McCann - Harrison

David Mathew McCann was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1813 (1860). He graduated from an Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and studied medicine in Zanesville, Ohio, with the doctors, Belmore and Brown. Upon completion of his studies, he opened an office in Martinsburg, Knox County, Ohio.

In 1839, David M. McCann married Amy Bell in Martinsburg. Amy Bell (1821-1894) was the daughter of Benjamin Bell (1782-1851) and Elizabeth McClelland Bell (1784-1866). He practiced medicine there until 1852 when they moved to Napoleon, Ohio, with their three children: Cary Emmet (1841-1872), Mary Elicabeth (18431925), and Elmos Wheaton (18491885).

Besides practicing medicine, David McCann had varied interests. As a devout member of the Disciples Church, he sometimes preached and performed ministerial duties with their belief in immersion for baptism.

He was also interested in his town and county and was elected Clerk of Common Pleas and District Courts of Henry County, a position he held at his death in 1860. These two avocations were a welcome relief from long hours on horseback, or bundled into acarriage with warm bricks in cold winter. Dr. Reynoids and Dr. McHenry were practicing here at the same time. Being active in several occupations, David McCann's funeral was the largest ever witnessed in Napoleon at the time.

Daughter, Mary Elizabeth - age 13, began a diary in 1857 from which we learn the customs and events of the era. There was no bridge over the river, only private boats and their use determined by the weather and currents of the day. A few years later a commercial ferry charged 15 cents for horse, buggy, and driver. Mud, bumps, and wash-outs, made frequent trips difficult, and Mary stayed at home and kept house while her mother visited a nearby farm to can and make peach butter for the winter.

However the Railroad did run through Napoleon from Ft. Wayne to Toledo and was a great help to their social life. They attended political rallies and Fourth of July Celebrations in the two cities. Also, they would go on the tracks in a hand-car in the country to pick spring flowers, wild strawberries, and blueberries.

The second county court house had been built with the court room and offices on the second floor. On the first floor, a Miss Nellie Carey had her piano, and gave music lessons. Each pupil also had to practice there about two hours daily. It must have been disconcerting to the solemnity of the Courts to hear endless little scales and tunes coming from below. A Mrs. Durbin owned the only other piano in town.

There was a grade school but the higher grades were on an individual basis. A Mr. Adams was the teacher and Mary "recited" to him individually from books in geology, philosophy, chemistry, composition and when one more pupil was there, in mathematics. The school ran through summer.

The social life centered around the church, the park along the river, boat rides, and gatherings in the homes. Horseback riding was the most popular sport and a ring had been staked out north of town for the young people to train their horses in various gaits. It was the beginning of the Fair. Mary trained her horse, "Dolly," but when the competition day arrived, wisely chose to show a horse from the "livery" and won first prize - a gold pen.

In the fall of 1857, Mary was sent to Mt. Vernon Female Seminary, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, a very strict Disciples School. She continued with music, studied hard and was very homesick and because of the expense and long trip did not go home for vacations.

In the summer of 1857, a young Doctor Eugene B. Harrison had come from Neward, Ohio area to study and practice with Dr. McCann. Two years later on November 28, 1859, he and Mary Elizabeth were married by the Reverend Abner Lemert.

Submitted by the Family