William McCormick    

William McCormick. The first settler within the limits of the present borough of Connellsville was William McCormick, who came here from near Winchester, Va., about the year 1770. He had a number of pack-horses, and with them was engaged in the transportation of salt, iron, and other goods from Cumberland, Md., to the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Rivers. His wife was Effie Crawford, a daughter of Col. William Crawford, who had settled on the left bank of the Youghiogheny near the northern boundary of the present borough of New Haven. McCormick settled on the other side of the river, directly opposite the house of his father-in-law. His first residence there was a log house, which he built on the river-bank. It is still standing on land owned by the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad Company. In this he lived many years, and then removed to a double cabin which he built on the site below the stone house on the Davidson farm. Afterwards he built a large log house where is now the stone house built by John Boyd, who purchased the McCormick property in 1831.

William McCormick died in 1816, aged about seventy-four years. He had eleven children, four of whom removed to Adams County, Ohio, and two to Indiana. Provance McCormick, a grandson of William, now the oldest living native of Connellsville, was born in the above-mentioned double cabin of his grandfather, July 29, 1799. He learned two trades, shoemaker and carpenter. He married about 1818, and for two years lived on his grandfather’s place. In 1825 he bought an acre of land, and built on it the house now owned by William White. In this he lived till 1853. He was elected justice of the peace, and later associate judge of Fayette County for one term. For the past ten years he has held the office of justice of the peace in Connellsville. Two sons, George and Joseph T., and two daughters are residents of Connellsville.

History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1882, page 365 View the image of this page online - Free Trial  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.