Known as “Elizabeth”, Mary Elizabeth Huston was a twin, the middle child of seven, in a family that immigrated from Ireland before the potato famine. The family was relatively poor, and only two of the seven children grew up to marry. She herself only had two children, a relatively small family for the time, but she had a comfortable life as the wife of a respected citizen of Tyrone.
She was born in 1851 in McConnellstown, a small town in the rolling countryside of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Her parents had moved there from Woodberry Township, Blair County, where her father James had worked as a weaver, possibly in the woolen mill in Williamsburg. In McConnellstown he made a living as a farmer, while raising his family. When Elizabeth was a teenager she went to work as a servant in the household of Charles Hamer, close to where her family lived. Another nearby family was that of John C. Long, a former blacksmith who turned to farming, and whose son David would grow up to marry Elizabeth. Before they were married, David went west to Kansas and Nebraska and used his carpentry skills to build bridges, while Elizabeth worked as a servant in the household of Charles Hatfield, a dry goods merchant in Alexandria who had two small daughters. In October 1882 David was back and he and Elizabeth were married in McConnellstown.
They soon moved to Tyrone, and David went into business for himself as a wagon maker. He built a house on South Lincoln Avenue, and they started their family with the birth of Mary Ella in September 1883, followed in 1887 by the birth of John Warren. David and Elizabeth later took in a niece, Catherine Huston, the daughter of Elizabeth’s sister Mattie Caldwell. Catherine became a foster daughter to them, and probably lived with them until her marriage.
Elizabeth was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Tyrone. She died in May 1923, suddenly of a heart ailment, leaving her husband David and the children to survive her. She was buried at Eastlawn Cemetery in Tyrone, where David would be buried next to her less than ten years later.
——————————————————
Mary Elizabeth Huston, born Oct. 20, 1851, Woodberry Township, Blair County, married David Long, October 26, 1882, died May 25, 1923, buried at Tyrone.
Children of David and Mary Elizabeth:
Mary Ella Long, born Sept. 12, 1883 in Tyrone, married Emerson F. Wade on May 26, 1908 at Alfarata, died Oct 13, 1925 at Pottstown, Chester County. Had five sons with Emerson Wade.
John Warren Long, born July 11, 1887, married Ada LaPorte on Oct 30, 1913 in Philadelphia, worked as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad, lived in Tyrone, died Aug 21, 1943. Had four sons with Ada LaPorte.
Catherine Elizabeth Caldwell (foster daughter), born May 18, 1900, in Wilmerding, Allegheny County, daughter of Samuel “Horace” and Mattie (Huston) Caldwell, married Hubert Woodring in 1919 in Cumberland, Maryland. Catherine apparently died young, between 1923 and 1932.
——————————————————-
References:
Recollections of Ada L. Long and Harry H. Long
Letter from John W. Long to Mary Ella Wade, June 26, 1923.
Family Bible of David Long.
Federal census records, 1870 to 1930.
Obituary of Mary Gray Huston, Tyrone Daily Herald, March 17, 1892.
Obituary of Elizabeth Huston Long, on Ancestry.
Obituary of David Long, on Ancestry.
Pennsylvania Department of Health death certificates.
Huntingdon County Marriages, Huntingdon County Historical Society