McLain, John

MCLAIN

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:49:53

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.568

JOHN McLAIN
John McLain, the proprietor of Pioneer Farm, on section 4, Linn Town­ship, is a native of this county, having been born on the farm which he now owns and purchased from the other heirs of his father's estate. This consists of eighty acres, with improvements, and to the old homestead he has added thirty acres additional, so that he now owns one hundred and ten acres in all. He is the son of James and Caroline (Van Hyning) McLain.
His father was a native of Uniontown,. Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1826, and was left an orphan when but five or six weeks old. He was reared by an uncle and aunt, Ebenezer Herring and wife, both of whom are now dead. They removed to Lee County. Iowa, when he was a young man and here he grew up to manhood and married Caroline Van Hyning, who was born in Ohio in 1832. In 1853 or 1854 they started on an overland trip for Cali­fornia, but after going a long way towards wards their destination they turned around and came back as far as Warren County, Iowa, where they purchased eighty acres of wild land. This Mr. McLain improved and made his home until the time of his death, which occurred in 1890. His widow survived him for about five years and passed away in 1895. Mrs. McLain was a success­ful farmer and a public-spirited citizen, giving freely of his support, both moral and financial, to any movement that was calculated to advance the interests of the community.
He was a member and active worker in the Presbyterian Church. In politics he was a Republican and held minor township offices. Unto Mr. and Mrs. McLain were born twelve children, namely: Thomas J., living at San Jose, California; Tearsey Jane, wife of R. W. Dickey, of Linn Township; Nancy, the wife of J. B. McClane, who lives in California; Eldora, wife of D. J. Knouf, a farmer of LinnTownship; Atha, wife of W. H. White, of Kansas City; Jessie, wife of W. A. Thompson, of Des Moines; Alice, who lives at home with her brother, John, of this review; Arthur, a farmer of Polk county; Kate, the wife of F. L. True, of Los Angeles, California; Albert and Bertha, both of whom died in childhood.
John McLain and his sister, Alice, continue to reside on the old home place. Both are members of the Pleasant Ridge Methodist Church which is just across the road from their residence. In this church Mr. McLain holds the office of steward. In politics he is a Republican, on which ticket he has served as township clerk, although he is in no sense of the word an office seeker. Mr. McLain is an energetic, progressive farmer who has the satisfaction of seeing his efforts rewarded with a generous return from the products of his place, and while of an unassuming, retiring disposition, yet the community has a feeling of security in the knowledge that he is ever to be relied upon in times of trial, or of need.