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John McCrory (1770-1849) was the son of David McCrory and wife Jeanet. The location where he was born is unknown. Recent research suggests near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. What is known is that his father David McCrory was in Cecil Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania by 1784. Father David McCrory died in Cecil Township in 1806.
He was married to Elizabeth (1776-1839), marriage date and location unknown, but about 1794 and likely Washington County, Pennsylvania.. John’s father David bought land in Jefferson County, Ohio and John and his brother David lived in Island Creek Township of Jefferson County from at least 1806 until 1814.
John McCrory bought land in Vermillion, Mifflin, and Milton Townships of Richland (now Ashland) County in 1813/1814. His brother David bought land also, and assigned it to John. David McCrory died in 1814 and David’s widow, Mary Howey McCrory, bought land in Vermillion Township in December 1814 for her son William McCrory. Some of her Howey family of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania also bought land the same day. John’s brother-in-law Charles Stewart of Washington County, Pennsylvania bought land in Vermillion Township, also.
John settled in Richland County in 1814 and made his home in Vermillion Township by 1815. His sister-in-law Mary Howey McCrory is there by 1818, her sons William and James McCrory are with her later. His brother-in-law Charles Stewart and family are there by 1818.
John’s wife Elizabeth died in 1839 and was buried in the family plot. John moved in with his oldest son David McCrory. According to family information he divided his land and other assets between his children in 1846. When he died in January 1849 he was buried in his family plot. There were no will or probate records entered in Ashland County.
His oldest son David married Sarah Wachtel and lived close by in Vermillion Township. David received the Vermillion Township land from his father. David died in 1849 within a few months of his father, and is buried in the McCrory Cemetery. His wife and children continued to own the land on which the McCrory Cemetery stands for many years. Sarah is also buried in the family plot. David and Sarah Wachtel McCrory descendants still own some of the property that John McCrory bought in 1813.
His 2nd son Robert married Mary Neely/Neeley in 1820 and purchased some land from his father in Milton Township. Mary Neely may have been the daughter of William Neely who bought land in Vermillion Township in 1817. Robert moved to Goshen, Indiana in 1846 with all his children, and died there in 1873.
His 3rd son John married Eliza Croninger, daughter of Leonard Croninger and Elizabeth Cort. John McCrory was a merchant and trader, as well as a farmer. For a while he was partner in a mill in Mifflin Township with James Neely, possibly a brother-in-law of Robert McCrory, his brother. Eliza Croninger McCrory died 1849/1850 and is buried in the Mifflin Cemetery with many of her infant children. John McCrory remarried and died in 1858. He owned land in Perry Township of Richland County at the time.
John McCrory’s daughter Jane married Isaac Williams in Richland County in 1818. The oldest known grave in the McCrory Cemetery is John Williams, their son, who died in 1819. At least one Ashland County Genealogy Society researcher doubts the 1819 date, suggesting 1849, it’s in the recent publication for Vermillion Township. 1819 would be correct. Isaac Williams bought land from his father-in-law next door to his brother-in-law Robert McCrory in Milton Township. Jane and her husband Isaac Williams separated in the 1830s, there is an 1837 Richland County court case against Isaac Williams who “deserted his wife & lived & cohabited with one Eliza Scott in a state of adultry”. Jane McCrory Williams disappears after the 1860 Census, she’s not on official records after that. She’s possibly the Jane Williams on the 1880 US Census Mortality Schedule for Vermillion Township, occupation listed as “pauper”, suggesting the Vermillion Poor House in Hayesville.
“Granny” Stewart is also buried in the McCrory Cemetery, according to family tradition. Tradition says Granny lived in a shack across the road from the McCrory farm in the mid 1800s. Older family researchers originally identified “Granny” as Agnes McCrory, sister of John McCrory and wife of Charles Stewart. More recent research indicates that Granny was Mary Howey. Her first husband was David McCrory, brother of John. Her second husband was Charles Stewart, her brother-in-law and widowed husband of Agnes McCrory. She married him in Richland County in 1818. Mary Stewart appears on Census records for Vermillion Township from 1850 to 1870, living with Catherine McCrory, likely her daughter. Mary Stewart is not on the 1880 Census but Catherine McCrory is in the Vermillion Poor House in Hayesville.
The McCrory Cemetery became overgrown, maintenance was given to Vermillion Township in 1978. On my first visit in 1997 there was a short, grassy, one lane road leading to the cemetery through the cornfield around it. A wire fence surrounds the cemetery and a dozen or more trees from the field around it. Some tombstones are still legible, others are not. John McCrory’s tombstone was broken but readable, propped up against a tree. Other damaged tombstones were stacked against one of the other trees.
John McCrory’s tombstone has been repaired. Some descendants of John McCrory put up a new family marker in the McCrory Cemetery in 2004.
Jim McCrory
(a ggggg of John and Elizabeth McCrory)
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Arrival Page
contributed by James McCrory
