Alexander Kelly McClure (January 9, 1828 – June 6, 1909) was a journalist, editor, writer, politician, and historian, active in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 politics, especially in the 1860s, and a prominent supporter, correspondent, and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

. He was the editor of the Franklin Repository, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Chambersburg is a borough in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is miles north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and southwest of Harrisburg in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley. Chambersburg is the county seat of Franklin County...

 and of the Philadelphia Times. The town of McClure, Pennsylvania

McClure, Pennsylvania

McClure is a borough in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 975 at the 2000 census. The town is named for Alexander McClure.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , all of it land....

 - located in Snyder County - is named in his honor.

Early years

McClure was born on January 9, 1828 in Perry County, Pennsylvania

Perry County, Pennsylvania

As of the census of 2000, there were 43,602 people, 16,695 households, and 12,320 families residing in the county. The population density was 79 people per square mile . There were 18,941 housing units at an average density of 34 per square mile...

 to Alexander and Isabella Anderson McClure. He grew up on a farm, with little formal education. At fourteen, he apprenticed to a tanner. Later, he worked as a printer at the Perry County Freeman and the Juniata Sentinel, in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania

Mifflintown, Pennsylvania

Mifflintown is a borough in and the county seat of Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 861 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mifflintown is located at ....

. He became editor and publisher of the Sentinel in 1846, and became known for his Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 political views.

McClure was appointed to the staff of the first Whig governor of Pennsylvania, William F. Johnson, with the honorary rank of colonel. In 1850, Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...

 appointed McClure deputy United States Marshal for Juniata County

Juniata County, Pennsylvania

Juniata County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 24,636. Juniata County was created on March 2, 1831, from part of Mifflin County and named for the Juniata River. Its county seat is Mifflintown....

. He moved to Chambersburg in 1852, buying Franklin Repository newspaper, and marrying Matilda S. Gray.

Later career

McClure became interested in the newly formed Republican Party. He was an outspoken abolitionist. In 1857, he was elected to Pennsylvania's House of Representatives and re-elected in 1858 and 1859. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate in 1860.

At the 1860 Republican National Convention

1860 Republican National Convention

The 1860 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States, held in Chicago, Illinois at the Wigwam, nominated former U.S. Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President and U.S. Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice President...

 he became a well-known political figure, opposing fellow Pennsylvanian Simon Cameron

Simon Cameron

Simon Cameron was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of War for Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War. After making his fortune in railways and banking, he turned to a life of politics. He became a U.S. senator in 1845 for the state of Pennsylvania,...

's bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency. McClure and Andrew G. Curtin helped swing the state's vote away from Cameron and William Seward

William Seward

William Seward may refer to:*William Seward, English anecdotist, 1747-1799*William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State, 1861-1869*William H. Seward, Jr., his son, banker, Civil War general...

 to Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln's election McClure became chairman of the Republican state committee and helped to elect Curtin governor of Pennsylvania.

McClure was commissioned as an assistant adjutant general by Lincoln.

McClure's home in Chambersburg was threatened several times by Confederate forces. He was captured but released when Stuart entered Chambersburg on his raid around McClellan in October 1862. He states in his biography that he "never saw General Lee during the war or after the war." In 1864, during the Confederacy's third occupation of Chambersburg, McClure's home, Norland was burned down with much of the rest of the town. The home was rebuilt and sold to Wilson College

Wilson College

Wilson College can refer to:* Wilson College , Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA* Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina, USA* Lindsey Wilson College, Kentucky, USA* Wilson College, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA...

.

In 1864, McClure moved to Philadelphia and helped Lincoln carry Pennsylvania again in the general election.

In 1867, McClure wrote a book called Three Thousand Miles through the Rocky Mountains. He also became a representative of the Philadelphia-based Montana Gold and Silver Mining Company and was superintendent of one of the company's mills at the Oro Cache vein in the Montana Territory

Montana Territory

The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana.-History:...

. He returned to Philadelphia in 1868 after supporting Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

 at the Republican National Convention.

By the time of Grant's reelection bid, McClure had left the Republican Party and threw his support to Horace Greeley

Horace Greeley

Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...

 and the Liberal Republican National Convention. In 1873 McClure was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate. In 1874, he ran for mayor of Philadelphia and lost by only 900 votes.

He returned to newspaper editing by founding The Philadelphia Times in 1875. In 1886 McClure wrote The South: Its Industrial, Financial, and Political Condition, which included material on race relations in the South. McClure recognized that integration was necessary. He continued as The Philadelphia Times' editor until 1901 when he sold the newspaper to Adolph Ochs. In 1879 he married Cora M. Gratz.

He died on June 6, 1909 near Philadelphia in Wallingford, Pennsylvania

Wallingford, Pennsylvania

Wallingford is an unincorporated community in Nether Providence Township, Delaware County in Pennsylvania, USA. Founded in 1687, it is named for Wallingford, England...

.

The town of McClure, Pennsylvania

McClure, Pennsylvania

McClure is a borough in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 975 at the 2000 census. The town is named for Alexander McClure.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , all of it land....

 and an elementary school in Philadelphia are named in his honor.

Works by Alexander McClure

• Three Thousand Miles Through the Rocky Mountains. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1869.
• The Annals of the Civil War. 1878. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994.
• The South: Its Industrial, Financial, and Political Condition. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1886.
• The Life and Services of Andrew G. Curtin. Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch, 1895.
• Lincoln's Yarns and Stories: A Complete Collection of the Funny and Witty Anecdotes That Made Abraham Lincoln Famous as America's Greatest Story Teller. Philadelphia: The J.C. Winston Company, 1900. Available from Google Books
• The Authentic Life of William McKinley Our Third Martyr President: Together with a Life Sketch of Theodore Roosevelt. Washington, DC: W.E. Scull, 1901.
• Famous American Statesmen & Orators, Past and Present: With Biographical Sketches and Their Famous Orations. New York: F.F. Lovell, 1902.
• Our Presidents and How We Make Them. New York: Harper, 1902.
• Colonel Alexander K. McClure's Recollections of Half a Century, The Salem Press Company, 1902. Available via Google Books.

External links

• Altoona Mirror's Souvenir. Altoona Library.
• Gerencser, James and John Osborne. In their own words- Alexander Kelly McClure. Dickinson College. 2004.
• Gould, Lewis L. “Alexander Kelly McClure.” American National Biography Online. 2000.
• Valley of the Shadow: Alexander K. McClure at valley.vcdh.Virginia.edu The Valley of the Shadow
  The Valley of the Shadow
  This page is about an American Civil war project. For other uses, see Valley of the Shadow The Valley of the Shadow is a digital history project hosted by the University of Virginia detailing the experiences of Confederate soldiers from Augusta County, Virginia and Union soldiers from Franklin...
  
  
• Mr. Lincoln's White House