My Genealogy Hound

GREASON. The name Greason is spelled several different ways. The earliest form is Grayson, but in Cumberland county the later generations of the family spell it Greason.

Like a great many of Pennsylvania’s old and honored families, the Greasons are of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and settled in Cumberland county more than a hundred and twenty years ago. According to the records William Greason was in East Pennsboro township as early as 1782, and Robert Greason in Carlisle as early as 1789. They may have been in the county even earlier, but in the years named the assessors of their respective districts first enrolled them as taxpayers. They were intelligent, progressive citizens, and men of affairs. The two in all probability were brothers, although it does not with absolute certainty appear that they were. In October, 1801, Robert Greason was elected sheriff of Cumberland county and very satisfactorily served his full term. Sheriff Robert Greason died between the years 1808 and 1811, and there is no record at hand to indicate that he left any family. In December, 1808, there died at Ft. Wayne, then a military post on our western frontier, William Greason, an ensign in the United States army. This William Greason’s parents, it was said at the time, lived in Carlisle, and as Sheriff Robert Greason was the only person of that name then on the Carlisle tax list, this young man was, no doubt, his son.

William Greason, who settled in East Pennsboro, married Agnes Waugh, a member of a family then numerous and prominent in that part of Cumberland county. East Pennsboro township then included all of the territory on the north side of the county from the Stony Ridge to the Susquehanna river, and the particular locality ¦within its bounds in which Mr. Greason lived was on a stream that rises at the foot of the North Mountain, just east of the Stony Ridge, and flowing southward empties into the Conodoguinet creek, in what is now Silver Spring township. Sixty years ago this stream was known as Dawson’s Run, and later for many years it was known as
Breneizer’s Run. Here William Greason lived for a period of twenty years, and was engaged at farming and distilling. During part of that time he also had a gristmill, and later a fulling-mill, and, judging from the amount of property that was assessed in his name, he must have been an important business and social factor in that part of the county. He died about the year 1803, and the land and stills, and grist and fulling-mills, which had stood on the tax list in the name of William Greason, at the next assessment appeared in the name of James Greason, Esq.

James Greason, Esq., son of William and Agnes (Waugh) Greason, was born Nov. 25, 1776, but the place of his nativity is somewhat in doubt. One authority has it that he was born in Cumberland county, but it does not appear that his parents were in Cumberland county that early. What other children William and Agnes (Waugh)
Greason had cannot at this date be ascertained. James Greason was educated at Dickinson College, from which institution he graduated in 1795. After leaving college he studied law, and was admitted to the Cumberland county Bar. On Nov. 10, 1803, James Greason married Polly Greason, who formerly was Miss Mary Carothers, Rev. Dr. Davidson, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Carlisle, performing the ceremony. He began his married life on the property in Silver Spring which he inherited from his father, but only remained a few years. In April, 1805, he bought at sheriff’s sale a one-sixth interest in 330 acres of land lying in West Pennsboro township. About the year 1810 he removed to West Pennsboro, and from time to time added to his first purchase until he owned about 800 acres of land in one continuous tract. During his lifetime he erected buildings and otherwise improved the different farms included in this large tract, making of it a very valuable and beautiful estate. This land lies where now is located the village of Greason, which was founded by John Greason, one of James Greason’s sons.

James and Mary (Carothers) Greason had children as follows: William, Eliza, Thomas, Agnes W., Mary, Samuel, Robert, John C., James D. and Rebecca. William never married, and died in 1877, at the age of seventy-two. Eliza married Andrew Washmood. Thomas was married several times, had a large family, and about thirty-five years ago went to Kansas, where he died in 1873. Agnes W. married John Dunbar. Mary married Charles Weaver. Robert married Mary Ann Line. John C. married Margaret Monroe, removed to Missouri, and died there in 1874. James D. married Elmira J. Bitner and resided upon the family homestead in West Pennsboro until a few years before his death, which occurred in 1904; he left surviving him one son. Rebecca married Prof. F. M. L. Gillelen, and at this writing is the only living member of this large family; she resides at Los Angeles, California.

James Greason died on July 4, 1855, and in his will directed that his body be buried in the cemetery at the Silver Spring church. This wish probably arose from a desire to be buried near the remains of his parents, although it can not be definitely shown that they are buried there. His wife, Mary (Carothers) Greason, died Nov. 2, 1854, in her sixty-eighth year, and is buried in the Meeting House Springs graveyard.

Samuel Greason, the sixth child of James and Mary (Carothers) Greason, was born March 27, 1814, on the Greason homestead in West Pennsboro township. He attended the country district school until eighteen years of age and then worked upon the farm for his father. On Nov. 27, 1837, he married Mary Davidson, Rev. Joshua Williamson, pastor of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church, performing the ceremony. Mary Davidson was born Aug. 23, 1814, daughter of Alexander and Jane (Woodburn) Davidson, of West Pennsboro township; Jane Woodburn, her mother, was a daughter of John and Mary (Skiles) Woodburn. After his marriage Mr. Greason went to farming on one of his father’s farms, adjoining the Greason homestead farm on the east. This farm his father subsequently bequeathed to him, and he erected upon it a fine house, intending to make his home there throughout his lifetime.

Samuel and Mary (Davidson) Greason had children as follows: Mary Ellen, born May 14, 1840; Jane Amelia, July 22, 1843; William Davidson, Nov. 24, 1846; Frances Rebecca, June 24, 1849; Samuel Wing, Dec. 30, 1851; and Ida Cornelia, Aug. 12, 1858. All of these children were born on the farm upon which the father settled immediately after his marriage. In 1880 Mr. Greason concluded to try his fortune in the West and removed to Miami county, in the new State of Kansas. The strange western conditions proved unsatisfactory and the family never became reconciled to them. The eldest daughter, who had married and also settled in Kansas, died on Dec. 28, 1881. Then his wife took sick, dying May 28, 1882. Thus bereaved and saddened, Mr. Greason returned to his old home in Pennsylvania, where he spent his latter years in retirement. He died March 14, 1897, and his remains are interred in Ashland cemetery, at Carlisle.