CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 605
HIRAM McCLELLAN
For many years the subject of this review, Hiram McClellan, has been engaged in agricultural pursuits in Champaign county, and in the locality where he has so long resided he is loved and honored for his many noble characteristics. A native son of the Keystone state, his birth there occurred in Lancaster county, June 28, 1829. His father, Joseph McClellan, was a native of Philadelphia, that state, while the paternal grandparents of our subject were born in either Ireland or Scotland. In a very early day they located in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where they followed the tilling of the soil. There the son; Joseph was reared to years of maturity, but in 1853 he left the home of his youth for the Buckeye state, where he resided from that time until 1865, and in the latter year he took up his abode in Brown county, Illinois, his death there occurring in Galesburg. In political matters he gave a stanch support to Republican principles, and his last presidential vote was cast for Lincoln at his second election. He was then in a very feeble condition, but such was his enthusiasm and public spirit that he was carried to the polls, entirely against his physician's advice. His death occurred when he had reached his sixty-ninth year. As a companion on the journey of life he chose Clarisa Souder, a native of Maryland, but when sixteen years of age she accompanied her parents on their removal to Pennsylvania. Her father, David Souder, was a mechanic and also a carpenter and builder, and he lived to the ripe old age of ninety-four years. Late in life he removed to Tiffin, Ohio, and when he was ninety-three years of age he walked a mile and a quarter to the polls to vote for Lincoln at his second election. The town of Soudersburg, Pennsylvania, was named in his honor. His wife reached the age of seventy-five years. She was a sister of Senator Peffer's mother. [Correction: David Souder's wife, Judith Hoffman was actually the MOTHER of Senator Peffer's mother, Elizabeth Souders] Mr. and Mrs. McClellan became the parents of five children who grew to years of maturity, namely : Hiram, the subject of this review ; Nancy,, the wife of Dr. William Kaull, of Princeton, Illinois; Emma, the wife of John Bailey, editor of the Bureau County Republican, of Princeton, Illinois; Captain Joseph Sirnpson, who served as a soldier in the Civil: war and is now identified with the Horticultural Society of Colorado; Lavenia, the wife of Samuel Osborn, also a soldier in the Civil war in an Indiana regiment, and he is now employed as an attorney and in the real-estate business in Mankato, Minnesota.
Hiram McClellan received his elementary education in the public schools of his native place and later he attended Whitesborough Academy, New York. After completing his education he again entered the school room as an instructor and for twenty-two terms taught in both Pennsylvania and Ohio. On the 24th of December, 1850, he was united in marriage to Eliza Swisher, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1827, a daughter of Jeremiah and Mary (Pennington) Swisher. On the maternal side she is descended from English Quakers who came to this country with William, Penn, while on the paternal side she is of Swiss descent. Mrs. McClellan, the third in order of birth of her parents' ten children, was reared and educated in Lan-- caster county, Pennsylvania, where she attended the common and select schools, and was afterward employed as an instructor for three terms. In 1851 Mr. and Mrs. McClellan made the journey to Ohio, spending the first eighteen years in Tiffin, Seneca county, where they were engaged in farming and teaching. Since 1868 they have resided in Cable, and adjoining this village they own ninety-two acres of rich and valuable land. He has ever taken an active interest in the public affairs of his locality, where for fifteen years he has served as a notary public, and his political support is given to the Prohibition party. He is a mem ber of the Methodist Episcopal church.
The union of our subject and his wife has been blessed with six children, namely : Leander S., a farmer and manufacturer in Wayne township, Champaign county ; Elwood S., whose sketch appears on another page of this volume; Mary, the wife of Philander P. Lindill, of Wayne township; Clarence, who died while attending Delaware College, June 19, 1883, the year of his graduation; Abbie, who became the wife of Alexander Crisman and died in 1893; and Cora, who became the wife of R. P. Blackburn and died in. 1901. Mr. and Mrs. McClellan also have thirteen grandchildren. They have been very active in the cause of temperance. Mr. McClellan took the pledge at eight years of age and since has done many acts substantially good for the cause, while his wife has worked in the cause of temperance almost all her life, joining the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1874, and has been very active on these lines since, holding the principal offices of that organization for several years. Mr. McClellan has been a representative to the Grand Lodge of the Good Templars.
