Biographical Insights about
Mary (LUCAS) McNAY
(13 Jan 1880 - 16 Jan 1921)

Mary LUCAS was born 16 May 1827 in West Finley Twp., Washington Co., PA, the fourth child and third son of Benjamin LUCAS and Mary 'Polly' LEE . On 19 Dec., 1854, in Claysville, Washington Co., PA, she married William Brown McNAY , son of James McELNAY and Anna DICKSON , both of whom were born and died in Pennsylvania (their gravestones are in the Jacktown Cemetery in Wind River, Greene Co.). The Lucases and the McElnays (whose children changed the spelling of their name to 'McNay') were early and prominent pioneer farm families in the county, and the vast majority of their children also ended up with farms of their own.

Mary (LUCAS) McNAY about 1882, in Peoria

Mary's grandfather was Isaac LUCAS , a Revolutionary War Veteran whose military file - still available for copying in Washington DC - indicates that he served as a Private throughout the war. The family tradition holds that he was a personal cook for General Washington, and there is much evidence to suggest the tradition is true. His military records in Washington DC make it quite clear that Isaac served in many different locations during the war including at Valley Forge. Several of Mary's relatives, including the Lees and the Crows, have published short books which discuss Isaac and his family as well as identify her and her husband. Below is a short extract from 'Fireside Stories of Jacob Crow Family' by James Homer Crow, page 95, which relates to Berridge Lucas, brother of Mary's father Benjamin and thus her uncle :

About Berridge Lucas and His Father Isaac

Michael Crow II's wife was a daughter of the Lucas family. From her home the Crows acquired great-great-grandfather Lucas' split bottom ladder-back chair. This great-great-grandfather, Isaac Lucas, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was present during the winter suffering at valley Forge, PA. We do not know what his military rank was, but we know that he performed an important service as he was the personal cook for George Washington and his close associates. General Washington knew him well and he gave Isaac Lucas an honorable discharge, written in his own handwriting, upon completion of Isaac's term of service in the Revolutionary War. Grandmother Crow (Sarah Jane [Lucas] Crow, double cousin of Mary [Lucas] McNay) had a brother, George [Lee] Lucas. He became a doctor of medicine and settled somewhere in the West. He was given this famous honorable discharge from the Revolutionary War. No one today knows anything about brother George or what became of this document. The ladder back chair that Isaac used Lucas used in this farm home, near Burnsville, PA in Washington County, is still in existence. Berridge Lucas, the father of Sarah jane, was a very kind man. He used to keep medicine on a shelf under this ladder-back chair. He did much for the poor and humble who resided near his home. When he died he gave the ridge land where the West Finley Cemetery is located today, on the road from Burnsville to Claysville in Washington County, to be a cemetery for the poor. The court in Washington County deeded the cemetery to the Windy gap Church Association, and it is well kept. It is a rather large church cemetery today. On the crest of the ridge is a monumernt marking the grave of Isaac Lucas, the Revolutionary soldier. The national government has placed a plain monument at this old soldier's grave. It can be seen today. A flag to honor his memory is placed there each Decoration Day. Several other of the Lucas family are buried near him. The wives were called "consorts" on the stones marking their graves."

Mary McNay and her husband remained in Washington Co., PA for the first 18 years of their marriage, the last several during which her widowed mother also lived with them (the 1870 census shows Mary's mother in the William B. and Mary McNay household). When Mary's father died in 1866, his property was sold and the proceeds were divided amongst his 5 still surviving children - the property deed contains the names of the sellers as Isaac N. Lucas (the only surviving son), Lydia Lucas (who later married George Linville), Wm. B. McNay (who had married daughter Mary), Joseph B. Stewart (who had married daughter Jane), and Hannah Bentley (Hannah Lucas having m. George Bentley).

Following the death of Mary's mother, William B. and his wife moved to Peoria, Illinois, where a number of Mary's siblings had previously moved. Roughly ten years later they moved again, to Greenfield Co., Iowa, where Mary died on April 5, 1914 at age 86. Remarkably, her husband William lived another 14 years (his final years spent traveling between his daughters when not staying with eldest daughter Anna and her husband Samuel McGaughey in Mt. Gilead, OH). He died 22 May 1928 in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, but is buried next to his wife in the Greenfield Cemetery in Iowa.

William B and Mary Lucas McNAY about 1882

The 7 daughters and 1 son of William B. and Mary remained in close contact throughout their life, and diligently maintained records of the family. Various family members collected not only family genealogies and histories, but also memorialized the history in several interesting family documents. The most important of those documents were donated by Pauline Young Parrott to the Greenfield Public Library in Greenfield, Iowa, and include her own 50 page 'Food and Fun with the McNays' assembly of family reminiscenses and recipes provided by numerous contributors including herself, and William Harold and Edna Holmes McNay's 60 page summary of the 'Descendants of John and Hannah McElnay' (grandparents of William B.).

Amongst the items in Pauline Parrott's 'Food and Fun' is the following newspaper account - apparently from a Greenfield Iowa newspaper - of their 1904 golden wedding anniversary :

1854-1904 : Mr. & Mrs. W. B. McNay Celebrate Their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary

On last Friday at the country home adjoining Greenfield, Mr. and Mrs. W. B. McNay celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. An invitation had been extended by the family to all of their friends to join them on this occasion and make the event a pleasant one for all. Such an invitation was in keeping with the generosity and affection this remarkable couple have shown during their life and their friends accepted it both in the spirit it was given, and with a heart full of good will and well wishes for the future health and welfare of Mr. and Mrs. McNay. The guests on arrival were welcomed by the many good daughters of this estimable couple, and after greeting Mr. and Mrs, McNay and friends, were ushered into the dining room, which was decorated in golden colors, and the table beautifully set with flowers and chinaware, Here the guests were served with cake and coffee, everything carrying out in color and quality the occasion From 2 o'clock until the golden sunset in the evening, friends came and went, happy in their consciousness of adding a tribute of love and respect to this venerable couple. Mrs. McNay, nee Mary Lucas was born in Washington County Pennsylvania, She can trace her ancestors to the Pilgrims who came over in the Mayflower. Mr. McNay, who is of the sturdy Scotch descent like his better half, was born in Green County Pennsylvania, an adjoining county of Washington. Mr. and Mrs. McNay were married at Claysville, Pennsylvania in 1854. In 1872 they came west and settled at Elmwood, Illinois, where they resided for ten years, coming to Adair County, Iowa in l882. On the farm where they celebrated their golden wedding on Friday, they have resided for the past twenty-two years. Their union has been blessed with eight children, seven girls and one boy. No deaths have occured in the family, and all were present on Friday to share in the joys of the golden wedding and the happy reunion of the family. The children have the same noble bearing of their father and mother, and the same remarkable vigorous appearance. All are married and scattered over the west rearing homes of their own. The children are: Mrs. S. M. McGaughy of Chesterville, Ohio; Mrs. S. E. Alley of Greenfield; Mrs. C. B. Carpenter and Mrs. W. J. McCowan of Peoria, Illinois; Mrs. E. M. Piper of Greenfield, Mrs. W. R. Dawson of Red Oak, Iowa; Mrs. C. E. Keys of Mound City, Kansas; and J. W. McNay of New Virginia, Iowa. [A short poem followed, "written by W. H. Bentley, the son of Mary Lucas McNay's sister, Hannah Lucas Bentley."]

As happens in many active families, Mary's own children and grandchildren did not pay careful attention to her stories and history. Hence it was that the care she had taken in memorizing her family's links to the Mayflower apparently never were recorded, and it soon took on the character of a family tradtion for her grandchildren and later generations. But Pauline Parrott's 'Food and Fun' helps replicate that lineage - which others had grown to doubt since there was no known Lucas who had been on the Mayflower :

The 'Roots' of Mary Lucas McNay

Since our last reunion in 1978 more information has been found concerning the ancestors of Mary Lucas McNay. She always told her grandchildren that the family had come over on the Mayflower and would recite the lineage. None of the grandchildren seem to remember the names of those ancestors and since there was no Lucas on the Mayflower we thought perhaps they came on a later ship. We knew her patentage only back to her grandfather, Isaac Lucas, who had fought in the Revolution. Later he settled in Washington Co., Pennsylvania. There was information that he had fought with a Massachusetts company and that his residence was Plymouth or a nearby town, Plymton [sic]. He died in Pennsylvania in the year 1848 at the age of 89 years. (tombstone record) If you subtract 90 from 1848 you would come up with the year 1759 as the year of his birth. Following is some information taken from the 'Genealogical Register of Plymouth Families' by William Davis, pages 177-179. Samuel Lucas, son of Thomas, m. Patience Warren and had William Lucas in 1692, the third child of four mentioned. (This was the first Samuel).) William Lucas, son of 1st Samuel m. Mehitabel Dity in 1722. The sixth child was Benjamin B. 1731 (this was the first William.) Benjamin Lucas, son of the first William m. in 1755, Lydia, daughter of Theophilus Crocker. The second child mentioned was Isaac Lucas b. 1759 Richard Warren, who came on the Mayflower m. Elizabeth. Their 7th child was Joseph. Joseph Warren m. Priscilla Faunce. Their 4th child was Patience Warren. Patience Warren m. Samuel Lucas. They had William Lucas.

Since Pauline's above comments (which also identify a link to Edward Doty of the Mayflower), research has documented that Mary Lucas McNay's ancestors included not just two Mayflower persons (of the total of only 102 passengers), but a total of nine, as follows:

Mary Lucas McNay's Mayflower Ancestry

Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke married wife Hester Mahieu in Leyden, Holland in 1603, where they had several children, including Jacob. But only Francis crossed on the Mayflower. Jacob married Damaris Hopkins, also a Mayflower descendant, and their daughter Elizabeth married Mayflower descendant John Doty. Their son John Jr. married Mehitable Nelson, whose daughter Mehitable married William Lucas. William was the grandfather of Private Isaac Lucas. Mayflower passenger Edward Doty married Faith Thurston Clark, whose son John married Mayflower descendant Elizabeth Cooke. As noted above, their son John Jr. was grandfather to Benjamin Lucas, the father of Private Isaac Lucas. The Hopkins family had two direct ancestors of Mary Lucas McNay which included father Stephen Hopkins and his Mayflower passenger wife, Elizabeth Fisher (whose origins are unknown). Their daughter Damaris married Mayflower descendant Jacob Cooke. As noted above their granddaughter Mehitable Doty married William Lucas, grandfather of Private Isaac. Stephen Hopkins is a notable immigrant not only for his Mayflower association, but for the fact that he alone of its 102 passengers had been to America more than 10 years before. In 1608, after having survived a shipwreck and being sentenced to be hung for mutiny, he joined the Jamestown Colony in Virginia before returning home to England for several. The Tilley family accounts for 4 Mayflower ancestors, since John Tilley , his wife Joan Hurst and daughter Elizabeth Tilley all arrived together on the Mayflower. Elizabeth married Mayflower passenger John Howland , whose daughter Hope married Elder John Chipman. Their daughter Ruth married Eleazor Crocker, whose son Theophilus married Lydia Eddy. Their daughter, Lydia Crocker, married Benjamin Lucas, father of Private Isaac. As noted by Pauline Parrott, Richard Warren married Elizabeth (since identified as Elizabeth Walker, who arrived on the Anne). Their son Joseph married Priscilla Faunce, whose daughter Patience married Samuel Lucas Sr. (great grandfather of Private Isaac). There is a possible or even probable tenth ancestor as well, since Mayflower passenger Peter Brown had married (as his second wife) an 'Indian maiden' named Mary, who had a daughter Rebekah. Rebekah then married William Snow, who in his will named four daughters by first name (only) - Mary, Lidia, Hannah and Rebeckah. Other documents have established that daughters Hannah and Rebeckah married sons of Giles Rickard and Hannah Dunham, and third daughter Mary is 'said' to have married a third son of Giles and Hannah, Deacon John Rickard. While the Deacon's wife was indeed named Mary, conclusive proof is unfortunately still lacking. If true, their daughter Mary married Jabez Eddy, their daughter Lydia married Theophilus Crocker, and as noted above, the Crocker's daughter Lydia married Benjamin Lucas, father of Private Isaac Lucas of Revolutionary War fame.

Mary (LUCAS) McNAY and William B. McNAY are both buried in the Greenfield Cemetery in Adair Co., Iowa, near the home where their youngest children were raised.