Elizabeth M. McCrea

Something about this Scotch-Irish family inclined several of them to have a long lifespan, and not just Elizabeth, who was known affectionately as Lizzie. Her Irish mother, Jane, and two of her sisters lived past the age of 90. James, the father from Scotland, was a stonecutter but he died at age 45 from tuberculosis. 

When Lizzie joined the family there were three brothers and two sisters, and two more sisters were born after her. She celebrated her eighth birthday in the summer of 1881 without her father and beside a grieving mother. But the family pulled together, with four teenagers who were working to provide an income. 

They faced another tragedy the following year when little Maggie, age 3, died of measles. Both burials took place here in what became the family plot. They would eventually be joined by Jane, Lizzie, brothers Bill and Jim, and three nieces and two nephews.

By the turn of the century Bill was listed as head of the household at 2325 Federal Street. He was married with children but shared his home with Jane and his two forever-single siblings, Jim and Lizzie. Jim was a day laborer and Lizzie was a twister in a cotton mill. Ten years later she held a job in a chemicals plant. 

Bill’s wife, Sarah, died at age 30 of tuberculosis in 1906, so Lizzie became the chief homemaker, besides having a job and being caretaker to her mother. She personally experienced the ups and downs, the joys and struggles of her brother’s life; he married in 1896 but had three children who all died in infancy by 1901. 

Two months after the third funeral, Sarah gave birth to a fourth child, then one in 1902 and another in 1904. Lizzie stepped into the role of substitute mom to these three girls, saw them grow into adulthood and have children of their own. Two of the girls enjoyed the benefit of their longevity genes, since both lived into their 90s.

In 1920, Bill was a detective for the Philadelphia Police, and Jim was a watchman. Life was upset again in 1922 when Bill died while riding in a taxi that struck a utility pole. Five months later, Jim died of pneumonia. Two months after that, Bill’s youngest daughter, Sadie, walked the aisle without her father when she married Frank Dreger. In short order they graciously took in Lizzie and Jane until Jane died in 1934 at age 93.

Now it was Lizzie’s turn to be the senior woman of the house. Sadie’s first child was born in 1923 and named after Frank, one was stillborn in 1926, then there was a son named after Bill and a daughter named after Elizabeth. 

There was no mention of Lizzie in the Dreger home in 1950, the same year that Sadie became a widow.  She lived until 2001 and joined her husband here in Section D, marked by this stone. Her address in 1950 was 6414 Woodland Avenue, which happened to be a few blocks from the home where Lizzie spent her final years. 

Age-related vision problems robbed Lizzie of her eyesight, so she was accepted at the Chapin Home for the Aged Blind at 6713 Woodland Avenue.  Only a simple family marker, shown above, was found in Section 31, and only a simple obituary was found for Lizzie in a local newspaper, but she was blessed to see a long and good life.