Rev. Robert Houston McCready, Ph.D., Page 1

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="0a5d05a3.jpg"> <div> Orange County, New York</div> <div> American History and Genealogy Project</div> <div> Rev. Robert Houston McCready, Ph.D., Page 1</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="0a6d2123.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/orange/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/or"><U>Orange County AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/"><U>New York AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://ahgp.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://ahgp.org"><U>AHGP</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://alhn.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://alhn.org"><U>ALHN</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="623" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 928 WIDTH="617"><div> <IMG SRC="053d0240.jpg" border=0 width="208" height="292" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Old English Text MT" >T</FONT>HE present pastor was born July 12, 1853, in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lived in that vicinity till he was seventeen years of age.  His father died when he was about fourteen years old, and in that same year he began life for himself as a store boy, with the firm of Wagstaff & Bro., the grocers.  He spent between three and four years serving customers with food for the body.  He was away from home all week, but spent every Sabbath at home with his mother and two sisters.  Before his father's death their Church fellowship had been with the New Light Covenanters, and the General Assembly Presbyterian Church.  After his father's death, the family attended the Covenanter Church (Old Side), on 8th street, Pittsburgh. Rev. A. M. Milligan, D.D., Pastor.</div> <div>      At sixteen he made a public confession of faith and became a member of the Church.  He had no thought of studying for the ministry at that time.  But he became a firm believer in the Gospel of Christ as the saving power of society.  He found in later life that the limitations of the Covenanter Church were too great and not required by the spirit or words of the New Testament as he reads it.  He longed for greater liberty in bringing men to Christ.</div> <div>       When the call came to him to preach the Gospel if God opened the way, he left the store for the school.  That step was taken very much against the wish of those of his own home.  His business prospects were bright, and he was expected to take up the drug business that had been established in connection with the home by his father and other brothers.  But after careful consideration and much prayer, the decision to go forward in the chosen calling was made.  He resolved to go on until God blocked the way.  More than once he thought it was blocked. Sickness touched one loved one after another, and they always looked to the student brother or son for help.  When the way seemed hemmed in on every side, however, God opened some unexpected door and seemed to point onward.</div> <div>      He had received the average English education of the Public Schools of Alleghany City, Pa., where he was living from ten to fourteen years of age.  Special advantages being offered him in a school of Antrim, Ohio, he studied under Prof. Love.  Called home to attend to some financial matters, Rev. J. R. W. Sloane, D.D., Professor of Systematic Theology in Alleghany Seminary offered to fit him for College.  He gladly accepted, and graduated from the Western University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pa., in June, 1879.</div> <div>      One preparatory and three regular College years were spent in West Geneva College, Ohio, before entering the Western University of Pittsburgh, Pa.</div> <div> During his College course he represented the Adelphic Literary Society successfully in three contests.  The first was in recitation, the second in oration, the third in debate.  He was also elected valedictorian of his class in the Western University where he graduated.</div> <div> He went to the Theological Seminary the same year he graduated from College.  He Spent the required four years in the Alleghany Seminary, graduating in the Summer of 1888. </div> <div>       He received several calls, for there was a dearth of preachers in the Church at that time.  One to New Castle, Pa., another to New Concord, Ohio, where there was a United Presbyterian College.  One to Oil City, Pa., and another to Barnesville, N. B.  But he chose the call with the fewest members-Coldenham, N. Y.  He was ordained and installed there March 6th, 1884.  In 1887 he was called to a Church in Cincinnati.  He declined that but accepted a call to the Prospect Hill Presbyterian Church the next year, in 82d street, near Park avenue, New York City.  He remained with this Church until it was reunited with the First Union Congregation, from which it came out, and until he received a call to the Old Brick Church at Montgomery.  This was in 1890.  He was married to Belle H. Beattie, daughter of Rev. David Beattie, of Scotchtown, N. Y., while settled in New York, June 21, 1888.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="pg23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rev. Robert Houston McCready, Ph.D., Pag"><U>Next Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="pg1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Table of Contents"><U>Table of Contents</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>