Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in Jefferson County, 1931 Thomas Evans McLean

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Monday, July 20, 1931
Front Page

Who's Who In Jefferson County
By Herbert F. McDougal

Thomas Evans McLEAN

The Late J. W. McLean, well known Fairfield citizen who lived to be almost ninety, held the theory that every boy ought to know a trade. Even if he should not follow it always, it was a sound investment and always gave him something to fall back upon. It was a theory that was widely held two generations ago, and T. E. McLean the son of the pioneer, fell heir to the benefits, and when he finished the Old Franklin school he was apprenticed to Charles F. George, then a leading jeweler and watchmaker of the city. Mr. George was a splendid craftsman of the old school, and he knew how to impart his skill to his apprentice. Young McLean remained four years under his tutelage, drawing $1 a week the first year, $2 the second and $3 the third.

Then he set out for himself setting up a small shop at Richland. One day a week he spent in Packwood, attending to the cronological needs of that community. Later he went to Trenton, Mo., and worked at his trade and left there to go to Corning, Iowa, where he remained four years. In all he spent eight years away from Fairfield, returning to buy out his former preceptor's business which by that time had been moved to the present location of the McLean jewelry store. That was in August, 1902. In those old days the stores here, as in most midwestern towns, kept open evenings. Nine o'clock was the accepted closing time. As the stores usually were opened anywhere from 6 to 7:30 o'clock in the mornings, storekeeping was a matter of long hours.

Mr. McLean has seen a vast change in the timekeeping habits of the country. In his early business days, a regular he-man had to have a watch that denoted masculinity. The "eighteen size" was the watch of commerce, back in the nineties and coin silver was popular for the case, so that a man's watch might weigh well up towards a half pound. A wrist watch would have been a matter of derision, and when the sizes of men's watches began to decrease the old timers sighed at the evidences of decadence. Women then wore watches larger than a man's wrist watch of today and it was along in the nineties that the long neckchain with a slide, gave way to the "chatelaine," pinned to the dress and from which the watch dangled.

The cheap Swiss watch and the old cylinder escapement were the bugaboo of the watchmaker of the period, and when they began to pass out of the picture and the American watch with its interchangeable parts came in, he felt that life was worth living.

In his day Mr. McLean has repaired clocks with wooden works, wheels and pinions made of pear and apple woods. The established clock of commerce at one time, was the old Seth Thomas weight clock.

Mr. McLean was born in a house that stood almost exactly on the site of the John B. Stever home, just west of the city. He attended the nearby rural school until the family moved to town when he was ten years old. Then he went to Old Franklin in what is now Howard park. November 23, 1921, he married Miss Mary Etta Miser, prominent as a teacher in the public schools. They own a pleasant home at 506 West Broadway.