Joseph McCreery

McCreery, Joseph. (Brutus, New York, April 8, 1814--December 2, Elgin, Illinois). His father was a Methodist preacher. He was married to Sidney Barnes.

He graduated from the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and taught school for several years. He was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1849 and served in that church from 1847-1858. He joined the Illinois Conference of the newly organized Free Methodist Church in 1865, and was appointed to the Marengo circuit. He left the active ministry in 1869. He was a writer, poet, and composer. For a while he, with a brother, edited a political paper in New York City, named The Plebian. His "A Lament for Ichabod Crane" appeared in the first volume of the New York Tribune. Two of his hymns appeared in editions of the Free Methodist hymnals. "A Wondrous Love Divine" (1910); "I Storm the Gate of Strife" (1910, 1951).

--Arlene Clyde, DNAH Archives