William McCrory, Fayette City

Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Fayette County by Gresham and
Wiley, 1889, p361
	William McCrory is a native of Fayette City and was born March 11, 1822.
He attended school and worked in his father's blacksmith shop until he
was nineteen years of age when he became a steamboat engineer. He ran for
many years on the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, and was in the "Lower
Trade" on the Mississippi for some years.
	He was married in 1850 to Miss Mary Banks, daughter of William Banks who
was a prominent glassblower. She died in 1853. In 1858 he married again,
his second wife being Miss Mary Wilson, daughter of David Wilson who came
from Ireland to Fayette county prior to 1794. During the whiskey
insurrection, he and three of his neighbors assisted in preventing the
burning of Pittsburgh.	
	Mr McCrory made a trip to California in 1850 going by water by way of
the Isthmus of Panama. He remained on the Pacific coast for two years and
a half.
	He has invented a life preserver that is claimed to be superior to any
other in existence. It is a gum jacket that can be inflated at will, and
is sufficiently strong to float the weight of two ordinary persons. His
friends and many who have examined this preserver, are enthusiastic in
its praises, and claim the day is not far distant when it will be in
universal use.