Search Terms: MCELROY (2)
Database: Michigan Biographies, 1878
Combined Matches: 2
American
Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men with Portrait Illustrations
on Steel, Volumes I-II
Name:
Name: George
Beamish McElroy, D. D.
Adrian, Michigan, was born in the city of Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, June 5, 1824. His parents were both Irish, and came to this
country but a few years previous to their marriage, in 1822. Doctor McElroy, during the first
decade of his life, was frail and sickly; so much so, indeed, that it was only
through the unintermitted care and tenderness of his parents that he was
brought safely to his teens. Since then, however, he has been peculiarly free
from illness,--never having been sick a whole day, or unable to perform his daily
duties, for the last forty years. In consequence of his feeble health, he was unusually
slow in acquiring the power of speech, being fully four years of age before he
made any attempt at articulating words. As a last resort, he was sent to a
school kept by an elderly maiden lady, with the hope that constant and familiar
contact with those of his own age would develop his latent power of expression,
if, indeed, he had any,--a thought that had begun to trouble his parents not a
little. The experiment was happily successful. His opportunities for education,
though as good as those generally enjoyed at that day by the children of
parents not abundantly favored with the wealth of this world, were not very
extended. When about twelve years of age, he was put at a nail-machine in one
of the iron manufactories of his native city,--his father being a nail-cutter.
At this employment, he remained until his eighteenth year. On the 23d of
August, 1840, he became a member of the Methodist Protestant Church; and, a few
months afterwards, placed himself under the instruction of Rev. George Brown,
then pastor of the church, in view of preparing himself for the Christian
ministry. His license to exhort bears date May 30, 1842. Previous, however, to
his having received this license, he made his first attempt to address an
audience from a pulpit at Bakerstown, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1842. On the eighteenth
anniversary of his birth, he was formally licensed to preach. The following September,
he was received into the Pittsburg Annual Conference of the Methodist
Protestant Church, and was sent to labor in a district lying in what is now
known as the State of West Virginia. During the delivery of his first discourse
to his charge, he was seized with embarrassment,--the result was a complete
failure. So chagrined and mortified was he at his ill success, that if he could
have reached his mother's house that night, in all probability he would never
again have left it on a similar errand. In August, 1845, he was regularly
ordained, and vested with all the privileges of a Christian minister. On the
22d day of July, 1851, he was married to his present wife, whose maiden name
was Mary Good. This event occurred at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he was in
charge of a congregation. By the Annual Conference of that year, he was appointed
to a charge at Brownsville, Pennsylvania. He had barely become comfortably
settled in the parsonage, however, when he received and accepted a call to
teach in Madison College, located at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the church, by commissioners
named by the General Conference of that year, having assumed the control of the
institution. At first, it was designed to conduct the school simply as an
academy. After a few months, however, the principal, Rev. R. H. Ball, persuaded
the trustees to consummate a regular collegiate organization. As a result of
this change in the character of the school, Doctor McElroy became principal in the preparatory
department. At the same time, he entered upon and prosecuted, in connection with
his six hours of daily labor in the school-room, a full and regular system of
classical, scientific, and mathematical readings; the last, however, received
the greater share of his time and attention. A few years having passed, he was
appointed to the chair of Mathematics and Natural Science, which had been made
vacant by the resignation of Professor Newel. The duties, many and laborious,
of this position, he discharged for about one year. At this time, he was the
only Northern man in the facully. Having determined among themselves to have a
corps of teachers sympathizing with, and devoted exclusively to, Southern interests,
as these were then understood and interpreted, the rest of the faculty and the
Southern students, the latter constituting by far the greater number in
attendance, made his stay in the institution any thing but comfortable and desirable.
He accordingly resigned his position, and received from the trustees, who fully
understood the case, a very complimentary testimonial. The faculty was then
enlarged, and consisted of men, able in their several departments, but
intensely Southern in their views and feelings. Before many months had passed,
however, the entire body of teachers, with one exception, and nearly all the
students from the South, abandoned Madison College and went to Lynchburg,
Virginia. This led to a reorganization of the institution; Doctor McElroy was induced to return,
and, for the sake of the interests involved, he consented to again assume the
charge of the preparatory department. While in this position, he completed his
course of readings, and, in June, 1857, was regularly graduated Bachelor of
Arts; on the day following, he was honored with the degree of Master of Arts,
as a token of special favor. Previous to this, however, he had been elected to
the chair of Mathematics. In the fall of the same year, he removed to Henry,
Illinois, and took charge of the North Illinois Institute. He remained there
five years, and then accepted the principalship of the public schools of the city.
Towards the close of the year 1862, he was nominated and elected, by the
friends of the National Union, County Superintendent of Common Schools. This
was the first and the only time he was ever before the public as a candidate
for office. In July, 1864, he returned to Pennsylvania to take charge of Alleghany
Seminary, near Pittsburg. Here he remained until he removed to his present
residence, Adrian, Michigan, to take the chair of Mathematics and Astronomy in
Adrian College, to which he had been elected March 8, 1866. In June,--1871, he
received from the faculty and trustees of Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania, the
degree of D. D. On the 28th of February, 1867, at the organization of the
college under the exclusive control of the Methodist Church, he was elected
Secretary of the Board of Trustees,--a place he has held by successive annual
re-elections ever since. On the 1st of March of the same year, he was chosen
Vice-President of the college. June 19, 1873, he was called to be President of
the college, and this position he still holds. In August, 1874, he was elected,
by the Michigan Annual Conference, a representative to the General Conference
of the Methodist Church. This body he served as Secretary during its entire
session. As an alternate, he was also a member of the General Conference of
1871. He was elected a representative of the same Annual Conference to the
General Convention of the Church, held at Baltimore, Maryland, in May, 1877.
Doctor McElroy is a gentleman
of fine presence and dignified appearance. He is eminent for his scholarly attainments;
and his social qualities and kindly manners endear him to all who know him. He
is distinguished by simplicity of character, purity, frankness, and earnestness
of purpose, and all the characteristics of a Christian gentleman.
American
Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men with Portrait Illustrations
on Steel, Volumes I-II
Name: Hon. Crocket McElroy
St. Clair, State Senator, Merchant, and Manufacturer, was born December 31,
1835, in the township of Flamboro West, near the city of Dundas, province of
Ontario, Canada. His father, Francis McElroy,
was born in the north of Ireland in 1803, and was of Scotch descent. Mr.
Francis McElroy came to
this country with his father in 1810, settling in New Jersey. He worked for a
time in a cotton factory at Paterson, New Jersey, and was once cruelly beaten
with a cat-o'-nine-tails by a brutal overseer, for some slight offense, such
punishments being common at that time. He subsequently lived in the State of
New York, where he learned the blacksmith's trade, at which he has worked
nearly all his life. He lived for about twenty-five years in Canada, and for
the past twenty-five years in and near Bayfield, Lake Superior. He has a strong
constitution, is abstemious in his habits, and has enjoyed excellent health all
his life. His education was limited, but, being a great reader, and possessed
of a remarkable memory, he is distinguished for his intelligence and general
information. He is an effective public speaker, and has often lectured on temperance
and other topics. He married, in 1827, Miss Mary Surerus, an honest, industrious
woman, who has been an excellent mother to her ten children, and has taken
great interest in their welfare. She is still living. Crocket McElroy, the subject of this sketch, received
his early education at Galt, Ontario; and, when twelve years of age, removed to
Detroit. Here he attended one of the public schools of that city for a short
time, and, afterwards, a commercial academy. When thirteen years of age, he
began to act as clerk in a wholesale and retail grocery store, remaining three
years; he then, for two years, sold small beer. In 1853 he went to Ira, St.
Clair County, as clerk, to take charge of a general store; and for the next
five years served as clerk and taught school, spending the summer months of
1854-55 in the Lake Superior region. In 1858 he was elected Justice of the
Peace; and, the year following, engaged in mercantile business in Ira,
continuing in this until 1865. He then sold out, and embarked in the business
of manufacturing staves and heading, at New Baltimore. This proved a very agreeable
business, one especially congenial to his tastes. He gradually extended his
operations at this place, purchasing a second stavemill; and in 1871 bought out
a similar mill at Marine City. In 1873 he sold out his business at New
Baltimore and removed, with his family, to the city of St. Clair, retaining his
mills at Marine City. These were soon after operated by a stock corporation,
known as the Marine City Stave Company, in which Mr. McElroy owns a controlling interest, and is the
President and general manager. He resumed the mercantile business in 1873, and
has for some years been interested in vessel-property. He is also President of
the St. Clair Spoke Works. In his manufacturing and mercantile operations, Mr. McElroy has been eminently
successful. With good executive abilities, and an excellent knowledge of human
nature, he has been exceedingly fortunate in the selection and management of
the men in his employment. Although conducting a large business, and making
most of his sales of staves and heading in distant markets, he has not suffered
any loss by bad debts from such sales since 1870. He gives close attention to
his business affairs, and keeps thoroughly posted upon their minutest details;
he has a remarkably retentive memory, being able at any time to give almost the
exact amount of merchandise and manufactured stock he has on hand, without
referring to either figures or dates. Mr. McElroy, with all his business enterprises, has
found considerable time to devote to reading and literary pursuits, and has
taken a deep interest in the establishment and sustenance of literary
associations in the communities in which he has resided. In 1858 he founded a
literary society, known as the "Society of Brothers;" and, in 1867,
at New Baltimore, he founded another, "The Freemen's Club." He has repeatedly
read before them original poems and essays. He belongs to no denomination, but
usually attends the Congregational Church, with which his religious convictions
are in accord. Two of his children are members of the Methodist Church. In
politics, he has always been an active Republican; but is not a strong partisan,
and refuses to vote for an unworthy man. He has held office, more or less, for
twenty years past, having been Supervisor for two years, Justice of the Peace
four years, Commissioner of Highways two years, Trustee of the village of New
Baltimore two years, Mayor of St. Clair City for one year, and State Senator
two years, from January 1, 1877. He married, in the township of Ira, when he
was only eighteen years of age, Miss Julia Chartier, of French descent. They
have had thirteen children, nine of whom are now living,--two sons and seven
daughters. The oldest son is Secretary of the Marine City Stave Company; and
the youngest is an infant. Mr. McElroy
is about five feet seven inches in height, is stout, weighs about two hundred
pounds. He is of a sanguine-nervous temperament. He is a constant and thorough
worker, having early acquired habits of industry, and has done a vast amount of
hard work during the past fifteen or twenty years. He has aimed to be strictly
honest in all his transactions; and, as a consequence, is known as a man of
strict integrity. With firmness of decision, and strong personal and moral
courage, nothing can move him from acting in accordance with what he believes
to be right; he has frequently sacrificed personal gain, rather than do what he
believed to be wrong or unjust to others. He is deeply interested in the
personal welfare and education of his children, and makes it a practice to meet
with them every Sunday evening to give them instruction and fatherly counsel.
He has never used intoxicating liquors or tobacco, and, by practice and
precept, is a strong temperance man. He is a forcible and fluent speaker; and,
during the Presidential canvass of 1876, made some enthusiastic and telling
speeches on behalf of the Republican candidates. While he is a restless,
energetic, and enterprising business man, he is also very popular,--a fact
which has been fully attested on various occasions when he has been a candidate
for office. He was once elected Supervisor without opposition; and received a
larger majority when elected Mayor of St. Clair than was ever obtained by any
other person. In every position he has been called upon to fill, he has
discharged the duties of the office with credit and ability, and to the satisfaction
of the public. He belongs to that class of men, too seldom found, who have the
moral courage to labor for a good cause, even though it be unpopular