Mr James Mathew McCrie¹ was born in Enniskillen Township, Lambton, Ontario on 4 July 1879.

Coming from a Presbyterian family, he was the son of Matthew McCrie (b. circa 1851), a farmer, and Roxanna Harrington (b. circa 1849) who were married on 25 January 1874. His father was born in Ayr, Scotland whilst his mother, who was born in Toronto, was of English and Swiss descent.

One of eight known children, McCrie’s siblings were: Margaret (b. 1875), William (b. 1877), Edith Agnes (b. 1881), Robert David (b. 1884), John Cleveland (b. 1886), Amos Wilberforce (b. 19 October 1888) and Hugh Roy (b. 4 September 1891). 

McCrie first appears on the 1881 census living with his family in Enniskillen, his nextdoor neighbours at the time being his paternal uncle Andrew McCrie and his own young family. 

Described as a labourer, McCrie was married to Maud Mary Brown (b. 6 November 1882) in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan on 6 June 1900. Miss Brown was a native of Troy, Ontario and was the daughter of Archibald Brown and the former Margaret McFayden, both of Scots ancestry.

The couple went on to have four daughters: Margaret Irene (b. 24 June 1900), Eveline Pearl (b. 24 June 1901), Frances May (b. 14 April 1902) and Elsie Maude (b. 4 December 1906). Daughter Eveline died in Sarnia, Ontario on 9 May 1905. 

The 1901 census shows James, described as a machinist, his wife and firstborn as residents of Algoma, Ontario. 

By 1912 McCrie had been a worker on an oil rig in the middle east for two years. He was called home－503 North 16th Street, Sarnia, Ontario－because one of his three children was severely ill with tuberculosis and he wanted to comfort his distraught wife. His last place of abode was the Strand Palace Hotel in London.

McCrie boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger and travelled on ticket number 233478 which cost £13.

SARNIA MAN ABOARD.
It is thought here that Mr. James McCrie, of this place, was one of the passengers, on the Titanic.  Mr. McCrie, who is an oil-driller, has been In Egypt for the past couple of years and was on his way home. — The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), 17 April 1912

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AWAY 18 MONTHS, WIFE MAY HOT SEE HIM AGAIN.
Mrs Jas. McCrie. whose husband is among the list of the missing on Titanic, today received a letter which he had mailed just a couple of days before he sailed, saying that he was coming home on the big new liner on her maiden trip, and was looking forward with unbounded joy both to the trip and the homecoming to his wife and three little ones, whom he had not seen since he left for Egypt 18 months ago to work in the oil fields for an English syndicate.

Mrs McCrie is hoping against hope that her husband has not perished, and is waiting under a terrible strain for the portentious telegram that is expected, and which will mean either his life or death.

The letter states that McCrie remained over a week in order to come on the Titanic. — The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan), 18 April 1912

James McCrie died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified. 

Red Cross Record #280

A young husband, returning from an absence of two years to his family in Canada, was drowned. He had been employed by an English company as an oil well operator and, attracted by the higher wages, had taken work abroad. His family were eagerly awaiting his arrival and he had written to them that he would remain at home, permanently. He is survived by his wife, 29 years of age and three daughters, aged 12, 10 and 6 years....The eldest is a cripple from hip disease. The second is in frail health, threatened with throat tuberculosis, and unless she has the best of care and nourishing food she cannot escape this disease. After her father's departure for England, the youngest daughter suffered an attack of infantile paralysis, which has left one ankle useless for life...The widow...will qualify as a practical nurse...The husband's life insurance, $1,300, has been placed in the bank. This Committee has established a trust fund of $5,000, from which fund and the accumulating interest she will be paid a quarterly pension of $125, or more in the discretion of the local trustees.'

His widow Maud later worked as a nurse and resettled with her children in Michigan; she was remarried in Detroit in 1916 to automobile plant clerk George Kienle (b. 5 August 1886) and remained in Michigan until her death in January 1965. She was survived by her husband George, who died in 1970. 

Their daughter Margaret Irene was the only one of her sisters not married by the time of the 1930 census; she by then working as a hotel telephone operator and living with her sister Frances, whose nextdoor neighbours were their mother Maud and divorced sister Elsie. What became of her remains uncertain.

Daughter Frances married Joseph J. Wheeler (b. 4 December 1901; d. 1964) in 1920, with whom she had a daughter, Catherine Elaine (b. 1921). Frances and Wheeler later divorced and she was remarried to Gerald Morand (b. 9 July 1903 in Ontario) with whom she had two sons, James and Jerry. She died in Oakland, Michigan on 26 January 1979. 

Daughter Elsie was married in Detroit in 1925 to Frank Arthur Rooney (b. 19 March 1905); by 1930 they were divorced and Elsie had returned to her mother and was working as a secretary in an automobile plant. What became of her thereafter remains uncertain.