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.