MRS. MARY (CLARK) WYLIE. This highly esteemed and much beloved lady is a native of Washington county, born in Hopewell township, July 30, 1811, of Scotch-Irish origin and Covenanter extraction. Her paternal ancestor, James Clark, was driven from Scotland to Ireland during religious persecution, and from the latter country he emigrated to America about the year 1750, and in the Revolutionary war he was found in the Continental army. James Clark settled upon land in Cumberland (now Franklin) county, Penn., upon which the town of Strasburg was afterward laid out and built. " Clark's Knot," or " Clark's Gap," at the mountain near there, still tell of the original owner of the land which was then called "Clark's Fancy." James Clark died near Mercersburg Penn., of which locality her grandfather, David Clark, was a native. The latter was married to Hannah Baird, of Carlisle, same State, and they became the parents of seven children, viz.: James (father of Mrs. Mary Wylie); Esther, married to Rev. Joseph Stockton, of Allegheny, now deceased; Nancy, married to David Larimer, a merchant of Steubenville Ohio; Elizabeth, married to Daniel Houston, of near Canonsburg, this county; Mary. wife of Paul Anderson, of St. Louis Mo.; David and Eliza, in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. James Clark, the eldest son of David and Hannah (Baird) Clark, grew to manhood on the farm in Canton township (now known as the S. K. Weirich farm), where he received a liberal education for those early days. Later he kept a store in Hopewell township, also A mill, and was engaged in various other business enterprises; he had an interest in the wagon trains that crossed the mountains for merchandise, and assisted in the building of the National pike. He married Jane Henderson. a daughter of Rev. Matthew Henderson, one of the first Associate ministers to cross the mountains, and who came to Washington county in 1780, taking charge of the Chartiers Church. He was in line of Rev. Alexander Henderson of "Solemn league and Covenant" fame, of Edinburgh. Scotland. Rev. Matthew Henderson married Miss Mary Ferris who bore him ten l children, all of whom grew to maturity and married, their names being as follows: Matthew, Ebenezer, Robert, John, Mary, Ann, Elizabeth. Jane, Joseph and Helen. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. James Clark settled on a farm in Hopewell township, where, July 10, 1821, at the age of thirty-seven years, the husband was summoned from earth. He was a member of the Associate Church. They had seven children, as follows: David, who died in Washington county, leaving a family of five children; Mary, the subject proper of this memoir; Matthew, who was a physician, and died in Washington, Penn.; James, who died in Canonsburg, Penn.; Elizabeth, married to John Murdoch, and died in Parkersburg, Va.; William, who died in Canton township, and Ebenezer, who died when a child. The widowed mother continued to remain on the old home farm with her children, until they had all left for homes of their own, and she then lived with one or other of them, the last year of her life being passed with her daughter Mary (Mrs. Wylie), at whose home she died in 1870, at the ripe old age of eighty-six years. Mary Clark remained at the place of her birth in Hopewell township until her marriage September 2, 1829, with William Wylie, when they took up their residence on the farm in Canton township, now occupied by the David McClay heirs, whence after five years they moved to the Razortown farm (now known as the Ellenmount stock farm) in the same township, and here for forty-five years they shared life's joys and sorrows. In 1877 Mr. Wylie was called from earth at the age of nearly seventy-seven years. About a year and a half after her husband's death, Mrs. Wylie broke up housekeeping and in 1880 moved to her present home on East Maiden street, in the borough of Washington, where she resides with her widowed daughter, Mrs. Annie Thompson. She is remarkably well preserved for her years, and is in the enjoyment of good health. All her life from girlhood she has been a member of the United Presbyterian Church. She can recount many interesting anecdotes of her early life and other days, which carry the listener back to a time when Washington county was in a condition of comparative wildness. In her childhood the Indians had for the most part gone from the county, but when she was about seven years of age, on proceeding one day to the old spring in the neighborhood for water, she heard a moan, and on looking up was horrified to see a hideous Indian watching her: it is almost needless to add that she fled in no small alarm to the house. Her people went in search of the Indian, and finding him they gave him food, and sent him on his way rejoicing, for they learned from him that he was traveling eastward Mrs. Wylie is the mother of four children: Robert, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere; Jane, married to John S. Beall, and has two children (residence' Wellsburg, W. Va.); Annie, widow of Rev. Joseph R. Thompson, and James Clark (deceased) Joseph R. Thompson was born in Mt. Pleasant township, Washington Co., Penn., in 1828. He graduated from Canonsburg Theological Seminary, became the pastor of the U. P. Church at Hickory (he was one of three brothers, all of whom were ministers in the U. P. Church), and was filling the incumbency at the time of his death in 1861. In 1859 he was married to Miss Annie Wylie, and they bad one child, named William, who died at the age of four years.

Text taken from page 98 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed January 1997 by Marcia Rothman of Langley, WA as part of the Beers Project. Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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