BIO: James McCROSSIN, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 618 & 619. _____________________________________________________________ JAMES McCROSSIN, owner and proprietor of the Madera Inn, at Madera, Pa., has had considerable experience in hotel keeping and is a very popular host with the traveling public. He was born April 4, 1855, in Bradford county, Pa., and is a son of James and Mary (Donnely) McCrossin. James McCrossin was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and his wife in the city of New York. They were married in Bradford county, where both are buried. They had the following children: Mary, who is deceased, was the wife of Austin Quinlan; Thomas, who is deceased; John; James; Margaret, who is the wife of Daniel Fink; Edward Gilbert; Sarah, who is the wife of Michael Cox; George; William; and Nellie, who is the widow of Edward Moore. Both parents were members of the Catholic church. The father was a farmer. James McCrossin attended school until he was fifteen years of age and later worked in a saw mill. After that he spent several years at lumbering and for five more years worked in the tannery at Osceola, subsequently becoming a contractor in the woods, in 1884, and continuing until 1890, when he went into the hotel business, operating a public house at Madera for fourteen months. For the following five years he was proprietor of the American House at Houtzdale, afterward, for one year, of the St. Charles Hotel at Clearfield, and three months he directed the affairs of the Woodland Hotel. Mr. McCrossin resumed lumbering and spent two years in the industry in Cambria county, and then again became a hotel man, renting his present property at first and then buying. He demolished the old building and erected a new one which is modern in every equipment and is ornamented with tile blocks, which are very attractive. On July 3, 1874, Mr. McCrossin was married to Miss Mary Wilkison, a daughter of John H. Wilkison. They have had seven children, namely: Margaret, who is deceased, was the wife of Haskell Read; Rosie, who is deceased; Edward; John, who is proprietor of the Hotel Ben Venue, at Irvona, Pa.; and Fred, Thomas and Frances. Mr. McCrossin and family are members of the Catholic church. In politics he is a Democrat. He belongs to the order of Elks and the L. O. O. M. at Madera.