Margery (Hudson) McMechan
Mrs. Margery (Hudson) McMechan, for many years a resident of Hamilton, was born May 22, 1780, near Banbridge, County Down, Ireland. Her parents, John and Ellen (Park) Hudson, were members of the society of Friends, a belief she also imbibed and adhered to until her marriage, in Dublin, April 17, 1800, with a minister of the Presbyterian Church, the Rev. James McMechan, of Newry, a gentleman of culture and standing. Such a step being in direct opposition to Quaker regulations, severed her connection with the sect.
Besides ministerial duties, accident had placed Mr. McMechan for a few weeks at the head of a large educational institution, during the temporary absence of the principal. This vocation accorded so well with his taste that he resolved to adopt it, and after his return to Newry he established such a school and conducted it successfully, achieving distinction as an educator. Through the persuasions of a brother, who had come to the new world, Mr. McMechan was induced to emigrate with his family in 1817, landing in Baltimore October 6th of that year. Coming West as soon a practicable in those days of difficult and hazardous traveling, they arrived in Hamilton after a wearisome journey of six weeks, frequently consuming an entire day in gaining three miles. The discomforts of early Western life to one entirely unaccustomed to it and the marked difference of climate, proved unfavorable to the husband and father, who survived the change but two years. Left a "stranger in a strange land," the sole guide of a young family in the "straight and narrow way," Mrs. McMechan devoted herself to her great charge with a fidelity and energy that were characteristic. The children were Eleanor A., afterwards married to Charles K. Smith; William; Jane, who became the wife of Jesse Corwin, and James, who lived with their mother at Hamilton, and John, a merchant of Eastport, Mississippi. Sara, the youngest, died during the passage to America.
Agreeable in conversation, with a retentive memory, Mrs. McMechan's reminiscences of her early life were many and interesting. When the rebellion of 1798 occurred in Ireland, she was eighteen years of age, and a participant in many of its perils. The relation of one ordeal to which herself and friends were subjected will bear repetition. A young sister being in failing health, a change of air and scene was advised. Mrs. Hudson, taking her daughters, Margery and the invalid, left her home and went to that of a relative, in another part of Ireland, Mr. Ephraim Boake, of Boakefield, near Ballitore, a wealthy Quaker, who lived up to the principles of the sect to which he belonged, and took no part in the tumult that was agitating Ireland. He permitted the king's troops, during marches, to quarter on his estate of Boakefield, and this, with his difference in religious views, was a ground sufficient to render him most obnoxious to the insurgents. Shortly after the ladies arrived at what they hoped would prove a haven of rest, the house was surrounded by an armed force of masked men, who peremptorily demanded admittance, which was refused as decidedly. They succeeded, however, in effecting an opening and immediately commenced firing into the hall and stairway. Not less than sixty shots went tearing through this beautiful home, the inmates barely escaping with their lives. The subject of this sketch was forced to make her exit down the fated stairway, which she did almost miraculously only a few moments before it was entirely demolished.
On another occasion, when the strife was carried into her own home, the sister already mentioned, a zealous young Protestant, was an object of dislike and vengeance, one of the gang singling her out for a murderous assault. Mrs. McMechan's mother was a woman of great nerve and self-possession, and seeing her daughter's peril, seized the nearest available weapon and dealt the invader a blow which rendered him helpless and gave freedom to his intended victim, a circumstance of which she was not slow to take advantage. She ran up the stairs and into the nearest apartment, followed quickly by another rebel, who finding the window open and the room apparently unoccupied, abandoned the idea of killing Miss Hudson, thinking she had already lost her life by a suicidal leap. Driven almost to madness, by an extremity so appalling, the young girl had speedily found a hiding-place on the framework at the top of a bed, such as were in use in those days, a feat she never have accomplished with her mind in its tranquil state, and was resting securely on this novel elevation when her assailant entered. This lady, after her marriage, lived in America, and was the mother of the late Dr. John McMechan, who practiced medicine for many years in Butler County. More than sixty years after these events, Mrs. McMechan was doomed to witness the horrors of another rebellion, being over eighty years old when the civil war in her adopted country took place.
Shortly after the family located in Hamilton Mrs. McMechan became a member of the Associate Reformed Church, of which the Rev. David MacDill was pastor, and was throughout her life a consistent Christian, enduring with fortitude and patience the feebleness incident to age, and waiting uncomplainingly and with entire submission for the divine summons. Her life ended peacefully, in Hamilton, the sixth day of January, 1869 in the eight-ninth year of her age.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.