ALEXANDER McCLEERY, one of the oldest native-born citizens of West Finley township, if not the oldest, was born July 28, 1820, and is of Irish descent. His grandfather, John McCleery was married in 1788 to Miss Jane Brooks, in County Down, Ireland, and December 15, 1789, they set sail from Londonderry for America, landing at New Castle, Del., February 13, 1790, after a long and perilous voyage of eight weeks and four days, during which they encountered a severe storm which threatened their destruction. They brought with them their eldest child James, who became the father of Alexander McCleery, and from Delaware they proceeded to Winchester, Va. In Winchester they remained until late in the year 1799, when they emigrated to Washington county, Penn., and settled in Donegal township for several years, his last place of residence there being on the farm of Joseph Hupp (deceased), on the waters of Buffalo creek. While moving they spent their Christmas on the Allegheny mountains. The roads across the mountains were difficult to travel at that time, and when starting on their journey from Winchester, they were weighed as freight and charged accordingly. John McCleery, grandfather of Alexander McCleery, continued to work at his trade of shoemaking and at farming. He and his wife were the parents of six children, namely: James (who as above stated was born in County Down, Ireland, October 15, 1789), Nancy, Betsey, Jane, Thomas and John, none of whomever married except James and Thomas. The family continued to live where they had first settled on Buffalo creek, Donegal township, until the spring of 1818 (on August 26, 1816, the husband and father, John McCleery, died), in which year they removed to West Finley township, and bought a tract of 106 acres of land entirely in the woods, built their cabin, cleared a large portion of the land, and made a good living and some money besides. About the fall of 1848 they sold the farm and removed to the state of Illinois, settling in Adams county. (The farm they had settled on in West Finley township is at the present owned and occupied by Mr. George S. Eckles). They are all dead now except Jane, who is over ninety years of age. Thomas McCleery and Miss Martha Lawson were united in marriage about 1823 and settled in Marshall County, VA (now W. Va.)and lived there until the fall of 1833 when they emigrated to Adams county, Ill. They reared four sons and seven daughters, some of them are dead, the rest of them are married and living in the West; the parents are both deceased.
James McCleery, father of Alexander McCleery was reared on his father’s farm to the life of an agriculturist and his education was obtained at the subscription schools of the period. He and Miss Catherine Forbes were united in marriage March 24, 1818 and settled on the first day of the following April in West Finley township on a farm he had bought the previous year, and which is now owned and occupied by Mr. John McCammon.
Alexander Forbes (father of Mrs. James McCleery) and a Miss Boyd were united in marriage about the year 1774 in York county, Penn. and several years later they migrated to Washington county, settling first on the waters of Pigeon creek, Washington township, afterwards to Donegal township. They were the parents of four children: Mary, Catharine, Sarah and John. At time there are none of the Forbes family living in Washington county, all having died or moved to other parts.
Our subject well remembers his mother telling about the insurgent army of the whisky insurrectionists passing her father’s house on their way to Inspector Neville’s residence. They compelled her husband to go along with them, and he started with the crowd (some 500 or 600 men), but after proceeding several miles he observed that the men were traveling at loose ends, no military discipline being observed, and so decided to make his escape from them. Accordingly, an opportunity presenting itself, being near the rear he slipped into the brush by the roadside and laid down beside a log for some time till all stragglers that might have lagged behind had passed. He then sped homeward by a different route from the one he had come by, so as to avoid any stragglers who might have lagged behind. The burning of Neville’s house history says was done July 17, 1794, so Alexander Forbes and his wife must have first settled on the waters of Pigeon creek sometime prior to that year. James and Catherine McCleery were the parents of six children as follows; John, Alexander, James (who died when eight years old), Joseph, Thomas and Jane. Of these John married Sarah Irwin in 1844, and emigrated to Fairfield, Iowa (he and his wife are now both deceased); Joseph married Sarah Patterson in 1855, and in 1870 moved to Marshall county, Iowa, thence to Holt county, Neb; Thomas married Sally Davidson, and lives in West Finley township; Jane, on May 12, 1851, married Henry Giles, who died in West Finley township in October, 1875 (she is now living in Claysville, Washington Co. Penn.). The parents continued to live where they first settled and there the father died October 28, 1859, aged seventy years, the mother on May 27, 1864, aged seventy-seven years. Alexander McCleery, the subject proper of this memoir, was reared to the vocation of a farmer. The first school he attended was in a vacant cabin, prepared for a school-house by cutting out a log on each of the three squares nearly the whole length of the square (the chimney or fireplace being on the other square), and greasing paper and pasting it to the logs above and below the opening to allow light for the school. The seats were made of small chestnut logs, flattened on the top for the scholars to sit on, which were supported by two inch pins in the under side, thereby making the seats as high as a chair. At that cabin he attended two terms of five months each, with five or six weeks' vacation between terms of school, and at no school thereafter did he make as good progress. He got all his schooling at the common schools first at subscription schools, afterward at the free schools. They did not have school every winter. After the two terms in the cabin, people interested in schools concluded to build a new school-house by voluntary labor, and the work was parceled out in about this order: one man was to hew two logs, another four logs, another seven, and so on, according to the number of scholars each had to send; a cabinet maker, named Daniel Sutherland, for his share made the door and window-sash, and laid the floor; stone masons built the chimney for their part so there was no money paid for anything except the glass and nails. The work moved slowly, and it was about the fourth winter before school opened in the new building. School was held in this building, seven winters on the subscription plan, when the free-school system was adopted, which caused another halt in the schools for several years, or until enough taxes were collected to build a new frame school-house. After the new house was built, Mr. McCleery attended four terms, and got through all the branches taught in common schools at that time.
When nearing his twenty-third year, Mr. McCleery left his father's home, and for three years labored on the farm of James Davidson, West Finley township; and on the latter's death the family employed him to manage the farm and stock, in which capacity he worked five years. On March 13, 1851, Alexander McCleery and Miss Mary Davidson (eldest daughter of James Davidson)were united in marriage, and on the 24th day of the same month they moved to the farm on which he has ever since resided. Their family numbered four children, namely: William D. (now a practicing physician in Hanovertown, Columbiana Co., Ohio; is married to Miss Lida Brown, and they have three children-two girls and one boy), James(married to Miss Lula Sutherland, of West Alexander, Penn., and living on his farm in Hopewell township; has two children-one boy and one girl), Henrietta (married to R. G. Buchanan, of West Virginia;. they are living in Ohio county, W. Va.; they have five children-four girls and one boy) and Robert D. (still at home, unmarried). The mother of these children died March 31, 1866, and Mr. McCleery married, October 5, 1870, Miss Lizzie Ackley, daughter of Joshua Ackley, of Greene county, Penn. She died December 7, 1871, leaving a young daughter, then two months old, named Mary Lizzie, who is still living at home with her father. The McCleerys all belonged to the old Whig party until after the Harrison campaign of 1840, when the Anti-slavery question arose, at which time they joined the Abolition party, and so remained until the Republican party made known its principles, since then they have voted and worked with the latter.
Alexander McCleery united with the Free Presbyterian Church in 1851, and remained with it until it disbanded in 1868, after which he united with the Presbyterian Church in West Alexander, in charge of Dr. W. H. Lester, and has been one of the elders for a number of years. He has been repeatedly called to fill the various township offices: served four full terms as justice of the peace (his successor is his brother Thomas), and served one term as county commissioner of Washington county; of late years he has had to decline the office on account of increasing deafness. Mr. McCleery has succeeded in his financial affairs beyond his early expectations, and is the owner of 282 acres of land, where he now lives. His son, Robert D., has 103 acres which he aided him to pay, making a total of 385 acres in a square tract, beside 170 acres in Hopewell township, Washington county, he paid $65 per acre for, and which he has deeded to his two sons, James and Robert D.; James owns it all at this time, and lives on the farm. Mr. McCleery spent a considerable amount of money sending his older children to college; but with all his liberal outlays he is entirely free from debt.
Text taken from page 400 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed March 1998 by Nelda Rowland of San Diego , CA as part of the Beers Project.
Published March 1998 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]