PAUL D. McCLELLAND

MCCLELLAND

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 18:39:40

PAUL D. McCLELLAND, who resides on section 35, is one of the well-known early settlers of Nodaway township, coming in 1859. He was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, July 29, 1823, the son of John McClelland, also a native of that county. The great-grandfather of our subject was a native of Ireland, and the grandfather, James McClelland, was one of the early settlers of Greene county. On his mother's side, Mr. McClelland is of Scotch descent. His mother was Mary Dawlin, born near Philadelphia. She was the mother of six children, and died when her son, the subject of this sketch, was about ten years old. Later the father re-married, and eight children were born by this union. Only three of the first children are now living, viz.: James, a resident of Washington county, Iowa, and Paul D., and Mrs. Sarah Ann Bishop, a resident of Knox county, Ohio. Of the second family of children three are also living: William H., a resident of Wymore, Nebraska; Mrs. Elizabeth Fraser, of Harrison county, Wisconsin; Charles, in Mount Liberty, Knox county, Ohio.

Mr. McClelland lived in his native county until his fourteenth year, when he removed with his father's family to Knox county. The mother had died in Pennsylvania, and the father in Knox county, in September, 1862, in his sixty-sixth year. The second wife is still living, with her youngest son, Charles, in Knox county. Paul D. was reared to the occupation of farming. He married Miss Elizabeth Guthrie, January 1, 1846, a daughter of James and Mary (McKibben) Guthrie. The mother was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1824, but removed to Ohio with her parents when but thirteen years old. The parents continued to live in Ohio, in Muskingum county, until death. They had two sons and six daughters, only three of whom are known to be living. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. McClelland continued to live in Ohio until 1856, when they emigrated to Iowa. They came all the way by wagon to Warren county, and were about four weeks in making the journey. Mr. McClelland has three brothers living in Warren county, and his intention was to make a settlement there, but finally decided to come to Adams county after a residence in Warren county of nearly three years. The time of his settlement on his present place was in the spring of 1860. His first land in this county consisted of 200 acres, 160 of which was prairie and forty acres timber land, and no improvements whatever had been made on the place when he purchased it. His first residence was a hewn log-house, located just north of his present residence. He occupied this house until he built his present residence in 1870. He has added 232 acres to his first purchase, and now has a farm of 380 acres. Mr. McClelland paid $700 for 200 acres of his original purchase, which was the extent of his financial ability. By honest industry he made his land a beautiful farm, and is surrounded by the comforts of life.

Mr. and Mrs. McClelland have had nine children, four sons and five daughters, and three are now deceased. The living are John, Cynthia A., Paul M., Clarinda, Elizabeth Ellen and Rev. William C. McClelland. The three deceased were: Margaret Jane, the second child, who died at the age of nineteen years; James L., died at the age of twenty-seven years, and Mary M., at the age of thirteen months. Mr. and Mrs. McClelland are numbered among the oldest and most esteemed citizens of Adams county, where they have lived so long, and are well worthy a place in the prominent record of the old settlers of Adams county. Politically Mr. McClelland is a Democrat. He cast his first Presidential vote for James K. Polk, in 1844. The family are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Nodaway township, and their son, Rev. William C., is the present pastor of this church.