My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM M. GRACE, retired, 194 Steuben street, Thirty-sixth ward, Pittsburgh, is a son of Nimrod B. and Mary A. (McCulley) Grace, born in 1819, in Pittsburgh, Pa. His grandfather, John Grace, came from Maryland to this county about the year 1800, and settled at Squirrel Hill. His children were as follows: Nimrod B., born Feb. 9, 1789; William, born Jan. 7, 1791; John, born July 12, 1793; Nancy, born Oct. 5, 1795; Bennett, born Nov. 17, 1797; Elizabeth, born April 14, 1800; Priscilla, born July 6, 1802; Burchfield, born Dec. 1, 1804; Aquilla, born Aug. 18, 1807, and Milcah, born Oct. 8, 1809, all deceased except Elizabeth, who now resides in Mercer county, Pa. Nimrod B. Grace and Mary A. McCulley were married Nov. 11, 1813, and were blessed with following named children: Rebecca, John B., Priscilla B., William M., Mary A., Ellen B., Martha Z., James B., George E., Catherine M., Nelson K., Charles W. and Samuel H. The father died Nov. 1, 1851, and the mother July 7, 1877. He served in the war of 1812 under Gen. Harrison; was wounded, and drew a pension from 1836 until his decease. William M. Grace has been twice married; first, Nov. 3, 1853, to Olivia Daft, who bore him one child, which died in infancy; this wife died Nov. 26, 1854, and Mr. Grace next married, March 22, 1859, Mrs. Mary E. Lorenz, who also bore him one child, Mary Frances, who died at the age of fifteen months.

Mr. Grace learned glassblowing, which he followed seven years. In 1844 he took charge of the glass firm of William McCulley & Co., and from 1851 to 1860 was with the firm (Mc Culley) at the Sligo Glass-works. In the fall of 1860 he became a partner of B. L. Fahnestock and Robert C. Albree, in which he continued until 1872. In 1874 he went to St. Louis, built a glass-factory for the St. Louis French Window-Glass Co., and with them he remained one year, when, in consequence of ill health, he retired from business and returned to the old Lorenz homestead, in Chartiers township, which he had purchased in 1863. He served as school director and secretary of the school board, and is now justice of the peace. Mr. Grace’s father and grandmother McCulley came from Ireland to this country in 1800. They crossed the mountains in an ox-cart, and on the journey, one of the oxen dying, they put a cow in its place and came on. The grandmother was noted as a spinner of flax and maker of linen, and by her industry and economy saved money enough to purchase five hundred acres of land, at Jack’s run, called the Three Bullets, and they hold the patent.