Excerpt from "The Families McClaughry", Rev. Lyle E. MacLaury, 1986.

"David Allen McLaury was educated in Mercer Co, PA and Carroll Co., MO. He was well educated in a common school. He moved with his parents to Missouri 1865-6, where he met and married Laura Ellen Bartlett. He was ordained a Presbyterian Minister by the Presbytery of Chillicothe, Missouri in 1882. Working as a circuit rider, he moved to the newly opened Indian Territory in 1892 where he established a number of Presbyterian Churches including the 1st Presbyterian Church of Cushing, OK.

Among his achievements, one of his sermons was published in the Presbyterian Messenger and reprinted in the Cushing Independent at the time of the Oklahoma State Convention. He favored prohibition. He was retired by Oklahoma Presbytery 11 April 1923, and placed on the Pension Rolls of the Presbyterian Board of Relief in October, 1927.

A Democrat, landowner and farmer, he purchased 160 acres of farmland in Lincoln County 4 miles south of Cushing, OK. He retired from farming in 1924. He was a colorful figure in those pioneer days of Oklahoma where, under the board of Home Missions, he covered a vast territory and, like many others, refused to accept remuneration for his services. He was a leader in welfare movements, especially in the fight to abolish saloons from Oklahoma. He was a conservative in theology, aggressively loyal to the Confession of Faith, and a stalwart defender of the faith."

When he died, the funeral was attended by a great throng from the surrounding country, many of whom had been baptized, united in marriage and received into the church by Rev. McLaury. The funeral was conducted by the Rev. S. Graham Fraser, pastor, assisted by the Rev. W. T. Reynolds, Stated Clerk of Oklahoma City".

Source: Dennis Boatright (#46930334)