Doris Warner Harper

By Marilyn K. Wempa

If you lived in Monroeville 224 years ago, you could have been captured by Indians! This is what Monroeville resident Doris Warner Harper, 75, discovered happened to one of her ancestors. While there are many branches to Dorie’s family tree, all twelve generations of her McElroy lineage lived in the Monroeville-Murrysville area, beginning with Abigail “Indian Abby” Byram born in 1765.

Abby Byram was 14 on April 7, 1779, when she and her father were captured by Indians on their Murrysville farm. Descendants of one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact, John Alden, who married Priscilla Mullins, they traveled by foot with little food to Canada, where the Indians received a reward for them from the Seneca Indians of the Iroquois Nation.

Two years later Abby and her father became part of a prisoner exchange by the Loyalists, or Tories, (those loyal to Britain during the Revolutionary War era) near Niagara, New York. Unfortunately, the Loyalists treated them worse than the Indians! Through unusual circumstances, a year later (1781) they arrived home to be welcomed by their surprised family who thought they had been massacred.

In his book “Abby Byram,” published in 1898, Rev. John M. McElroy, D.D., stated Abby married Joseph Collins, had eight children and died in 1851 at 86, a half mile from where she was captured. Her remains were interred at Murrysville in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Her family’s farm was on land deeded to them by William Penn, the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Her descendants married into the William McElroy family from Glasgow, Scotland, and later County Down, Ireland, who settled in the Monroeville area.

Dori says the more she learns about her ancestors, the prouder she is of them. “My past is very important to me. I have spent hours searching records to document my ancestors’ births, marriages, children, and deaths. I’ve learned there are at least fifty relatives buried at Crossroad Cemetery behind the Old Stone Church.” She has this heritage information and photographs arranged on Creative Memories album pages for safekeeping.

Dorie not only copied the photos and information to enable her to make a 20-page album to pass along to her two daughters, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren of the Harper, Shroyer and Emerick families, but also made duplicate pages and added information on other branches of her family tree (McElroy and Warner ancestors) for nine nieces and nephews.

She does have favorite ancestors. For instance, she especially enjoyed the time spent with her uncle, Eugene Shaw Warner, born in Monroeville in 1895. “Uncle Eugene was a wonderful, kind person who was active in Crossroads Presbyterian Church activities back when the congregation met at what is now called the Old Stone Church. I knew him well. He worked for an oil company and married a schoolteacher, Dorothy Knox, when he was 36. Aunt Dorothy, who lived in Arizona, was my oldest living relative until she died in May. She would have been 101 in August.”

Dorie also admires her Aunt Adele. She was born in Monroeville in 1890, volunteered as a Red Cross worker during World War I, and was Charles Harrison Ford’s wife. She is proud of Rev. John M. McElroy (1830-1908) who graduated from Jefferson College and studied at Princeton. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1855, became principal of Ottumwa Seminary, and a county superintendent.

Her grandmother, Nancy King McElroy (1861-1934) was one of thirteen children. “I was told by relatives Aunt Nancy was a very hard working and enterprising woman who sold farm products to supplement the family’s income.”

Her grandfather, George Washington Warner, (1830-1908) lived in Monroeville’s stage coach inn along Northern Pike (behind Eat ‘n Park’s Diner), once the main road between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Rising Sun Inn is still standing–but disguised as Dr. Douglas Macdonald’s medical office. Warner was a farmer and butcher who worked in Old Allegheny (North Side) and traveled there by horse and buggy from Monroeville several times a week.

While Dorie is proud of her ancestors, her family is proud of her fortitude and ambition. Born Doris Jane Warner in Patton Township in1928, she was one of five children born to Charles R. Warner and the former Madeline Shroyer. Her father was the equipment operator and worked for a time for his brother, W. H. “Hook” Warner, a prominent Monroeville businessman and excavator.

Dorie married J. William Harper on May 24, 1949, and they had two children, Jo Lynn Harper (now DeBolt) and Ja Ann Harper (now Stoddart). When Hook Warner retired, Dori’s husband took over his business, where he had worked since he was 14. Dori’s seven grandchildren have three children, making Dori’s great-grandchildren the twelfth generation of McElroys.

Like Abby’s survival, Dorie was strong enough to overcome her grief and assume the financial responsibilities in 1973 when her husband died suddenly at age 49. She earned real estate and insurance licenses and worked until age 70.

“Besides my family, I feel the most important thing in my life is keeping busy with productive activities. I have much I still want to accomplish at age 75, so I plan to use my time to read, learn more, and help others.”

And contribute she does: Dorie has been an active member of the Monroeville Historical Society for more than twenty years and a volunteer at Forbes Hospital for twelve years. She has volunteered as a member of the Friends of the Library for five years. She is proud of her daughters, Jo and Ja, who share her interest in library work by serving as members of Allegheny and Monroeville library boards, respectively.

Dorie believes her lifestyle reflects things in common with her ancestors. She loves to garden, not only caring for her own flower beds, but also her two daughters’ flower gardens-- nearly all of her early ancestors were farmers. Dorie’s daughter lives on the same street and a grandson lives next door – generations of families chose to live in Monroeville so they could be close to one another.

“It is wonderful many of my relatives are still residing in Monroeville. I believe our relatives have benefitted from their close ties. I grew up living near three families of relatives and loved it.” When her family met for their annual reunion on August 9 in Monroeville’s Pioneer Park, Dorie had planned to tell them stories of her childhood when she lived in the house next to the stage coach inn. “When I was growing up, there were no water wells because of the coal mines. Because we had no running water, there was no indoor plumbing so we had to have an out house. For drinking and washing water, we had a cistern, a concrete tank to collect roof water to supply our kitchen pump. When it didn’t rain much in the summertime, we had to buy water.”

Dorie believes her ancestors chose to live and remain in Monroeville because they could make a good living here and enjoy a special quality of life. “They become landowners who built wealth for their families and also enjoyed the comfort of living near each other.”

[Note: Formerly Patton Township, Monroeville was incorporated in 1951. References to Monroeville before that date refer to its location, just as its residents did even before 1951.]

This article appeared in Monroeville Matters, Fall 2003, Vol. #7.