McClure, William R.

MCCLURE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:40:24

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.617

WILLIAM R. McCLURE
W. R. McClure, engaged in general farming on section 28, Lincoln Town­ship, is one of the native sons of the county. His birth occurred July 14, 1856, on the farm where he now resides. His father, Nathaniel McClure, was a native of Grant County, Kentucky, where he was reared and carried on general agricultural pursuits. He was also married there to Miss Louisa Childress, a native of that county and state. They remained residents of Ken­tucky until after the birth of two of their children, when they made their way northward arriving in Warren County, Iowa, in 1850. Here the father opened up the farm on which W. R. McClure now resides. In was entirely destitute of improvement when he took possession of it, but he transformed it into a tract that responded readily to his care and cultivation, the planting of early spring being followed by rich and abundant harvests in the late autumn. Year after year he continued the work of the farm until his son, W. R. Mc­Clure, was able to relieve him of much of the care of the place. He made it his home until his death which occurred in 1890, when he was eighty-two years of age. His wife died in 1887 at the age of seventy-five years. Their family numbered seven children, five of whom reached adult age.
W. R. McClure, the youngest of the family was reared to manhood here and acquired a good education, being a graduate of the Baptist College of Des Moines. He also aided in the work of the home farm and the experience which he gained in youth enabled him to carefully conduct the farm work in later years.
Mr. McClure was married in 1875 to Miss Mary Romback, a native of Lincoln Township and a daughter of Gerson Romback, one of the early resi­dents of this part of the state. Mr. McClure afterward removed to Phillips County, Kansas, where he entered a claim and opened up a farm. This he improved as the years passed, making his home thereon for five years, after which he sold the property in the Sunflower state and returned to Iowa. He then purchased the interest of the other heirs in the old home farm of eighty acres, which is pleasantly and conveniently located on section 28, Lincoln Town­ship. He has further improved and developed this property, has built a home and keeps all of his buildings in a state of good repair. He raises high grades of stock, including road and draft horses and he has engaged in the dairy business to some extent for a number of years, making a specialty of Jersey cows. All branches of his business are profitable because he works earnestly and untiringly in the management of his affairs.
Although reared in the faith of the Democratic Party, Mr. McClure votes with the Republican Party where questions of national importance are in­volved. At local elections, however, he does not regard party ties, but gives his support to the candidate whom he believes best qualified for office. For seven years he served as a school director. He belongs to Central Chapel of the Methodist Episcopal Church in which he is serving as an officer. Both lie and his wife are charter members of this church and he has been a teacher in the Sunday school and assistant superintendent of the school for a number of years. His father was one of the organizers of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianola and also of the Masonic lodge. He attained the Knight Templar degree of Scottish Rite, was very prominent in Masonry and organized sev­eral lodges in the county.
W. R. McClure was reared in this county where lie has spent his entire life. He has witnessed almost its entire growth and development. He herded cattle here before the roads were laid out or the prairies fenced. He has lived to see many notable changes in the county as the work of improvement and de­velopment has been carried steadily forward and he relates many interesting incidents of the early days. His worth as a business man and as a citizen. well entitles him to representation in this volume, while admirable social qual­ities render him popular with his many friends.