-�- AUTOBIOGRAPHY -�-

MORE ABOUT M.I. McCREIGHT

The famous Buffalo Bill was in DuBois with his Wild West Show. Major McCreight told him his problem.[Whether to return to the West or marry his girlfriend now.] When Buffalo Bill took a look at Alice, he advised an immediate wedding. "It could not be otherwise," Buffalo Bill said.

And what does Major I. McCreight have to say today about his wedding day and his wedded life?

"On July 20 this year will show that we have lived together seventy years--and this is unusual if not rare. As she approaches ninety she is the housekeeper and boss as she always has been. For years, we seldom had more than a day or two in a week at home. When a trip was due, it was her right to join--and she always did---generally to have one or more of the children as extra luggage. To the south, to the Pacific, to Canada, to France and Austria-- always she went along."

Along about 1940 Major I. was slowly retiring--at 75. He was retiring from active work, but not from active thinking about it.

About that time they had disposed of all their city property and were permanently housed at the Wigwam. No attempt was made to go back to farming the fine ground. It grew into wild grasses and weeds. But their automobile was in good trim, so they did considerable driving around the estate and into the country.

And what about this Tchanta Tanka and Squaw?

CEREMONY

It was June 1908 that Buffalo Bill was in town with his Wild West Show. At noon one day he, along with Chief Iron Tail, arrived at the McCreight residence. Monroe McCanles was a house guest and he was busy answering questions put to him by Cody about his father Dave McCanles who was shot by Wild Bill Hickok.

The evening of that day the two noted characters, along with Iron Tail, were served dinner at the Long Ave, home. Before adjourning the afternoon performance, Col. Cody spirited the youthful bank president to his private tent where four big chiefs had gathered, with the whole 150 tribal members surrounding them, all prepared to do the great honor of making Major I. a chief of the tribe. His bride, Alice, was present as witness to the ceremony. She with Cody and Bill Hines were the only whites there, as such witnesses.

The ceremony was conducted by Chief Iron Tail. It began with a speech in Sioux dialect. A war bonnet was placed on his head, and moccasins on his feet. A teepee was then presented to him for he and his squaw to live in. Tomtoms were beaten and tribal songs put up vigorously. All ended with hearty handshakes.

The story of M.I.McCreight and his wife is a great one. It is a story of a couple that have lived nearly 100 years of DuBois history.

As they prepare to mark their 70th wedding anniversary tomorrow---M.I.McCreight had this to say today:
"Have been getting old for several years---a day at a time."

Portrait of Alice McCreight and dog

Alice McCreight, seated on the veranda of the Wigwam

MAJOR I. McCREIGHT, 94, LOCAL PIONEER, DIES

From DuBois Courier-Express,Oct. 13, 1958

"Our First Citizen"

Began Conservation Program In Nation

straightpine Major I. McCreight, banker, conservationist, collector of Indian lore, friend of "Buffalo Bill Cody and pioneer resident of DuBois, died at his home in the "Wigwam", high on a hill just south of the city, at 1:30 this morning in his ninety-fourth year. He had been ill for the better part of a year, and last spring spent several months in the hospital. His passing was peaceful, death coming quietly in his sleep.

The son of John and Elizabeth (Uncapher) McCreight, he was born in Jefferson County on April 22, 1865. There he received his early schooling. He spent his entire adult life in DuBois, with the exception of the three years in the Dakota territory during the '80's,' at which time he became interested in the Indian lore and history, which provided him with his avocation and interest throughout the remainder of his life. He came to DuBois when it was little more than a rough lumbering camp, seeing it develop through the years into the third class city it is today. He participated in and helped it in its growth. He was responsible for the conservation policy of the United States.

M.I.McCreight was born on the very day of the funeral of Abraham Lincoln in the State House in Philadelphia. The country had been torn by strife and war, and the great days of reconstruction were still ahead. The first memory of the times came to Mr. McCreight five years later, trudging through the snow to the little country school house, where his first education began. At the time the country was undeveloped and as he stated in an history written a few years ago, "The only way we get money for taxes was to buy sugar and coffee for the older ones--the personal drink was milk or water. Tools for making timber comprised the gin, cross cut saw, broad axe and double bit, wedges, cant-hook and maul. Hand spikes were cut at the job. When the big pines were felled, the first thing was to climb on top, and cut into the trunk for juggles--when this was split off, the trunk was turned and the gin came into operation. When the stick was squared, it was hauled to the creek by oxen, and rafted to the mill in Pittsburgh."

The days of his youth were ones of many hardships. There was little money to be had, and everything the family had was hand and family produced. Food came from the gardens and from the forest. But there was lots of game, and no hunting laws, so the family lived well, even though the meat was from the forest, and the other food came elsewhere than from tin cans.

At the age of 16, the local school had been completed, and M.I.McCreight was sent to Eastman College in Poughkeepsie--requiring a long train ride through Philadelphia, New York and up the Hudson. Here he graduated in 1882, then returned to DuBois--a lumber town of rough structure--a new town just being developed through the industry of John DuBois and John Rumbarger. The first job offered he took--a clerk at the Fuller store, paying the salary of $20 per month. A bit extra was made by clerking in the evening at the only bank of the little town. This work continued for three years.

But in 1885 M.I.McCreight entered upon an adventure which was to bear influence throughout his life. For he was bitten by the bug of wanderlust, and in that year he started for the northern Dakota territory and there came into contact with the Indian tribes and ways of the West, which taught him the love of nature, the ways of the Red Man, and motivated many of the future developments of character and life. He was caught in a blizzard during the following winter, which took 24 lives. He was caught in an ice-gap, with his pony, at 32 degrees below zero. He came into contact with the 7th cavalry, of Custer fame, and bought and shipped buffalo bones, fish and frozen carcasses of deer to the market in St. Paul. He became treasurer for the James J. Hill Fat Stock Show, and helped shovel the first dirt for the building of the Great Northern Railroad. He became acquainted with Chief Waneta of the Indian tribe, and began the collection of Indian trophies for which he has become nationally famous. When he returned home two years later, he brought back with him many trophies of his experiences, and many memories which served him throughout the balance of his life in the preparation of the several books he subsequently wrote, and the talks given on the Indian throughout the East. He became famous for the adventures, and under the Theodore Roosevelt administration, was considered as a nominee for Indian Commissioner.

But at the age of 21 he returned to DuBois. At that time he became director and assistant cashier of the Deposit National Bank, and became the banker which was to be his vocation for the next fifty years.

At his wedding, on July 20, 1885, he had as a guest Buffalo Bill Cody, along with many members of his show, since the Wild West was playing in DuBois on that day.

M.I.McCreight saw the great fire which destroyed the major part of DuBois on June 18, 1888, and was one of the men who subsequently saw it rise again from the ashes. The bank was destroyed, along with other businesses, and he saw the bank reopen in the Opera House, which was one of the few buildings in the business district left standing. The bank was finally reopened in its own quarters later that year, and Mr. McCreight was engaged in coal and lumbering operations, and helped to open up this area for both of these basic industries. He helped develop and open up the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, later taken over by the Baltimore and Ohio. He brought the operations of the Erie Railroad into this region.

When Buffalo Bill returned to DuBois with his show in 1908, he was a house guest of Mr. McCreight. and it was during this visit that four big chiefs with the Cody show, in front of the 150 tribal members present, made M.I.McCreight a Chief of the Tribe. The ceremony, in Sioux dialect, was conducted by Chief Iron Tail, and Mr. McCreight was presented with a war bonnet, moccasins and a tepee.

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the life of M.I.McCreight, however, was his work, which resulted in the saving of the virgin timber in the "Cook Forest", its acquisition by the public and the private contributions, and the continued maintenance of it as the only piece of standing virgin timber. The work on its acquisition was started in 1910, ran through the next 17 years, cost Mr. McCreight a personal fortune of $10,000, and was finally brought to fruition during the administration of Governor Fisher. In this effort he had to lead the drive to raise $200,000 from the public, as well as to secure the passage of the necessary legislation in Harrisburg. The Park will stand forever as a monument to his memory.

The work of M.I.McCreight locally will keep his name in the forefront as one of the pioneers who had such an important part in the development of the city. In addition to his work here, he was interested in national conservation, and it was Mr. McCreight who wrote the Conservation Policy for Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. In addition he organized the State Conservation Society. He handled, in his time, two of the largest real estate deals ever consummated in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

During the First World War he was clerk of the local draft board. He served twenty years as school director, twelve of them as president of the board. He built the street railway system in DuBois, and the electric plant, later selling out to the Pennsylvania Electric Company. He built and owned at one time the Hotel DuBois. He secured the Car Shops for DuBois when the B.R. & P. railroad came to town. He established the DuBois Brewing Company, one of the largest and richest breweries in the State today. For the town, he bought the DuBois Municipal Water Works. He was the principal promoter for the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Highway, Rte. 219, from Bradford to Indiana. He was the organizer and first president of the DuBois Kiwanis Club.

He married Alice B. Humphrey on July 20, 1887, and this summer the couple observed their seventy-first wedding anniversary. For almost three quarters of a century, Mrs. McCreight had been at his side, in all his travels which took him to all corners of the globe.

In addition to his wife who survives him after seventy-one years together, he leaves the following children: Donald of Crafton; Jack of Oakmont; Jim of Jacksonville, Fla.; M.I. Jr. of New Kensington; Mrs. Catharine Stumpf of Zelienople; and Mrs. Martha Swisher of DuBois.

At press time funeral arrangements had not been completed, although interment will be made in Morningside Cemetery.

Mr. McCreight was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, one of the founders of the DuBois Country Club, and a member of many fraternal and social organizations of the city.

EDITORIAL-DuBois Courier-Express-Wednesday October 15, 1958

MAJOR I. McCREIGHT

The death of Major I. McCreight marks the passing of another of the pioneer residents of DuBois, a man who gave much of himself during his younger days toward the development of this community. His death, early Monday morning at the age of 93, in his home "The Wigwam" just south of this city, severed one of the few remaining links with not only the early history of DuBois, but with the development of the western part of our nation as well.

Mr. McCreight, or "Major," as he was generally known, spent a portion of his youth in the west where he was associated with many Indian tribes, and from whom he gained his Indian name of "Tchanta Tanka." He continued that close association with many of the Indian chiefs during his mature years, and had the opportunity to entertain a number of these legendary figures in his home. "The Wigwam" has been a treasure house of relics for many years, and thousands of school children, scouts and others interested in Indian lore have had the opportunity of viewing the collection during the period of his residence there.

Mr. McCreight had a remarkable memory concerning the early days of his youth and of the several years he spent in the west as a buyer of buffalo bones, for which there was an extensive market in the east. These days and others in the closing years of the last century were the source of many interesting stories, related in a number of instances to this writer, and with other friends with whom he came into contact during his long life span.

Mr. McCreight was active in the business life and early development of the city, as a banker and industrialist, and contributed much toward the advancement of the city during its formative years.

He was particularly interested in the conservation of the remaining natural forests of the state, and was one of the primary movers in the plan to save Cook's forest as a virgin tract of timber.

In his later years Mr. McCreight wrote interestingly of many of his earlier experiences in the west, and the Courier-Express was fortunate to have a number of his manuscripts turned over to its editor for publication.

The writer has in his possession three of the interesting and historical pamphlets which he published, entitled "Buffalo Bone Days," "The Wigwam--Puffs From The Peacepipe," and "Go West Young Man," which he has read several times and which provide a great deal of historical background.

Mr. McCreight believed that many injustices had been done to the Indian tribes in the late years of the nineteenth century, and in dedicating his book "The Wigwam" he speaks as follows: "Because we came to escape injustices, met by the original proprietors with a handshake, furnished food and shelter to save us from starvation; because we responded to these benefactions, not as Christians would, but by brutal and unprecedented savagery; because we carried on a relentless campaign of extermination of them and all their rights and properties; because we carried on this ruthless policy for many years---to the final extermination of the race, except a tiny remnant still held imprisoned in our "reservations;" because more than sixty years ago the writer lived and dealt with them during the period of their greatest suffering, and saw at first hand the results of century-old fighting to take from the original owners of the land the whole territory comprising the United States--and to sketch lightly the personality of some of the men who fought bravely to defend against the unrighteous invasion of their homelands and the lives of their families--it is for this reason that this book is written"

The several other books an manuscripts which he wrote are equally interesting.

Mr. McCreight was a colorful and personable figure until he was stricken with his final illness about one year ago, and enjoyed meetings with his friends and having them in his home. He was a keen student of world affairs, and although he enjoyed talking of his early experiences, he maintained a close interest in all current activities, not only in his home community but in national and world affairs as well.

It is but seldom in the history and life of a community that such a man as Mr. McCreight has lived, a man possessing the forcefulness, the initiative and the drive such as energized his character. He may have been wrong on occasions, as undoubtedly he was, but he was a man who was a leader, and was not content unless he was endeavoring to lead the way along paths which he believed to be in the right direction.

The Courier-Express pays its tribute to a friend of many years standing, and it is with deep regrets that his passing is finally recorded in this newspaper.


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