John McClellan, Sr.
John McClellan, Sen., was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., March 3, 1785, his father being a native of Ireland. Nancy Elder, his wife, was born in Franklin County, same State, December 4, 1787. They were married in Beaver County, Pa., September 22, 1806, by Rev. D. Emery, at which time they there resided.
In 1813 Mr. McClellan and wife emi- grated to Wooster, Wayne County, with their two children, John and Rebecca. He remained in Wooster, making it his home until 1824, when he removed to a farm five miles south of Wooster, where he lived until 1831, then removing to Greene County, near Xenia, where he died March 1, 1867.
Besides John and Rebecca, already named, Mr. McClellan had six children born in Wayne County, to wit: James, Jane, Clark Beveridge, William E., Mary Ann and Harvey Robert.
He was one of the pioneers of Wayne County, and one of the earliest members of the old Seceder church.
John McClellan, his oldest son, was born June 2, 1810, near Greensburg, Beaver County, Pa., and came to Wooster with his father when a child. His first entrance upon business was at the age of eighteen years, when he commenced clerking in the dry goods store of Hon. Benjamin Jones, with whom he served for one year. He next engaged with J.P. Coulter, M.D., who was then in the drug business, with whom he acted in the capacity of clerk until 1831, when he negotiated partnership relations with him. In 1842 he began the sale of goods on his own account in Fredericksburg, where he continued until 1853, when he removed to his farm, four miles south of Wooster, remaining there four years.
He was married November 14, 1837, by the Rev. Samuel Irvine, of the Seceder church, to Maria M. Mitchell, daughter of Samuel Mitchell, of Franklin township, one of the pioneers of that section.
He has a family of five children, three girls and two boys. His eldest daughter married J.B. Moderwell, a druggist of Geneseo, Illinois.
From History of Wayne County, Ohio, From the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time, by Robert Douglass, 1878