My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH McCUTCHEON, painter, Verona, was born in Burrell township, Westmoreland county, July 11, 1847, and is the son of John Elder and Elizabeth (Anderson) McCutcheon, of the same county. His grandfather, Alexander McCutcheon, was also born in that county, and was an elder in Poke Run Presbyterian Church. James, the father, and Samuel, grandfather of Alexander, were born in Franklin county, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. James was a justice of the peace, and a Free mason. He was a distiller, and purchased a large tract of land near McCutcheon’s mills, which is now in the possession of his descendants. For one tract of two hundred acres he paid three barrels of whisky, which were packed to east of the mountains on horseback. At one time he was driven by an Indian raid to seek refuge in the blockhouse at Murrysville, a distance of seven miles, and with the aid of his wife carried a wounded woman; the small children were placed on a featherbed on a horse, and Alexander, then seven years old, walked. Elder McCutcheon was for a time almost the only whig in his locality, and was almost ostracised for sentiments that afterward were adopted by a majority in the county. He was killed by a runaway team in 1856, at the age of thirty-seven. His widow died in 1872, in her fifty-second year. Mr. McCutcheon was brought up a Presbyterian, and his wife a Covenanter, and they both finally joined the U. P. Church. Joseph remained on the home farm until sixteen years of age, when he went to Pittsburgh and learned the painter’s trade, eventually engaging in business there. The panic of 1873 took away his possessions, and he returned to his native county. In 1880 he established a paint and wall-paper store at Verona, and has built up a flourishing business. He is a republican; a member of the Jr. O. U. A. M. and Heptasophs. In 1867 he married Mary Ewing, who was born in Pittsburgh, daughter of James and Mary (Eiler) Ewing, of Irish and German descent. James Ewing and his father were born near Greensburg. Mr. McCutcheon’s family now includes ten children, as follows: Carrie B., James Ewing, William Elder, May Elizabeth, Jennie Josephine, Mary Edna and Joseph Pollock (twins), Paul Anderson, George Bruce and Lois Minerva.