Robert Harvey McClellan
The late Robert Harvey McClellan, who died at his farm home in Beavercreek township in the spring of 1917 and whose widow and son are still living there, the latter carrying on the operations of the home place, was a native son of Greene county, and all his life was spent here, a resident of the community in which he had lived ever since establishing his home there after his marriage in 1880. He was born on a farm in Sugarcreek township on September 30, 1852, son of Isaiah and Ann (Hamilton) McClellan, who had come up here from Kentucky and had established their home in that township, where their last days were spent.
Isaiah McClellan was a member of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia and his children were reared in the faith of that communion. Isaiah McClellan was twice married and by his first wife, Sarah Woodburn, was the father of two children. Sarah, who died in 1918, and Margaret, who died in 1880. By his union with Ann Hamilton he was the father of four children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the last born, the others being William H., Nannie and Ella, who are still living on the old home place in Sugarcreek township.
Reared on the home farm in Sugarcreek township, Robert H. McClellan completed his schooling in the high school and in the old seminary at Xenia and remained at home until his marriage in 1880, when he bought the farm of eighty-five acres on which his widow is now living in Beavercreek township and there established his home. During the later years of his life he had turned the management of the farm over to his son, Robert P. McClellan, and the latter and his mother have been maintaining the home since Mr. McClellan's death on March 7, 1917, he then being in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Mr. McClellan was a Republican, and a member of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia.
On February 19, 1880, Robert H. McClellan was united in marriage to Laura B. McClellan, who also was born in this county, a daughter of William E. and Susan (Torrence) McClellan, of Spring Valley township. William E. McClellan was born in Pennsylvania, a son of John and Nancy McClellan and later came to Ohio and located at Wooster, whence he came to Greene county and became a farmer in Spring Valley township. Upon his retirement from the farm he moved to Xenia, where his last days were spent, his death occurring there in February, 1900, he then being seventy-two years of age. He was a Republican and a member of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia. William E. McClellan was twice married. By his union with Susan Torrence he was the father of seven children, of whom Mrs. Laura B. McClellan was the third in order of birth, the others being the following: Edward T., who married Lida Hyslop and is the proprietor of a farm on the Cincinnati pike in this county; Mary Etta, now deceased, who was the wife of William La Fever: Amanda, also deceased, who was the wife of Nathan Ramsey, of near Cedarville; Elida, wife of J. C. Williamson, of Xenia, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; Nettie, who married Thomas Bruce and is now living at Catherine, Alabama; and James C, a traveling man out of Troy, Ohio. Following the death of the mother of these children William C. McClellan married Margaret Dodd, who died in Xenia, and to that union one child was born, a son, Lee, who died at the age of sixteen years.
To Robert H. and Laura B. (McClellan) McClellan were born three children, namely: Edna, who married Ralph Ferguson, a farmer of the Yellow Springs neighborhood, and has six children, Edith, Ruth, Lee, Carl, James Harvey, and Donald; Anna Grace, wife of David Kyle, living east of Xenia; and Robert P., who still makes his home with his mother and is farming the home place. These children all completed their schooling in the Xenia high school and they and their mother are members of the United Presbyterian church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918