McClurg Family of Beaver County




Revised
April 17, 2009



The McClurg Family
Of Beaver County, Pennsylvania



        Keziah Jane (Jennie) McClurg (1862-1895) was the wife of Charles William McLaughlin (1862-1940).  Both grew up in Western Pennsylvania, and they lived in the area of oil exploration in the 1890s.  They had two children: Odie Deetta McLaughlin (1888-1976), who married Clarence Ray Long (1889-1935), and Susan Gertrude McLaughlin (1892-1963), who married George I. Martin (1893-1977).  

        The parents of Jennie McClurg were Cyrus McClurg (1836-1883) and Martha Ann Ralston (1838-1916), who were married in November 1886 or 1887.  The father of Cyrus was  Joseph McClurg (1796-1878), and his descendants were numerous.  

        This account focuses on the McClurg ancestors of Jennie, in particular the family of her father, Cyrus McClurg.  Sections here include:


        Other sections of this report deal with the Ralston Family, the McLaughlin Family, and the Long Family.

       




The McClurg Family Genealogists

        In tracing this branch of the McClurg family, extensive research was done by Rachel Long Misey (1924-2004), of Bethesda, Maryland, one of Jennie’s seven grandchildren.  Other assistance was derived through the McClurg Family Association, in particular William T. McClurg, of New Port Richey, Florida, who had extensive correspondence with Rachel Misey and who began publishing a quarterly newsletter entitled The McClurg Family Newsletter in 1982.  In early 2007, he was still undertaking extensive research into the McClurg family.  

        Among those providing assistance to Rachel Misey was Margaret (Peggy) Martin (1918-2004), of California and later Texas.  Peggy was the wife of a second cousin of Rachel, James Edward Martin (1919-1996).  Jim was a grandson of Jennie McClurg McLaughlin and a son of Jennie’s second daughter, Susan Gertrude McLaughlin Martin (1892-1963).  Another relative, Margaret Owens Hartman (1918-1992) provided substantial personal memories of the McClurg family.  She was a descendant of Martha (Mattie) McClurg McNamee (1865-1951), a sister of Jennie McClurg,

        A basic genealogy (names and dates only) of the family of Joseph McClurg was published in the March 1997 issue of the McClurg Family Research Newsletter, Volume 2, Number 1, beginning on page 2.  The part relating to Jennie McClurg was updated and corrected in the September 1997 issue, page 16.  The newsletter attributed the compilation to Elizabeth Josephine (McCoy) McClester (1908-1997), known as “E.J.,” and said her total collection of data on the McClurgs included more than 1,600 individuals.  That full compilation amounted to a book of about 700 pages, with separate entries for each located family group, including dates and places of birth, marriage and death of family members and hand-written anecdotal accounts of their lives.  Although containing a number of errors, the collection was very valuable to family researchers. In late 2006, apparently only three copies of this book were in existence.  This report is based on the sources mentioned here as well as contributions of other family members and extensive original research.




Joseph McClurg (1796-1878)

        Joseph McClurg is the earliest clearly identifiable member of the family that can be connected to Jennie McClurg.  

        Joseph was born in 1796, and the McClester work said it was in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, not far east of Pittsburgh.  Joseph was married to Mary Kinna (or Kinney) about 1815, when he would have been 19.  Mary had been born about 1797, also in Westmoreland County, and she would have been about 18 at the time of her marriage.  No further information has been found on Mary.  It appears that they had eight children.

        The McClester report said that after marrying Mary Kinna, Joseph purchased a farm and moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania, just southwest of Pittsburgh, near “Tent Church” (which did not appear on a map in 2007).  Later, he purchased a farm in Greene Township in Beaver County, which adjoins Washington County on the north.  This is in what is called the “tri-state” area, since the western border of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, faces Ohio in its northern section and West Virginia in the southern section.  Joseph McClurg lived in that area, near Hookstown, for the rest of his life.  McClester reported that his farm was called “Home Acres.” 

        Evidence of Joseph's many descendants can be found in census and property records of southern Beaver County, especially in Greene and Hanover Townships, as well as in neighboring Ohio and West Virginia.  A useful website for the tri-state area, including early history of Beaver County and its inhabitants, can be found at http://www.genealogypitstop.com/.

        Although maps show the location of oil wells in the area, it is likely they were developed after Joseph’s working years.  Census reports said Joseph was a farmer or a carpenter.



Mary’s Death 

        Mary Kinna McClurg died on June 8, 1861, in Greene Township, at the age of 64.  She was buried in Greene Township in the Tomlinson’s Run Cemetery, which is near Hookstown and the historic Mill Creek Church.  One report is that Joseph was buried there as well, but no evidence of a grave has been found.



A Second Wife

        It appears that Joseph McClurg married again shortly after Mary died in 1861.  He would have been 65 at the time.  Indications are that he married Agnes Lathan, who had been born in Ohio in June 1843 and who would have been 18 in 1861.  (In census and other records, the name is spelled variously as Leathan, Leatham, Lathum, Lathan and in other ways.)  If this report is correct, Agnes would have been 47 years younger than Joseph.  Elizabeth McClester’s report on the marriage, included in the August 1984 issue of The McClurg Family Newsletter, contained this account:

Tradition has it that following the death of his wife, Mary, Joseph was driving the young woman who had taken care of Mary during her illness to the river where she would cross over to go home [to Ohio].  He began to talk of how lonely it would be to go back alone and asked the girl to marry him.  They were married and returned home the same day.

        An anonymous contribution to Ancestry.com also said that Joseph was married to Agnes, but said they were not married on the day of the burial of Mary but nine years later, on December 20, 1870, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, when Joseph would have been 74 and Agnes 27.  No record of the marriage has been located to confirm either account.  The 1870 census, taken in June of that year, did not show Agnes living with Joseph.  In fact, Agnes did not appear in the 1870 census in any location that can be discovered.  The household of Joseph in that year, as shown below, consisted only of Joseph, a daughter, and apparently a granddaughter.  

        The McClester report said that Agnes and Joseph had three children, and that following the death of Joseph, Agnes returned to her home in Ohio and reared them there.  The 1880 census reported that in fact there was an Agnes McClurg living in Ohio with her three children.  They had all been born in Pennsylvania, their mother in Ohio, and their father in Pennsylvania; this information matches the birthplaces of Joseph and Agnes as well as the report of E. J. McClester.  The children had been born in January 1872, March 1874 and April 1876.  On these dates, their father, Joseph, would have been 76, 78 and 80 years old.  If Joseph and Agnes were not married until December 1870, that would better explain why they waited to have children until 1872.  If they were married in 1861, as McClester reported, it would be curious that they did not have children until 1872.  

        Although there was speculation that it was unlikely Joseph would have fathered children at those ages, in fact Joseph’s will named Agnes as his wife and provided for the children of Agnes, implying that they were his.  The official record typescript of the will, which said it was compared with the original handwritten text and certified, showed that the will included these provisions:  

. . . to my beloved wife & her children that she has or may bear to me all my estate, real and personal, I give for said wife (Agnes) to use at her discretion for their support including the support of my daughter Mary Ann if she remains in the family, but if said wife would find it more advantageous to sell said property she with the consent of my Executor may sell and convey the same retaining for the use of her and her children aforesaid, one thousand dollars and the balance to be equally divided between Mary Ann, David and Cyrus, they share and share alike.

        Joseph signed this will on December 1, 1875, when Agnes was pregnant with Wilda, who was born on April 9, 1876.  This suggests that the wording in the will, “her children that she has or may bear to me,” was to acknowledge that at least one other child was yet to be born.  Perhaps Agnes persuaded Joseph, who was 79 at the time he signed the will, that he was getting up in years and should make a will providing for his children.  Joseph in fact lived for almost three more years, dying in April 1878.



The Leatham Family

        Agnes first appeared in official records in the 1860 census, when she was 16 and listed as a teacher, one of eight children of Henry and Mary Leathan living in Tully Township, Marion County, near Three Locusts, in the center of Ohio.  A biography in The History of Marion County, Ohio (1833) said that Henry was the son of William and Mary Leatham, and that William had emigrated from Ireland about 1794.  Henry had been born on January 21, 1804.  He took up farming in Marion County in 1834 and married Mary Black, born in 1811, who came from Virginia.  They had nine children, of which seven were living in 1883. One of them, the History said, was “Agnes, widow of Joseph McClung [sic].”  In the 1860 census, Henry was 56 and Mary 48.

        The 1860 census also showed a William Lathem, age 58, living in Greene Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on the same page of the census as Joseph and Mary McClurg, indicating that they lived close by.  And in the 1870 census, Joseph McClurg was the next door neighbor of James Latham, 60.  It is not known if William and James Lathem in Greene Township were relatives of Henry Leathan in Marion County, Ohio, but judging by their ages, they could have been relatives, perhaps brothers.  One might speculate that, when Mary Kinna McClurg became ill and Joseph needed help, his neighbor William Lathem told him he had a relative in Ohio who had a 16-year-old daughter who might be persuaded to travel across the river to help.  That may be how Agnes and Joseph became acquainted.



Agnes Back in Ohio

        Whether Agnes and Joseph were married in 1861 or 1870 cannot be determined, but she did take the name Agnes McClurg after Joseph’s death when she went to Ohio with her three children. The 1880 census for the town of Iberia, Washington Township, Morrow County, Ohio, showed Agnes McClurg, 37, born in Ohio, widowed, keeping house, with three children, Henry, Essie and Wilda McClurg.  Morrow County is adjacent to Marion County, where Agnes’ parents and siblings lived in 1860, and thus it might be said that she returned “home.”          

        In 1900, also in Iberia, the census said that Agnes, head of household, was born in Ohio in June 1843 and was a widow who had three children, all of them living.  In her household were her daughter
Wilda Craner, and Wilda’s two daughters.  The 1910 census showed the same family group in the same place.  In 1920, Agnes, 76, was living alone, still in Iberia. At the end of her life, Agnes was living in nearby Crawford County, Ohio, possibly with her son Henry McClurg, who was in that county in the 1930 census.  She died there on October 15, 1931, at the age of 88, and was buried in the Iberia Cemetery.



Joseph’s Death

        The date of Joseph’s death has not been proven.   However, he was listed in the 1876 Centennial Directory, as noted in Warner’s History of Beaver County 1888.  He signed his will on December 1, 1875, and the will was proved on April 20, 1878.  Thus, it may be estimated that Joseph probably died in early April 1878, when he would have been about 82 years old. Except for his children with Agnes, Joseph’s will made provision for only three of his children with Mary – Mary Ann, who was crippled and living at home, David and Cyrus.  The other three daughters were married and presumably not in need of their father’s resources.  It is not clear why Joseph and William did not receive anything under the will.  It is possible they had died before the will was written in 1875.

        One descendant reported different information about Joseph’s death.  A scribbled note listing Joseph’s family members, dates of birth and spouses (much of it wrong) said that Joseph died in April 1878 at the age of 73 years, two months and 21 days.  The information presented was in consecutive lines as it might have been copied from a tombstone, although no tombstone has been located for him.  If correct, this information would indicate that Joseph was born in February of 1805.  However, this is at variance with three consecutive census reports (see below) that indicated that Joseph was born in 1796.  Also, the date of birth of his first child, Elizabeth, in 1816, would make it clear that her father had to be more than eleven years old at that time.  Thus, the report, which reportedly came from a note scribbled in the 1950’s by Martha McNamee Owens, a great-granddaughter of Joseph, appears to be in error.



Joseph McClurg’s Ancestors

        One historical account of the McClurg family in Scotland included this analysis of the family name:

The spelling of the family name had changed over the years from McClarrog to M'Lurg, McClurg and McClorg. It was found that the original spelling in Galloway from which the family probably came had been MacLurg, although the grave stone in Minnigaff Church yard at Newton Stewart in Scotland has both McLurg and McClurg on it. This grave stone has a crest with the motto "Omnia pro bono" and an arrow through two ravens, from the legend of the MacLurg who fought for Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, after proving his skill by shooting an arrow through two ravens. Although it has not been found possible to trace the connection with the MacLurgs in Galloway, the family at Templemoyle changed the spelling of their name to MacLurg early in this century.

        The direct ancestors of the Joseph McClurg who was born in 1796 have not been clearly identified, although there have been extensive efforts to do so.  Census reports in western Pennsylvania in the early 1800s show many McClurgs, and it is not clear how or if they are related.  One of the immigrant McClurgs, writing home to “Ma and Pa” in Ireland in 1822, indicated that some of the McClurgs had traveled to America, landing in Baltimore, and settled first in the area of York County, in east-central Pennsylvania.  These McClurgs then moved west through the mountains, through Beaver, Mercer and Westmoreland Counties.  Some went on to Ohio and even farther west, but some of them stayed in western Pennsylvania.  The track appears to be borne out by census reports.  Here are some of the potential links to Joseph McClurg’s ancestors:

* One possible link is a Joseph McClurg of Mercer County, who was shown to come from Scotland in the 1600s.  However, it has been pointed out that it is a short ferry ride between Scotland and Ireland, and the original McClurg home could be either place.  For an interesting account of the McClurgs of Templemoyle, in Ireland, including reference to McClurgs who traveled to America, see this website: http://www.maclurg.com/Genealogy/Templemoyle/Templemoyle.htm.

* Another possibility appears in the History of Mercer County, which said that “Joseph and William McClurg, natives of Ireland, were among the earliest settlers of the township [apparently West Salem Township].  They lived northwest of Greenville.  William died in 1858 in his eighty-second year [thus born about 1776] and Joseph in 1864, aged ninety [thus born in 1774].”  The estimated dates of birth for this William and Joseph make it possible that either could have been the father of the Joseph McClurg born in 1796.  On the other hand, in the absence of proof, the McClurgs mentioned here may be members of an entirely different line from the McClurgs of Beaver County.  

* There is also a McClurg family in Guernsey County, Ohio, about 100 miles west of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  A deed of 1866 indicated that a Joseph McClurg had died prior to 1866 and that he may have been the father of Esther Jane McClurg, who was living in Cross Creek Township, Washington County.  Joseph appears to be a brother to a David McClurg, who lived, according to a Washington County deed, in Cross Creek Township and died in 1857 at the age of 82 (thus born about 1775).  David’s birthdate and burial in Cross Creek Cemetery suggests that he also was of an age in which he might have been the father of the Joseph McClurg born in 1796.    

        The closest possibility of a link between Joseph McClurg of Beaver County and his parents or any other ancestors is suggested in Warner’s History of Beaver County, 1888.  This included, on page 684, an account of William McClurg, farmer, born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in 1808.  William was described as the “second son” in the family of James McClurg, and this raises the possibility – and only that -- that Joseph McClurg, born in 1796, was the “first son,” William’s older brother.  The report said that William moved to Beaver County in 1828.  If William was the brother of Joseph, it is possible that William moved to be near his brother Joseph, who was living in Beaver County.  

        The account on William McClurg said that his grandfather, John McClurg, came originally from Ireland and purchased a farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  William’s father, James McClurg, a son of John, was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and he was married to Nancy, who had been born in Ireland. James and Nancy McClurg had seven sons (only William is named in the account but the list could include Joseph) and four daughters.  The Pennsylvania residences cited for the family members indicated that they did not live very far apart.  Mercer, Beaver and Washington Counties are in a row on the Pennsylvania border with Ohio and not too far from each other, while nearby Westmoreland County adjoins Washington and Allegheny Counties.

        Peggy Martin, who studied the McClurg family, believed that the parents of Joseph McClurg, born in 1796, were James McClurg, born about 1770, and Nancy McClurg, born about 1775, and that they married about 1794.  She said that James, in turn, was the son of John McClurg, born in Ireland about 1740, and Nancy McClurg was the daughter of William McClurg, born in Ireland also about 1740.  Peggy Martin wondered if James and Nancy, with the same last name, might have been cousins.  Her conclusions seemed based entirely on the Warner history, and no other evidence was presented. 

        The Pennsylvania census reports are not much help.  The 1820 census showed a James McClurg in Westmoreland County, and a William McClurg in Cross Creek Township, Washington County.  There was a Joseph McClurg in that year’s census but he was in Allegheny County, and not Beaver County.  No evidence has been located to prove a connection between Joseph, William and James McClurg, but the possibility remains.
 
     
        None of these scenarios has been proven, and further research is necessary.  The closest possibility identified thus far is that Joseph was the son of the James McClurg cited in the Beaver County history.  If William and Joseph McClurg were brothers, the family lineage for Jennie McClurg McLaughlin would be:

John McClurg, b. Ireland
James McClurg, b. Mercer County, PA
Joseph McClurg (1796-1878), b. Westmoreland County, PA
Cyrus McClurg (1838-1883), b. Beaver County, PA
Jennie McClurg McLaughlin (1861-1895), b. Beaver County PA

      One further possibility of ancestor identification is the evidence that, not far away from the Pennsylvania sightings, in Ohio, there was the household of a James and Nancy McClurg. They were in Unity Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, near the town of East Palestine, Ohio, about two miles west of the Pennsylvania-Ohio line. This James and Nancy McClurg apparently built a house there, on what is now Parker Road, in the early 1800s, and the census shows them living there in 1820 with apparently eight children and still there in 1830. A history of the house, owned in 2009 by Melissa "Parker" Smith," says that the patent for the house was obtained by James McClurg from President Monroe. In 2009, the house was an antique shop. Many photos of the "1820 House" are available here.

Columbiana County, Ohio House of James and Nancy McClurg, 1800s James McClurg's 1820 House in 2008
Columbiana County, Ohio, on
the border with Pennsylvania
House built by James and Nancy McClurg
in the 1800s and as restored, shown in 2008





Children of Joseph McClurg  

        It appears that Joseph McClurg was the father of eleven children, eight by his first wife, Mary Kinna, and three by his second wife, Agnes Laetham.  The births of his children were spread over sixty years. See the genealogical chart on his family.

        The children of Joseph and Mary were these:

Elizabeth McClurg Fleming (1816-1898)
Sara Jane McClurg McNutt (1818-1894)
Tamar McClurg Stewart (1821-1888)
William McClurg (b. 1824)
David McClurg (1826-1902)
Mary Ann McClurg (b. 1829)
Joseph McClurg (b. 1834)
Cyrus McClurg (1838-1883)

        The children of Joseph and Agnes were these:

Henry Elson McClurg (1873-1963)
Essie Jane McClurg Rinehart (1874-1942)
Wilda A. McClurg Craner (1876-1945)




        Joseph McClurg and his family were shown in the census reports for Greene Township, Beaver County. Note that ages given in the census reports are sometimes at variance with other information and even between census reports.  

        In 1850, the census said the family consisted of:

Joseph, 54, a carpenter
Mary, 53
David, 23, a laborer
Joseph, 16, at school
Cyrus, 12, at school

        In 1860, the census for Greene Township, near Hookstown, reported:

Joseph, 64, a farmer
Mary, 63
Mary, 31
Anna, 13
Cynthia, 5 (Anna and Cynthia may have been grandchildren)

        In 1870, there was only:

Joseph, 74, a farmer
Mary A., 40
Anna, 22




        These details have been developed on Joseph’s children:

        1.  Elizabeth (Eliza) McClurg was born in 1816 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and died in 1898.  She married John Fleming on December 24, 1835, and they had nine children.  Eliza died in 1898 in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  Her children included:

The Rev. James Fleming (b. 1836)
Joseph McClurg Fleming (b. 1839)
Mary Jane Fleming Culley (b. 1841)
Martha E. Fleming England (b. 1844)
Sarah A. Fleming (b. 1846)
John Chalmers Fleming (b. 1848)
Robert Alexander Fleming (b. 1849)
Rachel A. Fleming (b. 1852)
David Hervy Fleming (b. 1858)

        Specific comment should be made on three of these children:

        A. Joseph McClurg Fleming was born on April 29, 1839.  He died on March 16, 1905.  On January 26, 1860, he married Isabella Mercer(1839-1901).  She had been born on August 6, 1839, and died on August 7, 1901. They had at least six children.  Their son, John Reese Fleming, was born in Washington County on June 30, 1861, and died on August 12, 1943.  He married Mary Lucinda (Lucy) Hood, who had been born on June 30, 1865, the daughter of Aaron Hood and Cynthia Shellito.  John and Lucy had no children.  They lived on a farm near Hookstown and later moved into the town.  Lucy died on December 17, 1951. They were buried at Mill Creek Cemetery.
   
        B. Mary Jane Fleming Culley was born in 1841.  A family researcher said that she married Jesse E. Culley (1843-1927), and they had one daughter, Mary Culley, who married a man named Virture.  An Ancestry site said that “Mary J. Culley” died in Cross Creek Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, on August 29, 1871.  After Mary Jane Fleming Culley died, Jesse married Mary Jane’s cousin, Rachel McClurg (1854-1927), a daughter of Eliza’s brother David McClurg. Jesse and Rachel had five children, including Estella J. Culley, who married John Anderson Ralston, creating a second McClurg-Ralston connection.  

        C. John Chalmers (Chalmer?) Fleming was said to be born on February 7, 1848.  He married his cousin (see below), Margaret Elizabeth McNutt, on April 7, 1870.  According to Elizabeth McClester, John was only 10 when his father died. His family was living near Cross Creek in Washington County. When he was 20, John went to visit his aunt, Sarah Jane McClurg McNutt, who had moved to Rock Island County, Illinois.  “While there, he not only fell in love with the new country but the young daughter, Margaret Eliza McNutt, as well.”  Their three children were born in Rock Island County.

(1) William McNutt Fleming was born on January 3, 1871 and died in 1948.

(2) Lottie Bell Fleming was born on June 15, 1872, and died on March 10, 1904.

(3) Sarah Elizabeth (Sadie) Fleming was born on May 16, 1874, and died on March 3, 1957.  She married Stuart Thomas McCoy. The McCoys had five children:

(a) John David McCoy was born in 1903.

(b) Edward McCoy was born in 1906.

(c) Elizabeth Josephine (E.J.) McCoy was born on March 31, 1908, and died on January 7, 1997.  She married Gerald McClester, who was born on October 6, 1907, and died on October 13, 1993.  They lived in Aliquippa, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  Over nearly 40 years, Elizabeth conducted extensive research on Joseph McClurg’s descendents, combining it with family oral tradition into a book of some 700 pages, most of it handwritten.  In 2006, it was understood there were only three copies of this book.  E.J. and Gerald had two children:

-- Evetta Jane McClester married Joseph Mudrick, Jr., and they had two children, Edward Mudrick, who married Vicky Watson and had a son Joshua, and Jonathan Mudrick, who married Mary Kincaid.

-- Marjorie Gail McClester married Charles Wright, Jr., and they had three children: Terry Wright married Tracy Parker and had a daughter Amanda; Pamela Wright married Gary Petrilla; and Valerie Wright married David B. Norris and had children David and Kristy Marie Norris.

(d)  William Leamond McCoy was born on June 15, 1910.

(e) Mary Evetta McCoy was born on January 26, 1914.

        2.  Sara Jane McClurg was born on December 19, 1818, in Westmoreland County, and died on July 6, 1894, in Rock Island County, Illinois.  She married William McNutt, and they had nine children.  Their daughter, Margaret Elizabeth McNutt, born on October 8, 1847, married her cousin, John Chalmers Fleming (see above).  Another daughter, Rachel McNutt, married a Stewart.  (One genealogical account mistakenly said that Rachel was a daughter of Joseph McClurg.)

        3.  Tamar McClurg was born about 1821 and died in 1888.  Her name was also written Tamor.  She married John Stewart in 1843.  According to the History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (1882), page 842, John was one of six children of Robert Stewart, who had been born in Ireland in 1795 and died April 25, 1875.  Robert was married to Anne McGough, who died about 1858. Robert had come to America in 1812 with his parents, James and Elizabeth Hemphill Stewart, and the family settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  John Stewart died on August 10, 1881.  Tamar and John had seven children.  

        4.  William P. McClurg was born in 1824, as shown in the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census reports. William was not named in his father’s will, written in 1875, and so may have died earlier.  He lived near Frankfort Springs, Beaver County.  In 1849, he married Nancy Ann Mercer, also born in 1824, and they had six children: Sarah Ann McClurg was born in 1852; John Sylvester (Ves) McClurg was born in 1857; Reece Alvia McClurg was born in 1858; Joseph Leroy McClurg and his twin, David McCarroll McClurg, were born on June 19, 1860; and Elizabeth McClurg was born in 1866.  

(A) John Sylvester (Ves) McClurg, one of William’s sons, was born, according to the 1900 census, about 1857.  His wife was Mary, who also was born about 1857.  Mary said in 1900, when she was 43, that she had had three children, and all were living, and these are named below.  One genealogist said that they had a daughter named Ida Bell McClurg, but that was an error since Ida was the daughter of Sylvester’s uncle David McClurg (see below).  The children of Ves and Mary were the following:

(1) Annie McClurg was born in February of 1880.  In 1919, when she was 39, she married John J. Swearingen, a farmer, born about 1877. She was a teacher in Hanover Township in 1930.  

(2)  Frank McClurg was born in June of 1878.  The 1920 census shows a Frank McClurg who was a real estate broker in Pittsburgh.  His wife was Annie, born about 1894, and they had a daughter Annie McClurg, born about 1917.  However, it is not clear that this was Sylvester’s son.

(3) Alverta McClurg was born in December of 1881, according to the 1900 census.   

        5.  David McClurg was born about 1827, as indicated in census reports.  His tombstone says it was 1826. He was a farmer living near Hookstown.  David was single and living with his father in the 1850 census, when he was 23.  E. J. McClester said that David was first married, in October 1852, to Eldora (Ella) Kerr, but no other evidence of this has been found.  Possibly, the name was an error based on the names of David’s daughters. In 1860, David, 33, was living in Greene Township, Beaver County.  His wife was Mary, 36 (born about 1824), and they had a daughter Rachel, 6.  Rachel had been born about 1854, indicating that David and Mary were married at that time.  If there had been a previous marriage to Eldora, it presumably was very brief.  

        McClester said that David’s second wife was Elizabeth Hood, who had been born about 1834.  It appears, from the age of their first child, that they married about 1864.  “Elizabeth” was shown as David’s wife at the time of the 1870 and 1880 census reports.  The 1870 census showed, in Green Township, David, 43, a farmer, with Elizabeth, 36, William, 6, Joseph F., 3 and Mary A., 1.

David McClurg, about 1850 David and Elizabeth Hood McClurg, about 1895
David McClurg, about 1850 David and Elizabeth Hood McClurg, about 1898

        It was reported that David had a total of six children. (Birthdates of the children below were reported by Elizabeth McClester.)  It appears that the first two, Jane and Rachel, were the children of David's first wife.  There are ten years between the births of the second and third children.  The Mill Creek Cemetery in Beaver County includes tombstones for David McClurg (1826-1902) and Elizabeth H. McClurg (1833-1896).  Taking the McClester report together with the census, David's children would have been these:

A. Jane Estella (or Estella Jane) McClurg was born on August 18, 1852, and reportedly died in 1853. If David had had a wife named “Eldora,” as E. J. McClester noted, Jane might have been the daughter of Eldora.  Jane was not mentioned in the 1860 census, although her sister Rachel was.

B. Rachel (Ella, Ellador) McClurg was born about 1854 and died in 1927.  It appears from the 1860 census that Rachel’s mother was Mary and not David’s later wife, Elizabeth.  About 1875, according to the 1910 census, Rachel married Jesse E. Culley (1843-1927).  E. J. McClester reported that Jesse had previously been married to Rachel’s cousin, Mary Jane Fleming (see above), but Jesse, at age 25, was living at his parents’ home, without a wife, in 1870, and he was married to “Ella” McClurg when their daughter Estella was born in 1874.  In the 1910 census, Jesse and Ella said they had been married 35 years, or about 1875.  Jesse was shown in the census reports as both a carpenter and an oil well pumper.  They lived near Hookstown in Beaver Township, and they died in the same year.  In Mill Creek Cemetery is a tombstone for “Jesse E. Culley” (1843-1927) and “Ellador Cully” (1854-1927).

-- The 1880 census showed J. E. Culley, 36, and Ella D. Culley, 26, with five children.  One of them, Estella J. Culley (1874-1918), married John Anderson Ralston, who was born about 1870-1873 and died in 1933.  This marriage created a second crossover between the McClurg and the Ralston families.  Cyrus McClurg, David’s brother, married Martha Ann Ralston in 1857.  John Anderson Ralston was a nephew of Martha Ralston McClurg.  

C. William McClurg was born about 1864.

D. Joseph Frank McClurg was born about 1867. In Mill Creek Hill Cemetery is a grave for “Frank J. McClurg” (1867-1889).

E. Mary Anna McClurg was born on August 1, 1869.

F. Ida Bell McClurg was born on June 8, 1874, in Green Township, Beaver County, and died on January 24, 1952, at the age of 78. In 1898, she married James C. Shane, who had been born in Beaver County on March 11, 1867.  In 1930, he was a contractor for a lumber company.  He died in November 1966 in Monaca, Beaver County.  

-- Ida and James had a daughter, Olive Jean Shane, born on October 3, 1899, in Hookstown, and a son born in June 1907.  The girl was identified in the 1910 census as “Olive J. Shane, age 10,” and in 1920 as Jean Shane, age 20.  Her death record also called her Jean.  It was reported that the boy born in 1907 died in the year of his birth. Ida told the census taker in 1920 that she had had two children and only one was living. In 1924, Olive Jean Shane married Charles C. Otto, who was born in August 1893 and died in 1955.  In 1930, Olive and Charles and daughter Eleanor Otto, 4, were living in Beaver County with her parents, Ida and James Shane.  Charles was a machinist in a steel mill.  Olive Jean died in February 1982, at the age of 82.

        6.  Mary Ann McClurg was born about 1829.  She was crippled, according to family members, and never married. She was still living at home with her father at age 46, when Joseph wrote his will, which made special provisions for her (see above).

        7.  Joseph McClurg was born in 1834.  His wife was Nancy Jane Perrine, who had been born in Harmen Creek, Washington County, on July 2, 1834.  They had two children, Cynthia McClurg, born about 1853 (who was living with her grandfather in 1860), and Joseph R. McClurg (1856-1950).  

        Joseph McClurg, the father, died relatively young, perhaps between 1854, when young Joseph was born, and 1860, when the census showed his daughter Cynthia was living with her grandfather.  Joseph was not named in the will written by his father in 1875.  

        The 1870 census showed that Nancy Perrine McClurg, 38, was married to George Noah, a farm laborer.  Her children by Joseph -- Cynthia, 16, and Joseph R., 14 -- were living with her at the Noah home in Jefferson Township, Washington County.  George Noah had been born about 1834.  He died about 1880, and the census for that year showed Nancy as a widow (for the second time), working as a seamstress, still living with her children, Cynthia McClurg, 25, and Joseph McClurg, 24. The 1900 census listed Nancy, age 65, as a servant.  Family members referred to her as Nancy Jane McClurg Noah, also as “Aunt Nancy Jane.”  Nancy died on January 15, 1929, in Eldersville, Washington County.  She was 94.

-- Young Joseph McClurg was born in April 1856.  One relative said that, because there were so many people named “Joseph McClurg,” this son of Joseph and Nancy was called “Monaca Joe,” apparently because he lived in Monaca, in central Beaver County, where he was a merchant.  In 1882, Joseph R. McClurg’s wife was Martha, who had been born in August 1853.  The 1900 census showed that they had four children: Florence, born about 1884, George, 1885, Milo, 1887, and Edna McClurg, 1895.  At the time of the 1930 census, at age 73, Joseph R. McClurg was living alone in Eldersville, Washington County.  He died on August 29, 1950, at the age of 94.

        8. Cyrus McClurg was born on July 30, 1838, and died on May 23, 1883, only a month after the death of his father, Joseph McClurg.  Cyrus was only 44.  He married Martha Ann Ralston (1838-1916) on April 6, 1857, and they were the parents of ten children, including Jennie McClurg, who married Charles McLaughlin.  More on Cyrus and Martha Ann is below.

        9. Henry Elson McClurg, apparently named for his grandfather, Henry Laethem, was born on January 18, 1872, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, the first of the three children of Joseph and Agnes Lathum McClurg.  After Joseph died, Agnes took Henry and his sisters to Iberia in Morrow County, Ohio, as shown in the 1880 census.  This was near where she had lived previously.  One family history called him “Dr. Henry McClurg,” but he was a farmer, not a physician.  

        Henry apparently moved about.  In the 1910 census, he was a general farmer living on the Marion-Mansfield Road in Marion County, Ohio, which is adjacent to Morrow County.  In 1920, he was shown as a day laborer living in Washington Township, Morrow County, and in 1930, he was a general farmer on Beach road in Polk Township, Crawford County.  He died on April 21, 1963, in Morrow County, at the age of 91. On April 27, 1904, when he was 32, Henry married Cora Herron, who had been born in 1876. They had four children:  

A. Mary McClurg was born on June 9, 1905, and died very young.  

B. Clara Dell McClurg was born on December 16, 1906.  

C. Clarence D. McClurg was born on January 22, 1909.  

D. Elmer McClurg was born in 1915.   

        10. Essie Jane McClurg, second child of Joseph and Agnes McClurg, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1874, and died in August 1942, at the age of 68.  She moved to Ohio with her mother before 1880.  Essie married Clement Rinehart, and they had six children, including Weston Rinehart, born on March 2, 1907; Cynthia Rinehart, born on September 17, 1905; and Herman Rinehart.  

        11. Wilda A. McClurg was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on April 9, 1876, sixty years after the birth of her half-sister Elizabeth McClurg Fleming.  Wilda moved to Ohio with her mother before 1880.  On July 10, 1895, when she was 19, she married Charles Craner. An Ancestry site gave his birthdate as the same as Wilda's, April 9, 1876, which probably is an error. What happened to Charles is not known. He and Wilda had two children, but the censuses for 1900 and 1910 showed Wilda A. Craner and her two daughters, aged 3 and 2, living in Morrow County, Ohio, without Charles.  They were living Wilda's mother, Agnes McClurg, who was the head of household. One report said that Charles died on May 10, 1945, which is either an error or an indication that Charles left Wilda.  The censuses for 1920 and 1930 showed Agnes living alone, and it showed that Wilda was then living with another husband, John Lewis in Perry, Morrow County, Ohio.  John was two years older than Wilda.  Charles and Wilda Craner had two children:

A. Katherine Agnes Craner was born in Iberia, Ohio, on July 8, 1896.  She married Willard Lee Rinehart, who had been born on August 14, 1893, in Salina, Kansas.  Katherine died in the Oakwood Manor Nursing Home in Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio, on December 21, 1987.  She and Willard had three children.

B. Florence May Craner was born in Ohio on October 5, 1897.  One report is that she married a man named Baum.




Cyrus McClurg (1838-1883)

        Cyrus McClurg, the eighth child of Joseph and Martha Ralston McClurg, was the father of Jennie McClurg, whose history is traced here.  There is conflicting information about his date of birth.  One researcher said it was July 30, 1838, although the source is not known.  Since his family lived in Beaver County, presumably he was born there.  The 1850 census for Greene Township, Beaver County, showed that Cyrus was age 12, which indicates he was born about 1838.  He was living at home with his parents.  In 1870, the census indicated that Cyrus had been born in 1836 and showed Cyrus as a farmer with his own family in Hanover Township, also in Beaver County.  The 1880 census also indicated that he had been born in 1838.  However, a record of burials in Hanover Church Cemetery said that Cyrus died on May 23, 1883, at the age of 46.  This would indicate he was born in 1836 or 1837. Cyrus was also listed as a farmer in the Beaver County Centennial Directory for Hanover Township in 1876.

        Cyrus married Martha Ann Ralston on April 8, 1857.  Martha had been born on October 19, 1839.  See a genealogical chart on the Ralston family. Cyrus and Martha had ten children. This is the family shown in the 1870 census in Hanover Township:

Cyrus McClurg, 34, farmerMartha McClurg
Martha A., 32
Mary, 11
Keziah, 9
Sarah, 7
Martha, 5
Joseph, 3
Anna B., 3 months

        In 1880, there was this family:

Cyrus McClurg, 42, farmer
Martha F., 40
Sarah L., 17
Joseph A., 13
Rachel A., 10
Etta M., 8
William R., 5
Stuart, 7 months




        The family understanding is that Cyrus McClurg had a property of about 400 acres located on Harshaville Road in Hanover Township, Beaver County.  Harshaville is at the intersection of Routes 18 and 30, directly north of Raccoon Creek State Park.  Part of Harshaville Road, running northwest from Harshaville in the direction of Hookstown, apparently is what became Route 30.  Cyrus’s property was very close to Hanover Cemetery, possibly within the little triangle created by Route 18 west of Harshaville, Boyd Road and Weber Road. Family members recalled stories of the children playing in the land next to cemetery near their home.  Doak School, attended by children of Cyrus and mentioned in family documents, apparently was nearby, and at least one of Cyrus’s daughters taught there.  

        Most of the children of Cyrus left the immediate area after they became adults, and only Stewart remained behind to care for his mother. Nevertheless, the children did not go too far away, since later documents gave their addresses as Hookstown, Rochester, Frankfort Springs, and Shippingport, all within Beaver County, or Shousetown and Wireton, both just over the Beaver County line in Allegheny County.

Cyrus’s Death

        Cyrus was only 44 when he died on May 23, 1883, just one month after his father, Joseph McClurg, died.  Cyrus apparently knew he was fatally ill, since he made a will just eight days before he died.  The will, signed on May 15, 1883, contained these provisions:

To my wife Martha Ann I give and bequeath all my estate real and personal (except what is hereinafter named) for her own use and use of my family and not to be sold or disposed of in any manner during her life.  At her decease, I desire that my estate real and personal be sold and the proceeds divided equally between my children, or their heirs, who may be living at the time of her decease.

To my son Joseph I give and bequeath a bay colt, now on the farm, also a good saddle and bridle.  My will is that my wife and children that are under twenty one years of age shall live or make their house on the farm until they arrive at the age of twenty one.

        Cyrus McClurg TombstoneIt appears that nine of Cyrus’s ten children were still living when he died.  His wife, Martha, lived for 33 more years.  Although she died at home, according to her obituary, she may have moved about.  A letter addressed to her in 1913 was sent to Murdocksville, just inside the Allegheny County border outside of Beaver County.  

        Martha died on January 21, 1916, at the age of 76.  The obituary in the Beaver Falls Evening Tribune on January 24, 1916, said she died at home in Hanover Township following a short illness of pneumonia, and that she was survived by six of her ten children:   Rachel Ada Allison, of Hookstown; Elta Gibson, of Rochester; Mattie McNamee, of Shousetown; Lizzie Shivler, of Monaca; Joseph of Burgettstown; and Stewart, at home in Hanover Township.  Four of the six were still in Beaver County, and the other two were not far away.  The ones who had died were Irene McClurg, Jennie McLaughlin, Oscar McClurg and Ettie Mounsey.  Funeral services for Martha were in the First United Presbyterian Church in Hanover Township.

        Cyrus and Martha were buried in Hanover Cemetery in Hanover Township, Beaver County, very close to where they lived.  The tombstone for Cyrus, almost illegible, appears to carry only his name and the inscription “Also His Infant Daughter,” an apparent reference to Irene, who lived only two days in 1882.  The stone for Martha, more modern and readable, said “Martha Ralston, Wife of Cyrus McClurg, 1838-1916.”  However, Martha was born in 1839 and not 1838.

        See more on the Ralston family and the ancestors of Martha Ann Ralston McClurg.



The Children of Cyrus and Martha Ann Ralston McClurg

    Cyrus and Martha Ann Ralston McClurg had ten children

    Mary Etta (Ettie) McClurg Mounsey
 (1859-1915)Martha and Five Children
    Keziah Jane (Jennie) McClurg McLaughlin
 (1861-1895)
    Sarah Elizabeth (Lizzie) McClurg Shivler
 (1863-1942)
    Martha Urilla (Mattie) McClurg McNamee
 (1865-1951)
    Joseph Allen Tucker McClurg (1866-1956)
    Rachel Agnes (Ada) McClurg Allison
 (1870-1953)
    Elta Marie McClurg Gibson (1873-1935)
    William Ralston (Oscar) McClurg
(1875-1913)
    Cyrus Stewart McClurg (1880-1932)
    Irene McClurg (1882-1882)

        See a genealogical chart on the family of Cyrus McClurg. Details of the family are as follows:

        1.  Mary Etta (Ettie) McClurg was born in Beaver County about 1859.  Ettie married Harry Mounsey.  He was born December 18, 1859, and died on September 1, 1940, at the age of 80.  One year before her mother died, Ettie died on April 18, 1915, at the age of 57, near Frankfort Springs, Beaver County.  They had at least four children, named below, although there may also have been others, including a Laura McClurg, reportedly raised by her great-grandmother, and Willie Hutchington.  The known children were:Etta McClurg Mounsey

A.  Clement Mounsey.  He had a daughter, Dorothy Mounsey, who married John Moore, and two sons.

B.  Freeman Mounsey.  He had two daughters, Betty Mounsey and one other.

C.  Jake Mounsey.  He had at least one daughter.

D.  Ilsa Mae Mounsey.  She had at least one daughter.

        2.  Keziah Jane (Jennie) McClurg.  Jennie was born about 1862 in Hanover Township, in the southern part of Beaver County, Pennsylvania,  She married Charles McLaughlin (1862-1940), apparently in November 1886, when both were about 24.  Jennie and Charles McLaughlin had two children, Odie Deetta McLaughlin (1888-1976) and Susan Gertrude McLaughlin (1892-1963).  Jennie died on January 27, 1895, at the age of 33 in Shousetown, Pennsylvania (later named Glenwillard) and she was buried in Coraopolis, towns about 15-20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh on the Ohio River.  See more about Jennie below.

        3.  Sarah Elizabeth (Lizzie) McClurg was born on February 16, 1863, and died on June 7, 1942.  She married John Shivler on March 17, 1887, and she lived in Monaca, Beaver County, in 1916.  They had three children:Lizzie Shivler

A. John Edward Shivler.

B.  Mae Shivler was born on May 5, 1892.  She married Dan Johnston and they had three children:  John Edward Johnston was born on May 27, 1917, and lived in Monaca, Pennsylvania.  Mary Jean Johnston was born on September 30, 1918, and died in 1924.  Lois M. Johnston died in 1935.

C.  James Oliver Shivler was born on February 5, 1897.  He married Margaret Snowden, and they had two sons, Lewis Shivler, born on October 31, 1926, and James O. Shivler, Jr., born on October 24, 1931, and two daughters, Anna Mae Shivler, born on April 20, 1924; and Margaret Elizabeth Shivler, born on October 9, 1928.  James Shivler and his son James, Jr., were both ministers, and they had a radio show.

        4.  Martha Urilla (Mattie) McClurg was born on February 1, 1865, in Frankfort Springs, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and died on March 11, 1951, at the age of 86.  She married Phillip McNamee on March 13, 1884.  He had been born in Glenwillard, Pennsylvania, on August 25, 1860, and died on January 12, 1947, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where the family lived.  Mattie and Philip had six children:Mattie McClurg McNamee

        A.  Earl Krapf McNamee, born April 18, 1886, married Martha Olive Russell, and they had three children: Dorothy Edna McNamee was born in 1908 and died in 1977; Elta Jane McNamee was born on October 11, 1910, and married Richard Campbell and then Ray Chapman; Martha Urilla McNamee was born on December 9, 1916, and married Roland Fagan.  Earl died on November 9, 1952.  

        B.  Alda Verne McNamee was born in Shousetown on February 11, 1888.  She married Patrick F. Baker on August 30, 1910.  He died on July 31, 1932, at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh of uncontrolled bleeding four days after having a tooth extracted.  Verne then married Garnet Tench, on October 27, 1940. He was killed in an automobile accident on June 2, 1946.  In a sad letter recalling these events, written in 1984 when she was 96, Verne told of these deaths and recalled that her mother and her brothers Earl, Charles and Arthur had all died of heart attacks.  “I am alone,” she wrote.  Verne remembered living next to her cousin Odie McLaughlin in Shousetown after Odie’s mother, Jennie, died.  Verne died in Tuscon, Arizona, on February 8, 1989, three days short of her 101st birthday.  Verne and Patrick Baker had five children:

Family of Mattie McNamee
Family of Phillip and Mattie McClurg McNamee, about 1908:
From left, Verne, Earle, Charles, Phillip, Arthur, Mattie, Martha


(1) Martha Elizabeth Baker, born June 22, 1911, married Walter Jones. They lived in Weirton, Pennsylvania.

(2) John McNamee Baker was born December 15, 1912.  He married Anna Jones, and they lived in Georgetown, Beaver County.

(3) James Patrick Baker was born on May 15, 1916.

(4) Patricia Frances Baker was born on April 15, 1924.  She was married to a man named Antell, and they lived in Tuscon, Arizona.

(5) Phillip Arthur Baker was born on November 11, 1926.  He married Blanche De Long, and they lived in Hopewell Township.

        C.  Martha Elta Marie McNamee was born on March 12, 1895, in Glenwillard, Pennsylvania.  She married Harry Owens, who had been born in Spring Valley, Illinois, on October 4, 1892.  Harry died on March 14, 1972, in Dayton, Ohio.  Martha Owens(Martha Owens was a first cousin to Odie McLaughlin.)  In 1980, Martha was living in Mississippi in 1980 with her daughter, her only child.  In 1989, she was in Connecticut.  She died on January 10, 1991, at the age of 95.

(1)  Margaret Eleanor Owens was born on May 14, 1918, in Glenwillard.  She married Joseph Vance Hartman, Jr., who had been born on September 22, 1916, in Granite City, Illinois. He died on November 5, 2000.  Margaret Hartman, a second cousin to Rachel Long Misey, assisted Rachel in assembling information about the McClurg family, contributing numerous lengthy and very humorous letters.  

Although Margaret was from Pennsylvania and lived at one time in Indiana, in 1978 her Margaret Owens at 4, 1922family was living in Aberdeen, Mississippi.  She died in a nursing home in Wooster, Ohio, on November 22, 1992.  Her son Howard continued Margaret’s family research efforts.  The children of Margaret and Joseph were Howard Joseph Hartman, born November 9, 1944, in Aliquippa; Robert Harry Hartman, who lived in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and married Vicki Lynn Arthur; and Suzanne Jean Hartman, born about 1949, who married James Richard Snyder and lived in Salem, Missouri.  

        D.  Charles Ralston McNamee was born on February 22, 1899, and died on October 20, 1972.  He had three wives:  Margaret Ansell, Josephine Ripple (Riepf) and Estelle Harris Bird.  Charles and Margaret had a son, Howard McNamee.Margaret Owens Hartman, 1977

        E.  Mary Emma McNamee was born on April 6, 1904, and died on August 10 that same year.

        F.  Arthur Albert McNamee was born on December 14, 1906, and died on May 13, 1963.  He was married to Anna Ridosh, and they had three children: Gladys Charlotte, Arthur Albert and Donald McNamee.

        5.  Joseph Allen Tucker McClurg, the fifth child of Cyrus and Martha Ann McClurg, was born on February 11, 1866, and died on September 9, 1956, at the age of 90.  (The name “Tucker” was provided by one family member, but others said the name was “Joseph A.”)  He married Ettie Dewitt on February 19, 1896, and they lived in Burgettstown in 1916. Ettie may be the “Nannie McClurg” mentioned in family history who was born about 1867 and died on August 7, 1946, at the age of 79. (To distinguish Joseph from the numerous other people named Joseph McClurg, he was called “Burgettstown Joe.”)  They had three children:  

A. Guylia McClurg was born in 1900.  She married a man named Algeo in 1918, when she was 18.  In 1924, she married Edward Bish, who had been born in 1900, and later she married a man named Deere.  Her children included Ruth Algeo Robinson, born in 1918, and Jack Bish Deere.  In the 1930 census, Guylia and Edward Bish and Ruth Algeo were living with Joseph and Etta McClurg in Burgettstown. Guylia died in 1979.  

B. Samuel McClurg married a woman named Lucretia.

C. Lee McClurg had a son Lawrence.

    6. Rachel Agnes (Ada) McClurg was born on March 6, 1870, in Georgetown, Hanover Township, Beaver County.  There are various versions of her name, including Rachel Ada and AdaAda McClurg Allison Rachel.  Her death certificate called her Ada R. Allison.  Ada was a teacher in the Greene Township schools, near Hookstown.  She married Henry Nixon Allison on July 21, 1892.  He had been born on January 24, 1865, in West Virginia.  He was an orphan and grew up with a Harper family.  Ada and Henry had nine children.  Henry died on March 23, 1950, Ada on November 10, 1953. She was buried in Mill Creek Cemetery, near Hookstown.  The children were these:

A. Homer McClurg Allison was born on May 5, 1893.

B. Martha Isabelle (Belle) Allison was born on November 7, 1894. She married William Morrow and they had seven children.  They lived in Shippingport, Beaver County.

C. Helen Elta Allison was born on February 6, 1896.  She married John McComb, and they lived in Weirton.  They had two children, Beryl McComb and Margie McComb.

D. Archie Allen Allison was born on December 23, 1897.

E. Mary Virginia Allison was born on January 26, 1902. She married William H. Wright, and had three children. 

Ada Allison's Class, 1909
Hookstown Road School, 1909.  Ada McClurg Allison, the teacher,
is at top right.  Her daughter, Mary Virginia Allison, is front, third from left.


F. Charles Floyd (Uncle Charley) Allison was born on January 10, 1905.  He had three children.

G. Frank Vernon Allison was born April 7, 1907.

H. Harry Glass Allison.

I. John Henry Allison was born on August 30, 1913.

        7.  Elta Marie McClurg was born on February 22, 1873, and died on September 2, 1935.  In the 1900 census, she was a nurse in Pittsburgh, lodging with a group of other nurses.  She married Dr. Charles E. Gibson, and they lived in Rochester, Beaver County.  They had no children.        

        8. William Ralston (Oscar) McClurg was born on May 16, 1875.  He married Nettie Daughty, and they had at least nine children.  Oscar’s mother was still living when he died on July 29, 1913, at the age of 38. He was buried in Mill Creek Cemetery, as was his son Charles. Oscar and Nettie had these children:

A. Hazel Viola McClurg, born on December 9, 1895
B. Pauline Susie McClurg Martin, born on November 9, 1899
C. Charles Shillite McClurg, born on April 22, 1901
D. Everett Beverage McClurg, born on April 10, 1903
E. Alda Gertrude McClurg Dawson, born on April 10, 1904
F. Pearl Madaline McClurg Diehl, born on October 18, 1906
G. Angie May McClurg, born on May 5, 1908
H. Dorothy Elizabeth McClurg, born on May 16, 1910
I. Mary Wilda McClurg, born on October 25, 1912

        9.  Stewart Cyrus McClurg was born on October 22, 1880.  Stewart was 36 and single, living with his mother, Martha Ann Ralston McClurg, when she died in 1916.  The 1910 census showed Martha 71, and Stewart, 30, living together in Beaver County.  

        On April 4, 1917, shortly after Martha died, Stewart married Elizabeth Marie Ervin.  She had been born about 1893.  At the time of the 1920 census, they were living in Wireton Village, Crescent Township, Allegheny County, and had a one year old daughter. Stewart was a scale repairman at a steel company.  In 1932, he was having health problems and moved to Aliquippa to live with his sister, Mattie McNamee.  On March 14, 1932, he was operated on for mastoids at Rochester Hospital, and he died there on March 26, 1932.  He was 51.  Elizabeth died on February 7, 1955.  She and Stewart had three children.

        10. Irene McClurg was born on February 3, 1882, and died the next day. Martha was then 42.  Cyrus died the next year at age 44.




Keziah Jane (Jennie) McClurg McLaughlin (1862-1895)

        Jennie McClurg, the second child of Cyrus and Martha Ralston McClurg, was born in early 1862 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. A family recollection is that she was born near Frankfort Springs, in Hanover Township, southern Beaver County, “across from King’s Cemetery.”  Frankfort Springs, Pennsylvania, is about ten miles from Chester, West Virginia.  Jennie was shown in the census of June 9, 1870, living with her family in Hanover Township, Beaver County, when she was nine.  Ten years later, in 1880, when she was 19, she was not shown as living with her family and not found in other census reports.   She married Charles McLaughlin (1862-1940) about 1886, when both were about 24. See a genealogical chart on the McLaughlin family.

        One family member wrote that Jennie went to Doak’s School, apparently on Hookstown Road in Hanover township.  The family history is that before her marriage, Jennie was a seamstress in East Maybe Jennie McClurgLiverpool, Ohio, which is not far west of Frankfort Springs, Pennsylvania.  She was living with a girl named Mary Donnelly.  About 33 years after Jennie died, the family was impressed that Mary traveled a great distance to Shousetown to visit and learn more about what had happened to Jennie.  Jennie made the wedding dress for her sister Mattie McClurg McNamee, and it was still in the possession of Mattie’s daughter Martha in 1978.  Mattie and Jennie and their families lived next door to each other in Shousetown.

Meeting Charlie 

        Jennie reportedly met Charles at a dance in the town of Monaca, on the Ohio River about 20 miles north of Shousetown, still in Beaver County. Jennie’s sister, Mattie McClurg McNamee, told her family that Charlie McLaughlin and a friend, Elmer Maybe Jennie McClurgLaughner, met Jennie and one of her friends, Martha Rogers McNamee, at the dance.  According to the story, when Elmer said, “there’s the girl for me,” Charlie thought he meant Jennie, but no, he meant Martha, and thus Jennie was available.  Mattie’s granddaughter, Margaret Hartman (1918-1992) said that her two great aunts and her two great uncles got married as a result of that dance.

        The two photographs here were not clearly identified, but they may show Jennie, according to the estimates of several family members who reviewed pictures from a family album.  The photo on the right was taken in East Liverpool, Ohio, where Jennie worked as a seamstress.  The one on the left was taken in Pittsburgh.

        Charles and Jennie had two children, Odie Deetta McLaughlin (1888-1976) and Susan Gertrude McLaughlin (1892-1963).  Jennie, according to Odie, had a reputation of a calm temperament.  “A sister of my father’s said she had a most beautiful mouth,” Odie wrote.  “I can see her faintly with coiled blond hair, standing at the door with Gertrude, a baby in long, long dress, calling to me.”

        Odie said that Jennie was of Scotch-Irish descent and originally Presbyterian.  “My father told me when I was older,” Odie said, “that my mother offered to go into the Catholic Church if he would return to it.  He had been brought up in it.  He would not.  In his family of four sisters and himself, only one remained in the RC Church.”

Jennie’s Illness

        Jennie apparently had fragile health.  One family member said that Jennie at one time had smallpox and had resulting marks on her face.  Jennie also had a bad cough, and her sister, Mattie McClurg McNamee, reported that she told Jennie that she had to take care of it, but Jennie said it was nothing.  Finally, Jennie was persuaded to see a doctor in Chicora, where her McLaughlin aunts were living, and the doctor told her it was consumption, later called tuberculosis, a non-curable disease.  Mattie reported that when Jennie returned, she said “you could have knocked me over with a feather.”  (A different version is that Jennie went to see a Dr. Conkle, a specialist in Pittsburgh, who could not help her.  But Mattie herself later had tuberculosis, and she said Dr. Conkle cured her with “Fellows Compound syrup of Hypophosphites.”)  

        Jennie died of tuberculosis on January 27, 1895, when she was only 33 years old and Charles was 34.  Jennie died in Shousetown, Pennsylvania (called Glenwillard in 2006), along the Ohio River about 17 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, and she was buried in Coraopolis, along the river about four miles to the south, a town of 6,000 people in 2006.  A family member said the grave is unmarked.

        Jennie’s niece, Alda Verne McNamee, wrote in 1980, when she was 92, that when she was seven years old, in 1895, she remembered that her “Aunt Jennie” had died, and that Jennie’s daughter Odie had lived next door to her “a good many years.”  Jennie’s wedding ring was later used as a wedding ring by her great-granddaughter, Johanna Misey Boyer.

        Odie was only six and Gertrude three when Jennie, their mother, died. Charles’ sisters Gertrude McLaughlin and Julia McLaughlin offered to adopt the two girls, but he refused.  In Shousetown, family members said that “when Charlie lost Jennie, he lost his reason for living.  We never met his second wife.  He would come [to Shousetown] to visit alone, just a trip to see Elmer.”  


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McLaughlin Family
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Ralston Family
Clarence Ray Long
Children of Clarence and Odie Long
William George Long
Samuel W. Long
Samuel Parker Long
Parkers and Vanderfords
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