Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 473
JOHN MCCRILLIS

John MCCRILLIS (retired), came to Harrison County in November, 1869, and settled at the village of Calhoun. He had been to the county prior to this and had bought a house and lot in Calhoun and also twenty acres of timber-land. In the spring of 1870, he rented land near Calhoun but lived in the village until the next spring, when he removed to a two hundred and fouty-acre tract of wild land, on section 28, of Taylor Township. Here he bult a frame house which was boarded up and down, the same being 16x24 feet. He broke forty acres of this land in 1870 and in the autumn of 1887 provided the place with a good barn. The farm now consists of three hundred and twenty acres, divided into two equal farms. The homestead is occupied by his son, Monroe, while a renter operates the other. Our subject removed to Modale in the month of February, 1887, where he makes it his home with his daughter, Mrs. MARTIN.

Mr. MCCRILLIS was born in Vanderburg County, Indiana, December 24, 1825, and is the son of William and Cyntha (SHULTZ) MCCRILLIS The father died when our subject was a small boy, and he remained at home with his mother until 1853. His mother married for her second husband a man by the name of Henry JAMES, and they removed to Jefferson County, Iowa, in 1840. They halted two days and two nights, where the busy city of Burlington now stands, which at that time only had two houses. They could get no accommodations consequently they slept out of doors. At that point they hired two teams to convey them to Jefferson County. In 1853, our subject removed to a farm that he had bought some time previous and had operated before the death of his step-father. In 1868 he sold and removed to Mills County, Iowa, where he purchaased eighty acres of wild land, but upon finding that there were no school facilities, he did not improve this land, but rented a farm for one year, during which time he sold his place, and in November, 1869, came to this county.

He was married in Jefferson County, Iowa, December 8, 1853, to Miss Elizabeth CRENSHAW, the daughter of John and Martha (CADWELL) CRENSHAW. Elizabeth (CRENSHAW) MCCRILLIS was born in Illinois and when young she accompanied her parents to Jefferson County, Iowa. She died in Taylor Township, Harrison County, September 101, 1873, and was buried in the cemetery at Calhoun. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Our subject and his wife were the parents of three children; Casper, Rosina and Monroe, who are living; five are buried in the cemetery at Calhoun.

During the Civil War our subject formed a company of Home Guards, and received a commission from Gov. STONE, as its Captain.

Politically Mr. MC CRILLIS votes for the man and not the party, believing that the best men should hold public office.

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