Husband Eli McCormick 1 2 3
Born: 14 May 1820 - Larimer Station, Westmoreland Co, PA 1 4
Christened:
Died: 25 Jan 1890 or 1892 - Irwin, Westmoreland Co, PA 3 5
Buried:
Father: John McCormick (1789-1873) 1 6 7 8
Mother: Esther Sowash (1796-1866) 1 2 7 9
Marriage: 29 Dec 1846 10 11
Wife Sophia Kepple 10 11
Born: 8 Mar 1823 11
Christened:
Died: Aft 1918
Buried:
Father: Jacob Kepple ( - ) 10 12
Mother: Eve Tonner ( - ) 13
Children
1 M John Quincy Adams McCormick 5 10 11
Born: 1847 - Adamsburg, Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA 5
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Margaret "Maggie" Cooper ( - ) 10 14
2 F Mary Frances McCormick 10 11 15
Born: 13 Feb 1850 - Adamsburg, Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA 15
Christened:
Died: 9 Mar 1879 - Irwin, Westmoreland Co, PA 14 15
Buried:
Spouse: William Rush Hanna (1846-1881) 10 14 15
3 M Jacob Kepple McCormick 5 10 11
Born: - Adamsburg, Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Jermima L. Harris ( - ) 14
4 M James Irwin McCormick 10 11
Born: Abt 1855 - Adamsburg, Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA
Christened:
Died: 1862 11
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
5 M Maj. Edward Baker McCormick 5 10 11
Born: Abt 1861 - Irwin, Westmoreland Co, PA
Christened:
Died: 18 Mar 1907 16
Buried:
Spouse: Henrietta B. Clawson ( - ) 5 16
Marr: 1896 16
6 M Frank McCormick 10 11
Born: - Irwin, Westmoreland Co, PA
Christened:
Died: when eleven months old
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
7 M Roscoe Taylor McCormick 10 11 17 18
Born: 10 Jan 1867 - Irwin, Westmoreland Co, PA 18
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Anna May Ridinger (1869/1869- ) 17 18 19
Marr: 28 Oct 1890 5 18
General Notes: Husband - Eli McCormick
He attended the subscription schools of the neighborhood until fifteen years of age, and then engaged in farming. This he pursued for a few years, and then re-entered school, where he remained for two years preparing himself for teaching, to which he devoted a number of years, quitting it permanently in 1854. In 1848 he purchased a drug-store in Adamsburg, Pennsylvania. This he disposed of in 1855, and removed to Kittanning, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, where he again engaged in the drug business. In 1858 he entered the employ of a drug firm as traveling salesman. He continued in this until 1870, when having been elected justice of the peace in Irwin, where his family had resided for a number of years, he entered upon the duties of his office. In the same year he was appointed notary public.
Mr. McCormick was a thoughtful, intelligent business man, being a firm believer in the adage "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." As a teacher he held advanced views, being one of the first in the county to reject and repudiate the rule of brute force in school government, which at that day was the only method employed in the county. In its stead he substituted moral suasion, and appealed to the children's sense of right and wrong. His success was marked, and many of the pupils who became imbued with his ideas were afterwards successful teachers.
While still teaching he opened a drug store in Adamsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1848, retaining it up to 1855 at which time he moved to Kittanning where he remained until 1858. After this he traveled for a time for a drug firm, and later returning to Irwin to engage in the wholesale notion business. He and his notion wagons were long remembered by the country storekeepers of Westmoreland County and adjoining counties. In the closing years of his life like his father before him he filled the office of justice of the peace, with great success and general approval. His mind was judicial, his patience was great, and his knowledge of law was quite extensive. He was well read, a most vigorous writer, a wise man, and his office was a place in which his friends loved to gather in order to listen to his ceaseless flow of story and wisdom.
Until fifteen years of age he attended school, then spent several years in farming, after which he attended school for two years, qualifying himself for teaching. In 1843 he secured his first school and for eleven years pursued the teaching profession without interruption. He was one of the successful men of that profession and inaugurated a new era in the schools he taught, cast out the rule of the rod and adopted moral suasion, the law of love and kindness. He aroused the ambition of his pupils, and under his instruction lives were developed that expanded into great usefulness. There were many influential men of the succeeding generation who considered Eli McCormick as their greatest aid to success. Although he continued to teach until 1854, he was the proprietor of a drug store in Adamsburg from 1848, and for a year after abandoning teaching he continued in the drug business. He was postmaster at Adamsburg in the early fifties. In 1855 he sold his business and moved to Kittanning, Pennsylvania, where he reengaged in the drug business continuing until 1858, when he became the representative of a wholesale drug house, but the next year retired from that position to establish a wholesale business at Irwin. From his store there he sent out loaded wagons to the country stores, and both he and his drug and notion wagons became a settled part of county life, long to be remembered in the localities they visited in Westmoreland and adjoining counties.
In his later years he was a justice of the peace, and like his father before him filled that office with judgment and devotion. He possessed a judicial mind, coupled with an extensive knowledge of the law, and would patiently strive to get at the true facts of a dispute. The decisions of "Squire" McCormick were seldom questioned by fair-minded folk, and the correctness of his legal deductions were generally acknowledged by the profession. He contributed to the journals of his day in a most interesting, vigorous style. He read widely, was specially versed in Shakespeare and the Classics, had a good memory, was a delightful conversationalist, his many friends enjoying much of the time the privileges of his office and the charm of his anecdote. He was of the old school, regarded not the garb of man, but placed high value on character and an eternal value on the soul. A man of deep conviction, yet Eli McCormick was sympathetic, generous and tolerant. His strong desire was to help those who were seeking to rise above the sordid to higher things, and in order to assist the aspirations of rising young men he built up a splendid library of books where they might obtain a self-education from this storehouse of knowledge. From his great amount of traveling, he came to be an ardent lover of good roads, made a study of them, thought about them, talked for them and worked for them to the end of his life.