MARY E. CROGHAN born Locust Grove, near Louisville April 27, 1826
Title: A century and a half of Pittsburg and her people / by John Newton Boucher ; illustrated. Vol. 2.
Author: Boucher, John Newton, 1854-1933.
Pg. 406
WILLIAM CROGHAN, JR., was a son of MAJOR WILLIAM CROGHAN of the Revolutionary army and was born Jan. 2, 1795.He was brought up in Louisville, Kentucky.His mother was a sister of GEN. GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE.A favorite outlet for the river towns of the Ohio in steam-boat days was Pittsburgh, and on a visit here he chanced to meet the O’HARA family.In 1821 the daughter MARY and WILLIAM CROGHAN, JR. were married.For some years after their marriage they lived near Louisville, where two children, a son and a daughter, were born.MARY (O’HARA) CROGHAN died Oct. 25, 1827, and her only son, WILLIAM, died April 25, 1828.After the death of his wife WILLIAM CROGHAN, JR., moved to Pittsburgh and was admitted to the Allegheny bar on May 2, 1835, when he was forty years old, he having practiced his profession previous to this time in Louisville.MARY E. CROGHAN (pg. 407) was the only heir and she eventually inherited the whole of her mother’s estate.She was born at Locust Grove, near Louisville, on April 27, 1826, and spent the first eight or nine years of her life there.On his removal to Pittsburgh, her father established a residence and country seat called “Picnic,” which commanded a view of the three rivers and was one of the finest and most beautiful places in this community.There the only daughter spent several years.Her father sent her to a school for girls, a very fashionable one on Staten Island, New York, conducted by Mrs. Macleod.
CAPTAIN EDWARD H. SCHENLEY, of the English army, was then about forty-five years old and had been twice married.His first wife was a daughter of Lady Pool and after half a dozen meetings she eloped with him from a ball given by the Queen’s Guards, of which he was then an ensign.After her death he met Miss Inglis, a cousin of the late Earl of Fife and a cousin once removed of Lord Erskine.While traveling in Europe with friends, she, too, consented to an elopement.She had a sister who was married into a noble family of Spain, while another sister was the accomplished Mrs. Macleod who conducted the Staten Island school.On the death of his second wife CAPTAIN SCHENLEY came to America and when taken ill was invited to the Staten Island school home by his sister-in-law that she might care for him and bring him back to health.He was closely related to nobility and his family name figures in Burke’s Peerage.Mrs. Macleod thought that his being twice a widower and his years insured a sufficient safe-guard, and her first suspicion was the elopement of MISS CROGHAN with the handsome captain.The girl was barely sixteen years old, and this with her wealth added to the notoriety of the affair, and, it is said, actually broke up the school, for timid parents feared that other English guardsmen might be lurking around to snap a handsome fortune.They were married in 1842.
The SCHENLEYS took up their residence in England and the union proved to be a very happy one.Queen Victoria, however, waited many years before she would allow MRS. SCHENLEY to be presented at court, because she had been a “disobedient daughter.”The greater number of her years after her marriage (pg. 408) were spent in London, where she became a leader in the most exclusive society of England.Until her father’s death on Sept. 24, 1850, a part of the time was spent in Pittsburgh in the quaint old mansion, “Picnic,” on Stanton Avenue.MRS. SHENLEY proved to be a most loyal friend of Pittsburgh, and well indeed has the city perpetuated her name.Her many donations have been mentioned in their proper places elsewhere.Chief among her gifts were the SCHENLEY Park and the Old Block House.CAPTAIN SCHENLEY died many years ago, and MRS. SCHENLEY died on Nov. 4, 1903.
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Re: MARY E. CROGHAN born Locust Grove, near Louisville April 27, 1826
Larry Myers 6/06/11