THE CREAGER HISTORY
by
Irene Creager Lawson

pp. 48-53

  

Emanuel Creager, third born to Christian and Mary Creager, was born in Frederick County, Maryland on July 1, 1811. He was baptized at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Woodsboro, Maryland, with Jacob Rike as sponsor (date not given). His parents made the long trip to Ohio with Emanuel as a very small baby. Emanuel, along with his three brothers, Michael, John C., and Henry and his only sister, Charlotte, grew up on the farm in the �Creager Neighborhood� about six miles from Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio. He attended David�s Church and in all probability helped to build the first two story log church. In Minute Book #1, 15 Sept. 1826 � 27 Sept. 1874, of David�s Reformed Church is a list of donations for the first church. Among the names is �Emanuel Creager donated $1.00.�

In 1821, Emanuel�s parents sold fifty-two acres of land to Jacob and Sarah Swadener and through them he met his future wife, Mary Jane Swadener. Emanuel�s father died April 8, 1836�the year before Emanuel and Mary Jane were married. They were married August 31, 1837. An account of Christian�s public estate sale lists Emanuel as buying more than forty of the farming and household items.

Mary Jane�s parents, Henry and Elenor (Suman) Swadener, were both born in Frederick County, Maryland. Henry was born November 26, 1791 and Elenor on July 11, 1798. They had nine children of which Mary Jane was their firstborn. Their other children�s names and birth dates (taken from the Swadener Family Bible) were: Daniel, born July 22, 1820; Samuel, born October 23, 1821; Sarah Ann, born September 4, 1823; Elizabeth, born February 21, 1825; Clarinda, born June 7, 1827; Levina, born April 5, 1829; Charlotte, born November 15,1832; and Henry, born June 23, 1835. Mary Jane�s father, Henry, died December 3, 1860 in Montgomery County, Ohio and her mother, Elenor, died on September 18, 1868 in Montgomery County, Ohio. Henry Swadener�s Estate Packet #3205 can be found in the Probate Court of Montgomery County, Ohio. It was probated January 3, 1861 by Henry Routzong, Uriah Shank, and Samuel Swadener. The widow took the family Bible, one bureau, one bedstead and bedding and $200. No heirs were listed. (The old Swadener Family Bible is in the possession of Della Caden, who lives in Florida. Information from the Bible was furnished by Leona Keplinger Unger of West Alexandria, Ohio.) Elenor�s parents, Mary Jane�s maternal grandparents, were Jacob and Mary Suman. They were buried in the Creager Cemetery (markers now in David�s Cemetery). Jacob Suman was born February 7, 1826 and died in 1877 and Mary Suman was born in 1826.

Emanuel and Mary Jane Creager, along with several of the Swadener family, became members of the David�s Reformed Church on May 19, 1844.

The 1840 census lists Emanuel and Mary Jane living in Washington Township, Montgomery County, Ohio with two children. Emanuel and Mary Jane then purchased eighty-one acres of land in Adams Township of Darke County, Ohio. The 1850 census lists Emanuel and Mary Jane and seven children living on their Darke County farm. Other Creagers living in that area at the time were his brother Michael and two cousins, Thomas Creager and Solomon Creager.

The Atlas of Darke County � 1857 shows the "E. Cregar" farm just north of New Harrison, Ohio, between Greenville and Bradford.

By the 1860 census, it lists them with eleven children from 22 to 2 years of age on their Darke County farm in Adams Township.

Emanuel and Mary Jane left Darke County in the late 1860�s after the death of their two teen-age children. They were reinstated in David�s Church May 15, 1867. They were dismissed by letter to Slifer�s Reformed Church (now a Presbyterian Church) near Farmersville, Ohio, along with their two daughters, Elizabeth and Rosetta. They were members until Mary Jane�s death in 1876. After Mary Jane�s death, Emanuel broke up his home and went to live with his children. In the 1870 census, he was living in Miami Township in Montgomery County, Ohio. In the Preble County, Ohio Directory for 1875, West Alexandria, were the names listed of Emanuel Creager and his son Charles Creager. In the 1880 census, Emanuel and a son, Wesley, and daughter, Elizabeth, were living with his son Charles and his wife, Anna, and their two daughters, Della and Bertha, at their home � mile north of West Alexandria.

Charles died on February 16, 1888 and his public sale was March 13, 1888. Emanuel then went to live in Liberty Ohio, where he died on January 14, 1891. Emanuel, Mary Jane and their two teenage children are buried under a huge tree in David�s Cemetery along side Mary Jane�s parents, Henry and Elenor Swadener.