Wilson McCrory

Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
      By Samuel T. Wiley 1889

Wilson McCrory    PAGE 362

     Wilson McCrory, of Washington Township, is a son of James and Hesther
(Sisley) McCrory, and was born at "Cookstown" now Fayette City, Nov. 2,
1812.  He is of English descent. His father, James McCrory, was a native of
Fayette County, and a son of James McCrory who came from England to settle
near Allenport, Washington County, over 100 years ago.  His mother, Hesther
Sisley, was a daughter of Lewis Sisley, who settled in the County over 100
years ago.
     Wilson McCrory attended several subscription schools, later learned the
blacksmith trade under his father, who was an early settler of " Cookstown",
and cut the logs on the ground where he erected his house and shop.
     He followed blacksmithing for four years, and then engaged in
steamboating, which he continued up to 1885.
     He is married November 2, 1870, to Mary, daughter of James Hamer, the
latter a native of Manchester England, who came to Brownsville in 1822, and
removed thence to "Cookstown.  They had two children: James H. and Nelson.
The older son is mechanically inclined, and without any assistance when he
was 13 years of age, built a steam engine.  His third and last engine was
one of four horsepower.  With it he has drilled a well 36 feet deep, and
found a small flow of gas.
 Mr. McCrory has in his possession as relics the Sisley  conch shell,
bearing date of 1806, and the old indentures -- over a century in age -- by
which his father was bound to work three years for about two pounds
sterling, three months schooling and a "freedom suit".
     He served as tax collector, was elected school director and has filled
several other offices in the borough. Mr. McCrory was at the siege of
Vicksburg, in the Morgan raid from Kentucky to Ohio, and was at Buffington
Island.
     After a long life of activity and hard labor, he is now retired from
business, and is highly respected citizen of a City, where he at present
resides.