the Black Horse Tavern in Brownsville, Fayette County, close to the home of Hugh McCreary, whose land was in Menallen Township (later Redstone Twp.). Brownsville was then a town of some importance, and it was said that Pittsburgh might amount to something if it weren’t so close to Brownsville. Brownsville lies on east bank of the Monongahela River, with Washington Co. on the west bank.
Federal tax collectors became the enemies of the people, and a tax man was tarred and feathered in early September, 1791. Following this, representatives from Allegheny, Washington, Fayette, and Westmoreland counties met in Pittsburgh, and sent petitions to Pennsylvania and U.S. legislatures. To no avail.
Aggressive actions moved from assaults upon tax collectors, to attacks upon those who rented to tax collectors, to attacks upon those who merely complied with the law to register stills. The Mingo Creek Association militia, opposed to the tax, met at the Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church, a few miles north of our McCreary and Dougherty homes. Another meeting in Pittsburgh proposed replacement of the whiskey excise with a progressive tax on wealth (that would never fly with the political elite). Alexander Hamilton continued his push for punitive military action against southwest Pennsylvania, to set an example to others on the frontier (esp. Kentucky and the Carolinas), who also resisted the tax but were far away from federal troops. President Washington initially opposed military force against citizens. The beheading of the King of France in 1792 led to some popular American enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and George Washington became “…fair game in the press for the first time.” Hamilton feared that America might go the way of France (www.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/hamilton/hamil31.htm).
On March 11, 1794, my ancestors James McCreary and Mary Dougherty were wed in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, probably at Dunlap’s Creek Presbyterian Church, and they probably then lived upon the land of Hugh McCreary, father of James. By May, Liberty Poles were being raised, often with signs displaying the snake and “Don’t Tread on Me”, or “Liberty and No Excise”. The market house in Uniontown, seat of Fayette County, had such a Liberty Pole.
Citizens of southwest Pennsylvania had taken over the militia, and set up extralegal courts. On July 16 and 17, 1794, local militia and U.S. Army regulars from Fort Fayette clashed at the estate of wealthy tax inspector General John Neville. His Bower Hill mansion (one of the finest houses west of the Alleghenies) was burned to the ground. During that battle, James McFarlane, war hero and a leader of the militia forces, was killed. Moderates became concerned about federal reprisals, and tried to calm people and to appeal to the government for amnesty. Too late.
There was considerable animosity towards members of the Neville Connection, a local military-industrial power. Rebels expelled some people from “New Sodom” (Pittsburgh) and talked of burning the town. Men living in Pittsburgh were coerced into joining a militia muster at Braddock’s Field, near Pittsburgh. At the end of July, 1794, nearly 7000 armed men assembled there, and talked of attacking the fort. Even moderates who didn’t like each other were working hard together to head off disaster. State legislator Albert Gallatin, of Fayette County, was one such moderate; later he was Thomas Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary. In the end, the fort and town were spared. I wonder if any of my kin were among the 7000 militiamen. My ancestor James McCreary was nearly 26, and he had two younger brothers, John and Archibald. There were several Dougherty households in Fayette County then, probably including John Dougherty the distiller.
In early August, 1794, President Washington issued a proclamation to the rebels, and he also invoked the Militia Act of 1792. Several states were called upon to provide an army of nearly 13,000 to put down the rebellion. While troops were prepared, federal negotiators would have a go at talking to the insurgents.
The arrival at the Forks of the Ohio of President Washington’s commission surprised the August 14, 1794, Congress meeting at Parkinson’s Ferry: 226 delegates from all townships in the Pennsylvania counties of Westmoreland (my Muffleys and Yockeys were in Washington Township), Bedford, Fayette (my McCrearys were in Menallen Twp. and Doughertys in Franklin Twp.), Washington, and Allegheny, plus Ohio County, Virginia. The congress was in part meeting to propose a restructuring of society, and their flag had 6 stripes of alternating red and white.
The presidential commission sent to talk to the insurgents was meant to instill fear, divide moderates from rebels, collect military intelligence, and to stall while militias from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland assembled and marched. The Washington administration sought to keep the military action secret from the public and from Congress (which was in recess, so had no say). Alexander Hamilton, writing in eastern newspapers under a pseudonym, successfully inflamed eastern opinion against the uprising in the west.
The presidential commissioners had met with a western negotiating committee, who reported back to the standing committee on August 28, 1794, at Brownsville, near the Hugh McCreary family home. To avoid legal charges, all males aged 18 and over would have to sign an oath of submission, by September 11. That would have to have included Hugh, James, John and Archibald McCreary; several unknown Dougherty kin in Fayette County; Johannes Muffly (husband of Maria Barbara Yockey; their sons were too young); Christian Jr., Christian III, Abraham, Henry, Jacob, and Peter Yockey; John Peter Sr. & Jr. Wannamaker (Peter Senior was a brother of Catherine Regina Wannamaker Muffly, sister-in-law of my ancestor Johannes Muffly). Either they signed, or they were potentially marked as treasonous.
The federal army marched west in two wings, the northern through Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and the southern via Fort Cumberland, Maryland. On September 30, 1794, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton left Philadelphia to join the northern wing (Pennsylvania and New Jersey militias). On October 9, an emissary from the Forks of the Ohio spoke with President Washington at Carlisle, urging him to not march on western Pennsylvania, as the Parkinson’s Ferry Congress had already resolved for submission. Incidentally, Carlisle is now a repository for military historical documents.
George Washington himself only marched as far as Bedford, before heading back for Philadelphia on October 21. Virginia Governor Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee was nominally in command of the army, although Alexander Hamilton issued orders in Washington’s name. Hamilton took “…charge of a massive military operation to enforce his own policies on the citizenry”. Hamilton was suspected of “…inciting this rebellion solely for the purpose of quelling it with brutal force”.
Meanwhile, many people around the Forks of the Ohio left the area, some heading down the Ohio River. Those who remained were fearful. The rebel militias had been frightening enough, but “These soldiers were even more frightening: they WERE the legitimate government.” Federal troops were deployed throughout the Forks area by the end of the first week in November, 1794. Hamilton’s headquarters included Uniontown and the town of Washington; the most direct route between these probably passed within a mile of Hugh McCreary’s land. Mass arrests began, particularly on “The Dreadful Night”, although most of those who were actually guilty of anything had already fled by the thousands. No matter. “Almost every adult male was fair game for capture.” People were yanked from bed at bayonet point, run through the snow in chains, imprisoned in appalling conditions, and brutally interrogated. Hamilton and Lee made it clear that, “…regardless of evidence, a reasonable number of insurgents must be taken to Philadelphia”. Hamilton’s goal was to “…remove the heart of the people’s movement…”
A few prisoners from southwest Pennsylvania were in fact walked to Philadelphia, and paraded in the town on Christmas Day, 1794. Despite pressure that these men were to be found guilty, juries refused to convict, on such poor evidence, most cases that went to trial. Two who were found guilty of minor crimes were thought to be insane and retarded, respectively, and were pardoned by Washington. It was 1796 before all of the accused were released. Some troops remained in southwest Pennsylvania to enforce peace and tax collection. Residents no longer openly defied the tax law, but the whiskey taxes remained hard to collect. A French minister portrayed George Washington as a puppet of Hamilton and other Federalists, who “…had incited the rebellion in order to exercise absolute power over the American people and punish political enemies in government.”
In the end, the Whiskey Rebellion helped to turn the American people against Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party, and towards the Democratic-Republican Party, founded in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Albert Gallatin, whom Hamilton had wished to arrest, became Secretary of the Treasury under the Jefferson presidency (1801-1809).
During the Whiskey Rebellion, one member of the militia sent west was Captain John Fries of the Pennsylvania militia. After Hamilton’s time as Treasury Secretary, the nation was not quite done with Federalist policies. Under Federalist President John Adams (1797-1801), unpopular and unfair taxes were again instituted. Capt. John Fries became the leader of a tax revolt, the Fries Rebellion (1798-1799); while in hiding, Fries’ presence was revealed to searchers by his dog “Whiskey”, and Fries was convicted of treason. This rebellion centered upon Milford Township in Bucks County, which is only a few miles east of Pennsburg, in current Montgomery County. Several years earlier, the Pennsburg area was home to the Sechler family (ancestors of my wife Kathryn). Thomas Fredrick Sechler (b. 1743, in that area) had a daughter Catherine Sechler, who married Jacob Fries after the 1785 move to North Carolina. It is not known if Kathryn’s Fries ancestors were kin to Capt. John Fries who led to tax revolt. This uprising also included Northampton County, home then to some Muffley families, including those of Peter Muffly & Christian Muffly, brothers of my ancestor Johannes Muffly.
Back in Fayette County, Hugh McCreary’s neighbor Peter Colley built his tavern (still standing) in 1796. I wonder if he served Monongahela Rye. In 1798 my 4th great-grandparents James and Mary Dougherty McCreary migrated to Warren County, Ohio. The whiskey tax was repealed in 1803, and Hamilton was killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804.
At the end of the American Revolution, western Pennsylvania was in an economic depression, from which recovery was slower than in the east. Men who had fought in the Revolution were unpaid, and their livelihoods had suffered while they were away. Indian attacks continued, and the federal government gave insufficient help. There were foreclosures, and people became impoverished. It is all the more remarkable that our Hugh McCreary had actually been able in these hard times to buy land in 1789.
Farmers in Fayette, Westmoreland, Allegheny, and Washington counties found that markets over the mountains to the east were so remote that it was not economically feasible to transport grains that far. However, if grains were turned into whiskey, it was just possible to eke out a living. In some cases, local people such as John Dougherty took a percentage for distilling grains brought to them, and then returned to the farmers their yield in the form of whiskey. Whiskey was a widely accepted form of alternate currency.
By this time, Americans’ national drink had turned from rum to whiskey. The Scots and Scots-Irish had brought skills in making whiskey (= “uisce beatha”, or “water of life” in Gaelic) to America, and some of the best whiskeys in America were produced in the area centered on the Forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh). For example, there was Monongahela Rye, probably first produced accidentally when rye whiskey spent a long time being sloshed about in oak barrels while being shipped long distances (see “Rye is Popular Again”). The fame of these whiskeys had spread as far as New Orleans and Philadelphia. Over a quarter of America’s stills were located in counties around the Forks of the Ohio.
George Washington had considerable land holdings in the west, including land at New Boston (now Perryopolis), in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Washington leased this land to his Quaker friend Col. Israel Shreve, who built a distillery there in 1790, and this distillery (it still stands today) was active during The Whiskey Rebellion. The Shreve distillery was likely not far from the home of distiller John Dougherty (possibly my ancestor), and the Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church (possibly attended by our Doughertys). Israel Shreve was the father of Henry Shreve of Brownsville. In 1814, Henry constructed the Enterprise, the first steamboat to go downriver to New Orleans and back to Pittsburgh; Shreveport, Louisiana, was named after him.
In March, 1791, Alexander Hamilton’s whiskey tax came into effect. Initially, different rules applied to large distillers and small distillers, putting the latter in southwest Pennsylvania at a competitive disadvantage. Small distillers might pay more than double the rate of large distillers. Economic hard times just got worse, as American wealth was redistributed from the many to the few. The whiskey tax was the first federal tax on a domestic product, at a time when there was no income tax to inconvenience the wealthy. “With independence won, a U.S. Congress’s imposing hated excise would seem, to some, the ultimate in ideological betrayal.” Hamilton was “…dropping a very smart bomb on a target he’d been softening for years” (William Hogeland’s “The Whiskey Rebellion”). Hamilton was a fan of David Hume, who proposed concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. Hamilton believed that only the rich were fit to govern, but his tax plan put the main burden upon small farmers. Robert Morris, the “Financier of the Revolution”, saw the whiskey tax as a way to pay interest to the bondholding class. Those in southwest Pennsylvania who resisted the tax treated the whiskey tax as “the last intolerable stroke in a long flogging”.
Washington County, next west of Fayette County, was a focus of resistance activities. On July, 27, 1791, there was a discussion of the tax at a meeting in the Black Horse Tavern in Brownsville, Fayette County, close to the home of Hugh McCreary, whose land was in Menallen Township (later Redstone Twp.). Brownsville was then a town of some importance, and it was said that Pittsburgh might amount to something if it weren’t so close to Brownsville. Brownsville lies on east bank of the Monongahela River, with Washington Co. on the west bank.
Federal tax collectors became the enemies of the people, and a tax man was tarred and feathered in early September, 1791. Following this, representatives from Allegheny, Washington, Fayette, and Westmoreland counties met in Pittsburgh, and sent petitions to Pennsylvania and U.S. legislatures. To no avail.
Aggressive actions moved from assaults upon tax collectors, to attacks upon those who rented to tax collectors, to attacks upon those who merely complied with the law to register stills. The Mingo Creek Association militia, opposed to the tax, met at the Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church, a few miles north of our McCreary and Dougherty homes. Another meeting in Pittsburgh proposed replacement of the whiskey excise with a progressive tax on wealth (that would never fly with the political elite). Alexander Hamilton continued his push for punitive military action against southwest Pennsylvania, to set an example to others on the frontier (esp. Kentucky and the Carolinas), who also resisted the tax but were far away from federal troops. President Washington initially opposed military force against citizens. The beheading of the King of France in 1792 led to some popular American enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and George Washington became “…fair game in the press for the first time.” Hamilton feared that America might go the way of France (www.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/hamilton/hamil31.htm).
On March 11, 1794, my ancestors James McCreary and Mary Dougherty were wed in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, probably at Dunlap’s Creek Presbyterian Church, and they probably then lived upon the land of Hugh McCreary, father of James. By May, Liberty Poles were being raised, often with signs displaying the snake and “Don’t Tread on Me”, or “Liberty and No Excise”. The market house in Uniontown, seat of Fayette County, had such a Liberty Pole.
Citizens of southwest Pennsylvania had taken over the militia, and set up extralegal courts. On July 16 and 17, 1794, local militia and U.S. Army regulars from Fort Fayette clashed at the estate of wealthy tax inspector General John Neville. His Bower Hill mansion (one of the finest houses west of the Alleghenies) was burned to the ground. During that battle, James McFarlane, war hero and a leader of the militia forces, was killed. Moderates became concerned about federal reprisals, and tried to calm people and to appeal to the government for amnesty. Too late.
There was considerable animosity towards members of the Neville Connection, a local military-industrial power. Rebels expelled some people from “New Sodom” (Pittsburgh) and talked of burning the town. Men living in Pittsburgh were coerced into joining a militia muster at Braddock’s Field, near Pittsburgh. At the end of July, 1794, nearly 7000 armed men assembled there, and talked of attacking the fort. Even moderates who didn’t like each other were working hard together to head off disaster. State legislator Albert Gallatin, of Fayette County, was one such moderate; later he was Thomas Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary. In the end, the fort and town were spared. I wonder if any of my kin were among the 7000 militiamen. My ancestor James McCreary was nearly 26, and he had two younger brothers, John and Archibald. There were several Dougherty households in Fayette County then, probably including John Dougherty the distiller.
In early August, 1794, President Washington issued a proclamation to the rebels, and he also invoked the Militia Act of 1792. Several states were called upon to provide an army of nearly 13,000 to put down the rebellion. While troops were prepared, federal negotiators would have a go at talking to the insurgents.
The arrival at the Forks of the Ohio of President Washington’s commission surprised the August 14, 1794, Congress meeting at Parkinson’s Ferry: 226 delegates from all townships in the Pennsylvania counties of Westmoreland (my Muffleys and Yockeys were in Washington Township), Bedford, Fayette (my McCrearys were in Menallen Twp. and Doughertys in Franklin Twp.), Washington, and Allegheny, plus Ohio County, Virginia. The congress was in part meeting to propose a restructuring of society, and their flag had 6 stripes of alternating red and white.
The presidential commission sent to talk to the insurgents was meant to instill fear, divide moderates from rebels, collect military intelligence, and to stall while militias from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland assembled and marched. The Washington administration sought to keep the military action secret from the public and from Congress (which was in recess, so had no say). Alexander Hamilton, writing in eastern newspapers under a pseudonym, successfully inflamed eastern opinion against the uprising in the west.
The presidential commissioners had met with a western negotiating committee, who reported back to the standing committee on August 28, 1794, at Brownsville, near the Hugh McCreary family home. To avoid legal charges, all males aged 18 and over would have to sign an oath of submission, by September 11. That would have to have included Hugh, James, John and Archibald McCreary; several unknown Dougherty kin in Fayette County; Johannes Muffly (husband of Maria Barbara Yockey; their sons were too young); Christian Jr., Christian III, Abraham, Henry, Jacob, and Peter Yockey; John Peter Sr. & Jr. Wannamaker (Peter Senior was a brother of Catherine Regina Wannamaker Muffly, sister-in-law of my ancestor Johannes Muffly). Either they signed, or they were potentially marked as treasonous.
The federal army marched west in two wings, the northern through Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and the southern via Fort Cumberland, Maryland. On September 30, 1794, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton left Philadelphia to join the northern wing (Pennsylvania and New Jersey militias). On October 9, an emissary from the Forks of the Ohio spoke with President Washington at Carlisle, urging him to not march on western Pennsylvania, as the Parkinson’s Ferry Congress had already resolved for submission. Incidentally, Carlisle is now a repository for military historical documents.
George Washington himself only marched as far as Bedford, before heading back for Philadelphia on October 21. Virginia Governor Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee was nominally in command of the army, although Alexander Hamilton issued orders in Washington’s name. Hamilton took “…charge of a massive military operation to enforce his own policies on the citizenry”. Hamilton was suspected of “…inciting this rebellion solely for the purpose of quelling it with brutal force”.
Meanwhile, many people around the Forks of the Ohio left the area, some heading down the Ohio River. Those who remained were fearful. The rebel militias had been frightening enough, but “These soldiers were even more frightening: they WERE the legitimate government.” Federal troops were deployed throughout the Forks area by the end of the first week in November, 1794. Hamilton’s headquarters included Uniontown and the town of Washington; the most direct route between these probably passed within a mile of Hugh McCreary’s land. Mass arrests began, particularly on “The Dreadful Night”, although most of those who were actually guilty of anything had already fled by the thousands. No matter. “Almost every adult male was fair game for capture.” People were yanked from bed at bayonet point, run through the snow in chains, imprisoned in appalling conditions, and brutally interrogated. Hamilton and Lee made it clear that, “…regardless of evidence, a reasonable number of insurgents must be taken to Philadelphia”. Hamilton’s goal was to “…remove the heart of the people’s movement…”
A few prisoners from southwest Pennsylvania were in fact walked to Philadelphia, and paraded in the town on Christmas Day, 1794. Despite pressure that these men were to be found guilty, juries refused to convict, on such poor evidence, most cases that went to trial. Two who were found guilty of minor crimes were thought to be insane and retarded, respectively, and were pardoned by Washington. It was 1796 before all of the accused were released. Some troops remained in southwest Pennsylvania to enforce peace and tax collection. Residents no longer openly defied the tax law, but the whiskey taxes remained hard to collect. A French minister portrayed George Washington as a puppet of Hamilton and other Federalists, who “…had incited the rebellion in order to exercise absolute power over the American people and punish political enemies in government.”
In the end, the Whiskey Rebellion helped to turn the American people against Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party, and towards the Democratic-Republican Party, founded in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Albert Gallatin, whom Hamilton had wished to arrest, became Secretary of the Treasury under the Jefferson presidency (1801-1809).
During the Whiskey Rebellion, one member of the militia sent west was Captain John Fries of the Pennsylvania militia. After Hamilton’s time as Treasury Secretary, the nation was not quite done with Federalist policies. Under Federalist President John Adams (1797-1801), unpopular and unfair taxes were again instituted. Capt. John Fries became the leader of a tax revolt, the Fries Rebellion (1798-1799); while in hiding, Fries’ presence was revealed to searchers by his dog “Whiskey”, and Fries was convicted of treason. This rebellion centered upon Milford Township in Bucks County, which is only a few miles east of Pennsburg, in current Montgomery County. Several years earlier, the Pennsburg area was home to the Sechler family (ancestors of my wife Kathryn). Thomas Fredrick Sechler (b. 1743, in that area) had a daughter Catherine Sechler, who married Jacob Fries after the 1785 move to North Carolina. It is not known if Kathryn’s Fries ancestors were kin to Capt. John Fries who led to tax revolt. This uprising also included Northampton County, home then to some Muffley families, including those of Peter Muffly & Christian Muffly, brothers of my ancestor Johannes Muffly.
Back in Fayette County, Hugh McCreary’s neighbor Peter Colley built his tavern (still standing) in 1796. I wonder if he served Monongahela Rye. In 1798 my 4th great-grandparents James and Mary Dougherty McCreary migrated to Warren County, Ohio. The whiskey tax was repealed in 1803, and Hamilton was killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804.
DUTCH & OTHER ANCESTRY
John Skinner McCreary and Margaret Williamson were wed on December 22, 1852, at Bethany, Liberty Township, Butler County, Ohio. These were great-great grandparents of Gary Muffley, and were the parents of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley.
Margaret’s ancestry was mostly Dutch. Margaret Williamson (b. May 29, 1835) was a daughter of Johannes Williamson (Willemse in Dutch) & Christiana “Tina” Brewer (Brouwer in Dutch). I have visited the graves of John & Christiana at Mound Cemetery, Monroe, Lemon Township, Butler County, Ohio. My wife Anne & I were in Indiana en route to southwest Ohio on 9/11/2001 when we heard on the car radio of the terrorist attacks.
Johannes/John & Tina Brewer Williamson appear on page 497 of “The Van Voorhees Family in America: The First Six Generation”. Most of the research so far on this ancestry was already done for us by the large Van Voorhees Association & associated persons. www.vanvoorhees.org Migration routes of the Dutch ancestors of our Margaret Williamson McCreary include locations in New York State, New Jersey, Conewago Colony Pennsylvania, Mercer County Kentucky, & southwest Ohio.
Tina Brewer (b. 1798, Mercer County, Kentucky; d. 1843, Butler County Ohio) was a daughter of Daniel Brewer Jr. & Maria Voorhees. Maria Voorhees Brewer (b. 1765, New Jersey; d. 1840, Warren County, Ohio) was a daughter of Stephen Voorhees (b. 1737/38) & Margareta Van Dyke. Stephen presumably would have carried the basic yDNA pattern down from his ancestor Steven Coerts Van Voorhees (b. 1599-1600, Hees Farm, Drenthe Province, Netherlands; d. 1683/84, Flatlands, Kings County, New York). The yDNA project is still small in 2011, & results are not publicly displayed.
Steven Coerts Van Voorhees & family left the Netherlands, & took ship in 1660 to New Amsterdam. He arrived aboard De Bonte Koe (The Spotted Cow). His name was spelled Steeven Koorts on the passenger list at www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nnship22.shtml
Steven attended the Flatbush Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in Brooklyn. www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Newspaper/BSU/Anniversary/1928.Flatbush.html
The Brewer/Brouwer ancestry has some interesting aspects. Tina Brewer Williamson’s 3rd great-grandfather, Adam Brouwer Berkhoven (b. Jan. 18, 1620/21 in Cologne, Germany), was a soldier for the Dutch West India Company in Brazil. He migrated to New Amsterdam about 1642, thus establishing our Dutch ancestry in New York before the 1660 Van Voorhees immigration. His history:
Adam operated the first grist mill at Gowanus, Long Island. Some of his male Brewer-surnamed descendants show yDNA Haplogroup E1b1b1a, unusual in Germany. This may represent a late migration into Europe out of Africa & the Near East. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1b1b1a
Margaret Williamson McCreary’s maternal Van Dyke ancestry (she also had paternal Van Dyke ancestry) is intriguing. In 1639, Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp defeated a Spanish fleet off Dover, thus preventing the Spanish from retaking the Dutch Netherlands. More importantly that year, our ancestor Janse Tomasse Van Dyke was born at Reusel de Mierden, North Brabant, Netherlands (near the Belgian border). Janse was just 13 when he migrated to future New York in 1652, according to a Van Dyke tree at Ancestry.com
Janse’s son Tierck (Dirk) Thomasse Van De Kraats Van Dyke (b. 1671, New Amsterdam on Long Island) married Pieternella Van Arsdalen in 1688. They were reportedly the 5th great-grandparents of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley. Down the line from Dirk & Pieternella Van Dyke, Margareta Van Dyke married Stephen Voorhees, & their daughter Maria Voorhees married Daniel Brewer Jr. (a descendant of Adam Brouwer, b. 1620, Cologne, Germany).
Another Van Dyke line also stems from Reusel village: The ancestry of comedian & actor Dick Van Dyke (b. 1925). Details are found at the Van Dyke & Yates tree at Ancestry.com. The author of that tree is a near cousin of Dick Van Dyke. According to that tree, their immigrating Van Dyke ancestor was Thomas Jansen Van Dyke (b. 1580, Reusel de Mierden). Some time ago, a Van Dyke researcher ventured the opinion that every Van Dyke descendant in America comes from the one line. Perhaps a future Van Dyke yDNA will eventually confirm this. Also see, http://minerdescent.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/thomas-jansen-van-dyke/ According to that URL, some Van Dyke persons arrived on the ship De Bonte Kou; a ship by the same name carried my Van Voorhees ancestors to America in a different year. Some of these Van Dyke persons reportedly held land near Coney Island.
We also get Van Dyke ancestry a second way, but that ancestry has not been traced back as far. Margaret Williamson McCreary’s paternal grandmother was Maria Van Dyke Williamson. Maria Van Dyke (b. 1767) married David Willemse (b. 1764) in 1787. Notation of the March 20, 1790, baptism of their son Johannes appears in records of the Dutch Conowago Colony (near Gettysburg) records in Pennsylvania. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kymercer/LowDutch/Conewago6.html
There was a Dutch migration route from Somerset County, New Jersey, to the Pennsylvania Conewago Colony (esp. 1771), and on to Mercer County, Kentucky. Our Johannes Willemse/Williamson (b. 1790, Conowago Colony) then went on to Butler County in southwest Ohio, where he married Christiana “Tina” Brewer in 1817. Our Margaret Williamson McCreary was a daughter of Johannes and Tina.
Now to some Vanderveer/Vandiver ancestry. Emma Jane McCreary Muffley (wife of Joe Muffley) was a 3rd great-granddaughter of Maritije Vanderveer Van Dyke. Maritije’s paternal grandfather was Cornelius Janse Vanderveer. According to www.stipak.com/vanderveer/maria/bios/2.HTM he was christened on March 3, 1623, at Wemeldinge, South Beveland, Zeeland, Netherlands. He immigrated in 1659 from Alkmaar, North Holland, on the ship De Otter & lived in Flatbush. Also see www.veerhuis.org/genealogy/hoffman.htm which is a scholarly examination of the Van Der Veer family in America, & discounts the myth that this family derives from the feudal lords of Veere (this notion still is to be found on the Internet, complete with coat-of-arms). A Vandiver surname yDNA project is as of 2011 still small and without lineage groupings. www.familytreedna.com/public/Vandiver/default.aspx?section=yresults
The lives of the siblings of Margaret Williamson McCreary are not well known to me. She reportedly had 6 siblings: David B. Williamson, Silas “Squire” Williamson, Mary Ann Williamson Conover, Jane Williamson Moore, John T. Williamson, & George Washington Williamson.
We have a photo of Margaret’s sister Jane Williamson Moore. This is from the photo album of Jane’s niece Emma Jane McCreary Muffley. Jane Williamson married Abraham C. Moore in 1845 in Butler County, Ohio, a few years before Margaret married John Skinner McCreary (m. 1852). Abraham and Jane Williamson Moore farmed initially in Butler County, Ohio, and then moved to Fulton County, Illinois, in the fall of 1854. A.C. Moore’s livestock included hogs & horses. At one time his farm consisted of 460 acres & was worth $30,000 in the 1870 census. The A.C. Moore family lived in Canton, Fulton County, Illinois, when the J.S. McCreary family moved to Canton from Springfield, Illinois. John Skinner McCreary had an ongoing interest in livestock, & his brother-in-law A.C. Moore raised hogs. J.S. McCreary was mayor of Canton for a time. In April, 1868, in Canton, Abraham Lincoln McCreary was born to John & Margaret Williamson McCreary. In the fall of the same year Margaret’s sister’s family moved from Canton to the farm on Section 32, Canton Township. The A.C. Moore family appear in the 1870 census for Fulton County, but not the J.S. McCreary family (although J.S. was elected Canton mayor on April 4, 1870, as well as on April 5, 1869). See www.illinoisancestors.org/fulton/1871_canton/pages95_126.html#porkpacking for multiple references to J.S. McCreary & A.C. Moore.
By 1880, the J.S. McCreary family were in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, & J.S. was a stock dealer. It was during the Quincy years that Emma Jane McCreary met and married Joseph Pierce Muffley.
In 1873, the Moore family ranches in Fulton County, Illinois, hosted the wedding of Matthias William Baker and Margaret “Maggie” Jane Moore. Maggie was the daughter of Jane Williamson Moore. I wonder if the wedding was attended by Margaret Williamson McCreary & family. Maggie appears in the Baker/Farnham Tree at Ancestry.com. The photo of Maggie at that site strongly resembles our photo of her mother.
DOUGHTY ANCESTRY
Edward Doughty (b. 1738, Virginia) and Permelia Lucas Doughty were the parents of Mary Doughty (b. Jan. 17, 1776, Fayette County, Pennsylvania). Mary married James McCreary on March 11, 1794, and they settled nearLebanon in Warren County, Ohio. James & Mary were the paternal grandparents of John Skinner McCreary, and great-grandparents of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley.
The spelling of our Doughty ancestry got mangled into “Dougherty” (& variants) in Warren County Ohio documents, and this error was perpetuated. My on-site Ohio visit (I arrived there on 9/11/01) & subsequent forays into Dougherty research represent a genealogical wrong-turn.
An August 7, 1785, Pennsylvania land survey for heirs of our ancestor Edward Doughty (b. 1738, Virginia) has “Dougherty” crossed out, and “Doughty” written in. Additionally Howard L. Leckey’s book “The Tenmile Country and Its Pioneer Families: A Genealogical History of the Upper Monongahela Valley”
refers to “Edward Doughty”: Edward’s daughter Permelia Doughty married Abijah McClain. Permelia was Mary’s sister. Abijah & Permelia Lucas McClain appear at
Edward Doughty was reportedly born in 1738 in Virginia. Some information about him appears in “The Horn Papers”, but much care must be taken here, since those papers were revealed to be a hoax. Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Several trees at Ancestry.com list our Edward Doughty, mostly focused upon the line of Permelia Doughty McClain. There have been efforts to assess the likelihood that our Edward Doughty descended from the Edward Doty who came over on the “Mayflower”. The Doty/Doughty yDNA project at www.familytreedna.com/public/
The 1758 marriage between Edward Doughty & Permelia Lucas reportedly took place in southwest Pennsylvania, but it may have been in Virginia before the migration. Tenmile Country (Tenmile Creek of current Greene & Washington counties) in Pennsylvania was pretty sparsely peopled prior to the arrival of a Maryland & Virginia group (including some Lucas, Van Meter, Hughes, & Swan people) coming with Thomas Gist, c. 1767. The bogus Horn Papers claim that Edward Doughty arrived in Tenmile Country in 1766, & that he settled at what is now Rice’s Landing in Greene County, Pennsylvania. That location is correct anyway. I have a copy of the land survey for 300 acres. The Edward Doughty land, called “Pigeon’s Resort”, lay between the Monongahela River & the landof Thomas Blackledge. Later, that land became part of today’s Rice’s Landing.
Rice’s Landing lies in current Greene County on the west bank of the Monongahela River. From across the river into Fayette County it is only a few miles east to the land of our Hugh McCreary (b. 1744), father of James McCreary (who was a 4th great grandfather of Gary Muffley).
Our Edward Doughty and Permelia Lucas had 6 daughters, and a son James who died young without heirs (thus no opportunity for a yDNA study there). The eldest daughter Permelia was born in 1759.
The Revolutionary War was in progress when our Mary Doughty was born on January 17, 1776. Her father reportedly already had some previous soldering experience. There had been Indian attacks in the area in 1774.
Permelia Doughty married Abijah McClain on January 10, 1780. According to “Tenmile Country…” (viewable online via Google Books), Abijah had been in the 8th Pennsylvania Continental Line Regiment at the battles ofBrandywine (Sept. 11, 1777), Germantown (Oct. 4, 1777), & Saratoga (Sept. 19 & Oct. 7, 1777). The 8thPennsylvania had formed in 1776 at Kittaning (just north of Muffley country in Westmoreland Co.).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Records at www.familysearch.org state that our Edward Doughty, husband of Permelia Lucas, died September 9, 1781, at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, near the Santee River. That battle was fairly much a draw, but helped the Americans strategically, since local British forces were unable to link up with Cornwallis in Virginiabefore the British defeat at Yorktown.
At the Battle of Eutaw Springs, the American forces included troops from Virginia. It is possible that our Edward Doughty was in one of those Virginia units. Until 1784, southwest Pennsylvania was also claimed by Virginia. Nathaniel Greene commanded the American forces at Eutaw Springs. In 1796, Greene County, Pennsylvania, was named in his honor.
Forces known to have participated in the Battle of Eutaw Springs:
www.carolana.com/SC/
Permelia Lucas Doughty died about 1786-1787, & was buried at Rice’s Landing. Leckey: “About 1792, Abijah McClain began buying out the heirs of Edward Doughty in order to obtain a full title to Pigeon’s Resort.” The 6 daughters were named, including “Mary, wife of James McCreary of Brownsville…” That land was divided into lots, part of current Rice’s Landing. James & Mary Doughty McCreary moved to Warren County, Ohio, by 1800.
McCREARY ORIGINS
A cousin of mine, who also descends from Hugh McCreary (b. 1744, Pennsylvania), has done extensive research on our McCreary ancestry. This includes research within Scotland and Ireland, as well as yDNA studies. It seems most likely that our particular line of McCreary was associated at one time with Rerrick Parish, Galloway, in southwest Scotland. See http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mccreery/mccreery.html
Several surnames derive from the word Rerrick, which itself stems from a surname. Think “Mc-Rerrick”. McCreary guys of old Rerrick Parish had a variety of unrelated genetics. And McCreary-like surnames also originated in other places. Biologically unrelated persons with McCreary-like surnames might have been found living in close proximity with one another in Scotland, northern Ireland, and America.
My cousin’s 37-markers STR (Short Tandem Repeats) yDNA results may be viewed at www.ysearch.org under ID VVAHB. STR markers are useful for estimating number of generations back to a Most Recent Common Ancestor. Additionally, his yDNA was analyzed for SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms), which markers define haplogroups. Haplogroup designations keep changing regularly, so it is easiest to just note that my cousin was positive (= “derived”, mutated) at SNP marker L21, within the R1b Haplogroup. As of early 2011 reclassification, the haplogroup subclade designation is R1b1a2a1a1b4. See www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpR.html
The L21+ mutation can be found in both Celtic and West Germanic groups. See www.eupedia.com/europe/origins_haplogroups_europe.shtml
Our McCreary line may have been associated with the Brythonic Celts of southwest Scotland. There was migration into northern Ireland, and then our line turned up in Pennsylvania.
As of early 2011, our line of McCreary yDNA has no matches at all within the McCreary surname yDNA project. www.familytreedna.com/public/McCreary/default.aspx?section=yresults
In that project, Pennsylvania samples are as yet small, and more data is needed. Our McCreary line is genetically unrelated to McCreary (& variant spellings) of South Carolina & beyond.
The parentage of Hugh McCreary (b. 1744) has not been established beyond doubt, although plenty of researchers are prepared to state that William McCreary Jr. & Deborah Clark were Hugh’s parents. Lingering doubt was an impetus for the yDNA testing, which may yet prove helpful if more Pennsylvania samples turn up. It is thought that William McCreary Sr. (Hugh’s grandfather?) came to America in 1720 with his mother and brothers John and Thomas. Genetic testing of descendants from any of this bunch would be a great boon to our knowledge. See:
Interestingly, my cousin’s yDNA matches 34 of 37 markers with a man in New Zealand, “…whose part-Maori family traces its descent from a visiting New England sea-captain in the 19th Century.” A Most Recent Common Ancestor might be scores of generations back, but it is still a closer match than my cousin currently has with other McCreary guys in the yDNA project. At the rapid rate of expansion of genetic genealogy, I am optimistic that yDNA matching our McCreary line will eventually emerge.
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