History of Shermans Dale, (Perry County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Alexander Kelly McClure, journalist, was born in Sherman's Valley, Perry county, Pa., Jan. 9, 1828; son of Alexander and Isabella (Anderson) McClure; grandson of William McClure; and of Scotch and Irish ancestry. He was reared on his father's farm, received his education at home and was apprenticed to James Marshall, a tanner, for whom he served, 1843-46. He began his editorial career at the age of nineteen as editor of a Whig organ, the Juniata Sentinel, at Mifflintown, Pa., 1846-52; was a burgess of Mifflintown in 1850, and was commissioned a member of Gov. William F. Johnston's staff with the rank of colonel in 1849. He was appointed U.S. marshal of Juniata county, Pa., in 1850, commenced the study of law with Davis Sharon, in that year, and bought the Franklin Repository and published it at Chambersburg, Pa., 1852-56. He was defeated for auditor-general of Pennsylvania on the Whig ticket in 1853, was admitted to the bar in 1856, and became the law partner of his last preceptor, William McLellan. He was appointed superintendent of public printing by Governor Pollock of Pennsylvania in 1855, but after eight months resigned the office. He was a member of the convention that organized the Republican party at Pittsburg. Pa., in 1855; superintendent of the Erie and Northwestern railroad in 1856, when he succeeded in quelling the riots; a member of the state legislature, 1857-58, and a state senator in 1859. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1856, 1864 and 1868, and was engaged again in publishing the Franklin Repository at Chambersburg, 1862-67. He was chairman of the Republican state central committee in 1860, a state senator and chairman of the committee on military affairs in 1861, and was commissioned assistant adjutant-general of the United States by President Lincoln in 1862, and organized the draft in Pennsylvania. With assistance of two clerks he had all matters adjusted and seventeen regiments in the field within two months. He was a delegate at large from Pennsylvania to the Republican national convention at Baltimore, June 7, 1864, and was a representative in the state legislature in 1864. His property at Chambersburg was destroyed by McCausland's brigade in 1864. He settled in Philadelphia and practised law there, 1868-75, and in the latter year established with Frank McLaughlin The Times at Philadelphia, of which he was manager and editor-in-chief until March, 1901, when he retired. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago, May 20, 1868, and chairman of the delegation; chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Liberal Republican national convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1, 1872, that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, and of the Liberal Republican state committee in 1872. He served a third term in the Pennsylvania senate in 1872 and was defeated for the office of mayor of Philadelphia by Mayor Stokley in 1874. He received the degree of LL.D. from Washington and Lee university in 1887. He was married, Feb. 10, 1852, to Matilda S., daughter of James Gray of Mifflintown, and on March 19, 1879, to Corn M., daughter of Edward Gratz of Philadelphia. He is the author of: Three Thousand Miles through the Rocky Mountains (1869); The South (1886); Lincoln and Men of War Times (1892); Our Presidents and How We Make Them (1900); To the Pacific and Mexico (1901); Life of William McKinley (1901).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Shermans Dale, (Perry County) Pennsylvania

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