p. 175: Dr. William Henry McClung and his Family: Another Branch of the McClung Brothers Who Emigrated to Virginia.

        The unwelcome visitor of Death entered the home of Dr. William Henry McClung, at Meadow Bluff, on May 6, 1915, and took from the county another one of Greenbrier's most prominent citizens. He died in his seventy-second year, and was born near Crawley, October 28, 1843. He was the grandson of John McClung, born probably in lreland, and died in Rockbridge county, Virginia, about 1788.

        Seven sons of John McClung settled in Greenbrier county, Among the descendants of whom, it is said, two companies of the "Greenbrier Swifts" and the Nicholas Greys," enrolled thirty-two members of this family in the confederate service and rode the finest horses to be seen in Gen. Robert E. Lee's army. Alpheus Paris McClung was Captain of the Greenbrier Swifts.

        In the vicinity of Mt. Lockout, W. Va., the McClungs are very numerous, and a worthy gentleman who had lived for eight years among the McClungs asserts that he never heard a profane oath uttered by one of that name.

        Alexander McClung, the father of William H., was born November 22, 1805, and died May 1, 1892. He married on July 24, 1834, Eleanor Thompson, born July 19, 1816. She died June 13, 1901.

        W. H. McClung followed the ordinary vocations of life until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he left his home with his two older brothers to defend his native soil. He first enlisted as a substitute in Colonel Henry's regiment, but later joined the Greenbrier Cavalry, Company K. Fourteenth Virginia regiment, under Captain Burkhart, and took part in the famous battles at Forestville, Stampede, near Harrisonburg, and in the stirring campaign in the valley of Virginia with General Early, He was also with him when he made the raid on Washington City, and was wounded in front of the Block House while trying to carry his brother, John T., who had been shot, from the battlefield, In October, 1864, he was transferred to Hownshell's battalion as drillmaster, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. He was severely wounded in the left breast at Frederick City, Md., and besides being wounded in the right side during an engagement in front of the block house at Washington. He was also wounded in the face during the battle of Ninevah, where he was captured, but escaped by riding through the Federal lines, swimming the Shenandoah River three times and taking refuge in the mountains, and reaching his command three days later.

        Upon his return home, Dr. McClung was united in marriage to Miss Adeline E. Thompson, daughter of Isaac and Jane (Burns) Thompson, on November 15, 1866. To this union was born two sons and three daughters, four of whom, Mrs. L N. Shawver, Mrs. George Wall, Mrs. John Helper and W. K. McClung, survive him.

        The following sketch is taken from the Methodist Layman's Herald, Sutton, W. Va., published May 20, 1915, and because of being so ably written and true to life, is given here:
        "Dr. McClung started life as many of Americans most successful sons--a poor boy. Living in a section not then developed, his educational advantages were very limited, but being blessed with native ability and with an indomitable will, backed by industry and economy, he soon rose to prominence.
        "After his married in 1866, he moved to Roane County, this State and began the practice of medicine, but in a few months he returned to his native country, without money and without reputation as a physician, but with more, he had that God-given courage and will which always finds a way. He lived near Crawley and undertook the job of clearing six acres of land on the Glenco farm. He worked in the day time and studied at night and when the work was done, he received $30, which formed his capital stock, and which he said looked like a fortune. Being a natural born physician and surgeon, though he never attended college, he rose rapidly in his profession, gaining an enviable reputation. For nearly fifty years he was the leading physician in western Greenbrier and perhaps traveled more miles and visited more patients than any other doctor who ever lived in the county. He was a hard student and always provided himself with the latest books and journals on his profession, regardless of the cost.

        "He was a Jeffersonian and Bryan Democrat, a man of pronounced convictions and a conspicuous figure in every political campaign in the county for many years, ever ready to defend the principles of true Democracy. He was a successful politician, being five times elected to represent Greenbrier in the West Virginia Legislature--an honor bestowed on no other man. He was a faithful representative and assisted in enacting many of the laws now upon our statute books. He was appointed by Governor W. A. MacCorkle a member of the Board of Regents for the Deaf and Blind School at Romney, and served as president of that body for twelve years, and held many other positions of trust in the state and county.

        "He was a successful farmer, owning and managing successfully some of the best farms in this end of the county. He had a beautiful home, where hospitality was generously bestowed by himself and family. He loved his district, was connected with many public enterprises for its betterment of its citizens.

        "Dr. McClung had been a member of the M. E. Church, South, for forty years, having been converted at Old Amwell Church under the ministry of Rev. R. C. Wiseman in 1872, and was actively identified with its interest. He realized that he was nearing the end of his earthly pilgrimage and talked with his pastor and family of the life beyond. He said he had no fears of the future--that all was well.

        "Funeral services were conducted at his home by his pastor, Rev. T. J. Hopson, assisted by Rev. I. J. Barnett at noon on the 8th, after which his body was born to the family cemetery near Rupert, attended by the largest concourse of relatives and friends that ever attended a burial in western Greenbrier. The pallbearers were Drs. S. H. Austin, G. A. Gilchrist, of Lewisburg; L. H. McClung, of Dawson; E. G. Kesler, of Williamsburg; D. N. Wall, of Crawley; and C.I. Wall, of Rainelle. The services at the grave were conducted by Meadow Bluff Lodge No. 233 IOOF, of which he was a member.
        "Dr. McClung leaves to mourn his departure, besides his wife and children, one brother, John T. McClung of Fort Spring, and four sisters, Mrs. Martha Burdett, of Charleston; Mrs. D. C. Snyder, of Huntington; Mrs. Harvey Smith, of Meadow Bluff, and Mrs. Watson McClung, of Dawson.
                                                                                                                    by E.D. Smoot.

        On a beautiful highly cultivated little farm near Fort Spring, in the Irish Corner district, lives W. E McClung, another representative of the large McClung family in Greenbrier county.

        W. E. McClung, son of J. T. and Cynthia Thompson McClung was born Nov. 29, 1873, at Meadow Bluff, in Meadow Bluff district, and he lived there until Oct. 15, 1900, when he moved with his parents to Fort Spring, in Irish Corner. On Sept. 24, 1907, he married Relda; Burdette, dau. Of J. Harrison and Catherine Rodgers Burdette, and to this union three children have been born, namely, Thomas Harry, born May 18, 1911; Wanda, Dec. 10, 1912; Frank Gasaway, Sept. 28, 1914.

        Mrs. McClung is a great granddaughter of Ishman Burdette, the first of that name who settled on Wolf Creek, Monroe County, one hundred years ago. His son, Jackson, the father of J. Harrison was born in 1813, and died 1876. He lived and died in Monroe. His wife was Elizabeth Schumake. She was born on New river and lived and died there at the age of nearly one hundred years, They had ten children; J Harrison Burdette was born Nov. 22, 1850. He married in 1875, Catherine Rodgers (see sketch of the Rodgers family) and has always lived on the old Michael Rodgers homestead. To this union were born six children; K.L. who married Mary Bud, Relda who md. W. E. McClung, Ella, who md. Frank Brown, Wilbur, who died in 1905, Mary and Evrette, who are single.

        On January 1, 1908, Mr. McClung purchased the farm on which he now lives of I. T. Mann. It was a part of the old Mathew Mann estate, and at the time Mr. McClung bought it was without a fence, except the one on the read and no buildings at all; but improvements were begun and by 1911 the barn was built and in 1912 the house was built and he moved- onto the place at that time. Now the farm is well fenced and is in a high state of cultivation.

p. 238                                                                     JACOB O. McCLUNG

        J. O McClung, member of our county court, comes in line of descent from John McClung. Andrew Cavendish McClung (Moccasin Andy) was his grandfather, and was born Feb. 28, 1819, and died about 1900 He married first, Catherine Odell, She died at Hominy Falls, W. Va. Six children were the fruits of this union, viz.; (1) Thaddeus, who died a prisoner of war, He was unmarried; (2) Sophrona, who went West with her uncle, Mr. Wiseman; (3) Rev. Andrew McClung, a Baptist minister who married Irene Dorsey, and they lived at Levisay, W. Va.; (4) Rev. Grigsby B. He was a Baptist minister, also and lived at Asbury. He married Fannie McClung, dau. of George Angustus McClung. Four children were born to this union, viz; Andrew Charlton McClung, the father of Jacob 0. He married Miss Etta Deitz, and to them were borne : Walla, Bessie, a child who died in infancy, Mary Belle (who md. Frank Parker), William Geeter, and Jocaob Odell, who was born Feb. 16, 1851.

        J. O. McClung was reared a farmer. He has also been a stock dealer on a somewhat extensive scale. On Dec. 13, 1869 he married Martha Jane Callison, born Dec. 18, 1846, died in July 1904. To this union four children were born, all married but one and all bountifully provided for. The homestead remains a valuable tract of land. The issue to this union was as follows; Dr. Thaddeus Clayton McClung, born Sept. 25, 1870, graduated, March, 1894, at Louisville, Ky. Medical College, since which time he has been practicing his profession at Ronceverte. On Oct 8, 1894, he married Cora Hunt, born March 15, 1872. They have four children. James Andrew McClung, the second son was a school teacher for several years and is now manager of a store in Washington, D. C.. Mary Malinda married Robert Hunt (see sketch) Rebecca Catherine, born January 6, 1889, married Dr. David Wall, a practicing physician. He was reared on Muddy creek and resides on part of the old McClung homestead.

        Besides his agricultural interests, Jacob O. McClung has given much of his time to the official needs of the county. He was deputy sheriff four years under Henry Harold, has been county commissioner six years, and has always been a man of political importance to the people of Greenbrier. (McC. Gen. p. 182)

p. 246                                                     JAMES FRANKLIN McCLUNG

        John McClung, who emigrated from Scotland to Ireland about 1690, and from there to Virginia, finally, was the ancestor of James F. McClung. (See sketch of John McClung and family.)

        Of the seven sons of John, Samuel McClung (Devil Sam) before mentioned had a son, Stuart, born Dec. 24, 1836, died Sept. 12, 1901. He was the father of James F. McClung. On March 29, 1860, Stuart McClung married Mary George, born at Dawson (see sketch of George family). Their children were Joseph Albert, born March 15, 1861: Elizabeth, Dec 4, 1862; Margaret Rebecca, wife of W. R. Hayes (see sketch): James Franklin, June 1867; Samuel, Oct. 17, 1869; Callie Jane, Jan. 30, 1872, married Aug. 31, 1892 to John Cook; Mary M. May 12, 1874, married June 27, 1900, to W. F. .McDowell; Louise Alice, Dec. 22, 1879; Lelia Ruth, Feb. 8, 1882, married James H. Jarrett.

        James Franklin McClung was reared a farmer. He and his brother, Samuel, own and operate a seven hundred and fifty-acre tract of land, on one-half of which stands the old house. It is on the part belonging to James F.. Here is the homestead of the Stuart McClung family and the place where the children roamed at will in childhood.

        After the subject of our sketch had received his education, the best his district school could give him, he became a traveling, agent for the next twenty years of his life, first for Abney Barnes & Company, dry goods merchants of Charleston, W. Va., and finally for Hutcheson-Stephenson Hat Co., of the same city. He was with each firm for ten years and probably no man in the State knows more about the people and country of the twenty five counties through which he traveled during the time that does James F. McClung.

        Without an accident or a day of sickness he went to and from the Jackson river back to Big Sandy, on the Kentucky border, and from the Little Kanawha to the Virginian mountains on the north, unarmed, but always welcomed, though his route took him everywhere among the feuds of the McCoys and Hatfields of the State.

        James F. McClung was married to Miss Ella V. Gunter, of Charleston, Kanawha county, W. Va., Oct. 26, 1911. Her father, John Gunter, was born and reared on a farm in Augusta county, Va., near Staunton; came to Kanawha county after the close of the Civil war and settled on a farm and engaged in the coal business at Big Chimney, on the Elk river. At that time there was a lock and dam in Elk river and steamboats plied the river, by which means Mr. Gunter shipped his coal to Charleston, where he supplied the leading factories with coal. Miss Ella Gunter was born on Elk river, August 27, 1880, and was educated in the Charleston schools. John Gunter married Miss Katherine Seafler, of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Her parents emigrated from Germany about 1834, landing at Baltimore, after which they settled on a farm in Beaver county, Pennsylvania. Three sons and a daughter are living in Pittsburgh.
(McC. Gen. p.196)

p. 264                                                     THE McCLUNG FAMILY
                                                                 ( by James W McClung )

        The McClung family is of Scotch descent. Its history begins in the time of Agricola, the Roman emperor who found in them a foe among the Grampian Hills of Scotland, which successfully resisted his further progress in that direction. It was foe who had won their spurs in the days of Wallace and Bruce at the time they had won their independence from the English crown. In the days of John Knox they did defiance to tyrants and vindicated their belief that king and queen were amenable to law and could not enslave and oppress their subjects with impunity.

        As a clan belonging to the Scotch race, the McClungs were of a Romanized Britton stock and from whence its Celtic blood. It obtained from occasional intermarriages with other reduces its Sexon and Teutonic blood. Those racial characteristics had strongly blended into a composite whole before emigrations were made by any of them to Ireland, and from that source came the Scotch-Irish Americans of the present day. No blending of the Scotch-Irish races by intermarriage ever occurred to any great extent. The native Irish are zealous Roman Catholics, the Scotch are equally Protestant, and on account of religious intolerance and persecution, the Scotch left their country for Ireland, then, because of unity of faith, they were called Scotch-Irish, there not being a drop of Irish blood, however, in their Scotch veins.

        The race from which the McClungs of Greenbrier county came left for their descendants an immortal legacy in the memory of their heroic faith and deeds. They are pre-eminently a liberty loving race, as has been attested by their blood on many a field of battle. The name is found on the muster roll of every war in the history of our Nation; a large list is given in the registry of our high educational institutions and a greater list still on the registries of our Churches.

        The earliest known record of the McClung family is located in Galloway, Scotland. Tradition says that three McClungs, James, John and Robert, left Scotland on account of religious persecution and settled in Ulster, Ireland. That was in 1690. They were Presbyterians of the true blue-blood type.

        The first of the family to come to America, so far as known, was Thomas. He settled first in Christiana, Pa., in 1729. About the year 1731 John McClung landed in Boston with an aunt and settled in Brookfield, Mass. That was in 1734. He moved from there to Lancaster county, Pa. about the year 1740. His father, whose name was James, came with his family the mother and eight children. In the year 1742 they moved to Borden Grant, in Augusta county, now Rockbridge county, Virginia.

        I. John McClung, born in Scotland, emigrated to Ireland in 1690 but little is known of his history.

        II. John McClung was born in Ireland, came to America and settled in Rockbridge county, Virginia. He married Rebecca Stuart. Died 1788.

        Captain Samuel McClung was born in 1744, died in April, 1806. He emigrated from Rockbridge county, Virginia, to Greenbrier county at the beginning of the Revolutionary war and served in the quarter-master's department during the war. He lived on Muddy creek near the Blue Sulphur Springs. He was the last man wounded by the Indians in this section of the State.
        They shot the queue off his wig. One Indian pressed him until they came to a creek, and now it was a case of life or death, as the creek was wide enough it would seem to prevent his escape; but summoning all his strength, and with a desperate bound, he leaped clear over. It was a wonderful leap and it so disheartened the Indian that he abandoned the chase.
        Capt. Samuel McClung married in Augusta County, Va., Rebecca Bourland, born 1749, died Oct. 8, 1825. He and his wife are buried near Smoot, this county.

        Joseph McClung, born July 12, 1776, married Elizabeth Ellis, Oct. 14, 1800. They lived near Blue Sulphur Springs. He died July 7, 1850. She died Dec. 30, 1861.

        Madison McClung, born June 30, 1809, died June 10, 1874. He married Margaret Lamb Hanna, Feb. 8, 1838. Mrs. McClung's mother was a McNeel and her grandmother was a Lamb of the Maryland family. Mr. McClung was a farmer and a very popular man. He served as sheriff of the county from 1844 to 1848.

        William Washington McClung was born Feb. 22, 1846. He married Mary Genevieve Putney (born Jan. 31, 1850), October, 1875. He served in the Confederate army during the Civil war, is a farmer and owns a large farm near Hughart, this county.

        James W. McClung was born near Charleston, W. Va., May 13, 1880. He was educated in the public schools and at the Lewisburg academy. In 1904 he was elected assessor of the Upper district and held that position until 1909. He was then in the sheriff's office for four years. In 1912 he was elected assessor of Greenbrier county and filled that position until 1917.

        In 1913 Mr. McClung married Miss Minnie Pugh, of Hyattsville, Md., and now resides in Lewisburg, W. Va.. Two children, Virginia and James W. Jr. came of this union.

        The origin of the name McClung is a matter of conjecture. Some authorities derive the name from McClau, and if that is correct the lineage is traceable to Gilean, or McGilean, who dwelt in Lorn and who fought in the battle of Larn, and whose name signified a servant of St. John. Mac, the Celtic prefix meaning son of Gille, meaning servant and a contraction of ''iahan'' meaning John the Saint. Hence son of the servant of John the Saint is the full meaning of the name.

        There is greater probability, however, that the original name was Lung. The Celtic prefix Mac, abbreviated to Mc and a doubling of the "C" resulted in the present form.

        The name McClung appears in a list of names collected by Lord Stair and published in Patronymic Brittanica under the title of seven hundred specimens of Celtic aristocracy.