Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-11-06
For the SPECTATOR
Mrs. Margaret Christian McCue.

Mrs. Margaret Christian McCue, the
surviving widow of James A. McCue,
Esq, departed this life at quarter past
seven in the evening of Friday, the 18th
of October, 1877, at her old home at the
head of Messy Creek, the residence of
her son, COL John Marshall McCue,
near Mt. Solon in the northern part Of
this county, and was buried on the fol-
lowing Sabbath in the family grave
yard near by.
Mrs. McCue was born to Capt. James
and Jane Trimble, on Clear creek, in
Woodford county, Kentucky, some 12
miles to the southwest of Lexington, on
the 9th of November, 1880 SO she would
have reached the rare old age of 81 if
she had fingered to the 9th of the COM
ing November.
At the time of her decease she was
the oldest member of Messy Greek Pres
byterian church, having joined it about
the year 1911, when Rev. A. B. David.
son was its pastor, not long after her
removal to its bound. The Messy Creek
congregation met in body at the Meth
odist church in Mt Solon, at the usual
hour for divine service at Messy Creek
church, to attend her funeral, where the
Rev., J. w. Rosebro, the minister of
Messy Greek, preached an impressive
discourse from the 10Th verse of the 116th
Psalm Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints." The
large church was filled to. .overfowing
and many were unable to gain admis-
sion; so large was the gathering from
,near. and far to do honor to the eminent
Christian virtues of this venerable
"Mother in Israel y the whole of. whose
long life had, beyond question, been
spent in doing good, and of whom it
can be said-as it can truthfully be said
of but very few-that. having occupied
one of the wider spheres of common
life, she had the unqualified respect of
all that ever knew her, and lived and
died without an enemy. ..-.,, I,
Mrs. McCue was one of the links
binding the present generation to that
which achieved our independence as a
nation, laid deep the foundations of
the Republic and planted new Com
monwealths in the wilderness. When
she was born the treaty of peace
with Great Britain had been signed
scarcely seven years, the Constitution
of the United States had been adopted
not yet filled year and q half of his
presidential term. The last of the orig
inal thirteen States, Rhode Island, was
that very year admitted to the Union,
and Virginia, in the 18th year of her in
dependent existence, with her territory
extending from the Atlantic to the Mis-
sissippi and embracing what is now
eight of the most Important of the
States, was. "blazing' bridle.ways to
and peopling her vast western posses
slons, and at the same Tina offering
them all without price, to the common
Union. 1t is not out of place either,
for the subject of our brief memoir was
to her dying day imbued with the spir-
it of the times in which she was born
and reared, to say that in that very year.
1870, Virginia had paid nearly ali Of her
Revolutionary obligations, and saThe
General Assembly of the Common.
wealth" addressed solemn resolution
'to the United States in Congress assem-
bled, !" insisting th|t each of the States
should pay its own Indebtedness, and
protesting that "policy, justice and the
principles of public credit abhor dis
criminations between fair creditors,n
Margaret Christian Trimhle was the
fourth child of Capt. James Trimble
and Jane Allen, natives of Augusta
county and the immediate descendants
of the hardy, daring and conscientious
Scotch Irish, who for liberty of person
and conscience had deserted the fat
limestone plains of the Lowlands of
Scotland and the equally rich limestone g
hills and valley of Ulster in Ireland.
and found that liberty and fairer and
richer land in the then prairie-like lime
stone valley of Virginia. ,E
Capt. James Trimble, her father, was
born soon after the settlement Of Au-
gusta, and lived with his father on Mid
die river, not far from, if not in, the
old stone house near the mouth of Buff
falo branch, less than two miles south
of ChurchvilIe. There the Indians at
tackled and killed his father and took
his sister q prisoner, but his grand
mother managed to escape by hiding
under the rocks that overhung the river.
James, then lad of 12 or IA, and ne
gro boy were blowing at the time at a
little distance from the house, and hear
ing the firing they attempted to escape,
but were captured. The Indians took
these young people, and others that they
had taken In their raid, to the portR-
west, by way Of l'ygart,s valley, now
in Randolph county. but C6l. George
Moffett pursued with a party he % had
collected. and there overlook them and
rescued all the prisoners. Jaupes vas
afterwards in the battle 81 Point Pleas.
ant in 1z74. Near the close Of the Rev
Sutton, in which he had served as a
Soldier, he married Jane, the eldest