My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Elijah McLean, physician and surgeon of Washington, is a native of Estill County, Ky., born July 18, 1804, the son of David and Leanora (Oldham) McLean. The father was born in North Carolina in 1765, and was of Scotch-Welsh descent. He was a farmer by occupation and was also a Missionary Baptist minister by profession. He went to Estill County when young, was there married, and afterward moved to Howard County, Mo., there being but seven white families within 125 miles of him; he took an active part in the War of 1812. During the year 1815 he lived in St. Louis County, and the following year returned to Howard County, where he died in 1819. He was one of the pioneer settlers of Missouri, and as his ministerial work was local preaching, fifteen or twenty miles from home was nothing unusual. He was the second preacher, if not the first, in Howard County. His wife was born in Kentucky in 1771, and died in 1811; she was the mother of ten children, Elijah being the sixth. He was only six years old when his parents moved to Missouri, and was only seven when his mother died, and but fifteen when his father died. He only attended the common schools about six or eight months, and in 1820 went to Warren County and began the study of medicine, Dr. John Jones being his preceptor. In 1824 he entered upon the practice of his profession at Newport, Franklin County, and in 1826 and 1827 attended a course of lectures at Lexington, Ky. He then returned with renewed energy to his profession. The Doctor resided at Newport until 1832, when he moved to Union, and at the end of seven years, or December 25, 1839, he came to Washington and has resided there ever since. In 1831 he was elected to the State Legislature and served one term. Dr. McLean is the oldest physician and surgeon in Franklin County, and is one of the oldest citizens. He had a lucrative practice, and once went as far as seventy-five miles to see a patient, and often forty miles. He continued his practice until 1850, and since then has lived practically a retired life. In August, 1832, he married Mrs. Judith Rule, nee Stanton, a native of Georgia, and the daughter of Judge John Stanton. She died in 1855, and the following year he married Miss Mary Stafford, who was born in Tennessee, and who is the daughter of Rev. James Stafford. To this marriage were born seven children, four now living: James, Mary (a physician in St. Louis), William E. and Jennie C. Dr. McLean is a life-long Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Gen, Jackson, and has voted the Democratic ticket ever since. He lost his second wife in 1871. He has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for thirty-five years, and has been an elder of the same for thirty-four years.