Person:John McClelland (15)

15 August 1814 - McClellan, John - late of St. Clair twp. - Estate - Wm. McClellan appointed adms. (176). [Source: "Gateway to the West", by Anita Short, pg. 152].

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Records of John McClelland

From "Butler County, Ohio Chancery Records, 1827-1829", by Anita Short, pg. 128:

Sept. 1827 - Wm. McClelland adms. of John McClelland vs. David Conner and John Sutherland. Petition for money due. Filed Oct. 1823. John McClelland and David Conner became partners in January 1814 in trading firm of McClelland and Conner. That John McClelland was killed by Indians 8-14-1814 while travelling from Greenville to Ft. Recovery.

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About John McClelland

John McClelland, the youngest of the three brothers, at the commencement of this narrative, remained at the paternal residence near Mercersburgh, and pursued the business of packing over the mountains, from the Conecocheague valley, to the Backwoods, as the country around Pittsburg and Red Stone Old Fort (Brownsville) was then called, until about the year 1800, when he came to the western country. Being a single man, he lived with his brother William, who kept a house of entertainment in the town of Hamilton.

John McClellan occasionally engaged in trading with the Indians; taking goods, and such articles as were suitable for the Indian trade, on pack-horses from Hamilton to the Indian towns on the headwaters of the Wabash river, and other villages in the direction of Detroit. He pursued this business for several years.

In the month of August, 1814, he loaded a number of pack-horses at Hamilton, with goods for the Indian trade, and set out on a trading expedition for the Indian towns on the headwaters of the Wabash. On the 13th of August, he left Greenville early in the morning, and pursued his route toward Fort Recovery. He was altogether alone. When he had advanced nine and a half miles beyond Greenville he was waylaid and shot by some Indians, who it is presumed had seen him at Greenville and watched his movements. Their object was the plunder of the goods he carried. They carried off his horses and goods, and were never heard of afterward. His body was not discovered until two or three days afterward, when it was found by some hunters and buried in the woods where he fell.

John McClellan was in stature upward of six feet high, of great strength and muscular powers, but by no means endowed with the activity which his brother Robert possessed. In disposition he was mild and accommodating. He would, intentionally, give offense to no human being.

Source: Pioneer biography: sketches of the lives of some of the early settlers of Butler County, Ohio, Volume 2, by James McBride, 1891.

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