Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-15
PREACHER In PRISON.
Midnight Arrest of a New York Con-
gregationalist Minister,
CHARGED WITH FALSE PRETENSE.
His Mothers Deathbed Bequest Lands Him
in Central Staten.
BETRAYED DBY ABRoFHER's STATEMENT

False pretense was the serious charge on
which Rev. r. H. McCready, Congrega-
tional minister from New York, was ar
rested last night shortly after II o'clock.
Magistrate Gripp issued the warrant.
The prisoner was placed In
Central station. The information had
been entered by E. E. Duff, teller of the
Peoples National Bank, of this city, and
as the police officials would not allow the
prisoner to be interviewed, and as Magis-
trate Gripp could not be found, the facts
obtained in regard to the case were of a
meager description.
1t was learned, however, that the mother
of the prisoner, Mrs. Margaret Armstrong,
had been buried yesterday morning from
the home of her niece, Mrs. Archibald
Ritchie, at No. 210 Washington avenue.
Allegheny. Rev. Mr.. McCresdy had come
from New York to attend the funeral, and
while here had attended to some business
relating to her estate in Woods Run. This
business, as described by him to an officer at
the station, and which resulted, he claims,
in his arrest, was as follows:
DEATHBED BEQUEsT.
Mr.. McCready has sister, Anna Nc
Cready, who has been an inmate of the
Danville Insane Asylum, of Danville, Pa.
since August 4, 1888, and he has been try
ing to pay for her keeping there. He has
also brother, 1. W. McCready, who resides
at Mansfield, Pa. When Mrs. Armstrong
condition became serious, her son, the pris-
oner, was notified and came on from New
York at once, and knowing she was tine pos
SCISSOR of sum of money which she desired
to go for her daughters benefit, he induced
her to give him an order on the Peoples
Savings Bank, where it was deposited, for
the amount.
He did not present the order until yester-
day afternoon after the funeral. When the
order was presented, Mr.. Duff, the teller at
the bank, remarked that if Mrs. Armstrong
was alive the order was all right, but if not
it was not legal paper and the bank could
not honor it.
The case. was of such urgent nature that
on his sisters account Mr.. McCreadY was
desirous of getting the amount named in the
order, viz: S319, that he desired, as he says,
to stretch his conscience a little and say
nothing. His silence was accepted as a
statement and the money was handed over
to him.
BETRAYED BY HIS BROTHER.
Soon afterward, he says, his brother, I.
W. McCready, who had just returned from
Atlantic City, called at the bank after the
money, and when he learned that it had
been taken out told of his mothers decease.
Acting under the law Mr.. Duff, the bank
teller, then entered suit for false pretenses,
and Mr.. McCready's arrest followed.
MIR. McCready saws he is the repularly
appointed guardian or committee ior his
sister Anna, and he feels that he has COM
mitted no sin in attempting to secure for
her the money that she was entitled to and
which her mother desired to go to her. He
SAYS he was aware that there might be dis
pute over the matter, but while he knew his
sister would ultimately get the money, the
administrators OF his mothers estate would
take year to settle it up, and his sister
would be kept out of the money that long
when she urgently needed it.