James McCormick (1801-1870)
Biography
James McCormick (1801-1870) was born near Silvers Springs, Cumberland
County, PA on February 24, 1801 and died in 1870. He was the son of
William McCormick, who died in a farm accident in 1805, and consequently,
James was greatly influenced by his mother, Margery Bines McCormick.
He was graduated from Princeton at an early age, with high honors, and
began reading for the bar. James entered Princeton in May, 1820 and
graduated in 1822 with a BA. He went on to study law with Andrew Carothers
of Carlisle and by 1825, he was a member of the bar of Cumberland and
Dauphin Counties. He was the President of the borough council of Harrisburg
for some years, President of the Dauphin Deposit Bank, of the Harrisburg
Bridge Company, and of the Harrisburg Cemetery, and for many years,
a trustee of the Pine Street Church. He managed his large estate of
flour mills, furnaces and farms although totally blind ten years before
his death.
He married Eliza Buehler, daughter of George and Maria Nagle. They
had four children: Henry, who married Annie Criswell, James, born October
31, 1832, and married Mary Wilson Alricks; Margaret was born 1836 and
died 1837, and Mary, who was born October 10, 1874, and married J. Donald
Cameron.
Eliza died December 1877 in Harrisburg. James died in Harrisburg, January
19, 1870.
See a photo of James
McCormick.
Sources: Historical Society of Dauphin County and Letter from Helen
S. Wright, Office of the Secretary, (alumni records)(Alexander Leitch),
Princeton University, to Mr. V. Hummel Berghaus June 9, 1942, in response
to a letter addressed to a Mr. Donald Griffin, requesting information
on James McCormick, McCormick Family Papers
Information compiled from original sources and written by MaryAlice
Bitts.
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This site is sponsored by the Center
for Pennsylvania Cultural Studies at the Pennsylvania
State University at Harrisburg, in cooperation with the Historical
Society of Dauphin County, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Director of
the McCormick Family Papers Project at the Center is Professor Michael
Barton.
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