FOREWORD.
This Book is an effort to preserve the names and something of the deeds of those who established the McClure family in America. While the result is far from satisfactory, I feel that I have rendered to the name in general, and to my own family in particular, a real service.
The work is the product of vacation days and rare leisure moments, thrown together rather than carefully arranged. It is the log cabin of our early ancestors rather than the modern mansion, to which I hope it will in time give place.
While all with whom it has been my privilege to converse or correspond have shown for the undertaking the greatest interest and concern, to whom I express my sincere appreciation, there are a number who have rendered special service and whose names I wish to mention in particular. First, the late Col. Charles McClure, of Ill., whose interest in the subject moved me primarily to the undertaking; Rev. A. D. McClure, D. D., Wilmington, N. C.; Prof. Geo. M. McClure, Danville, Ky.; Prof. C. F. W. McClure, Princeton University; Rev. James W. McClure, Cynthiana, Ky., Mr. Wallace M. McClure, Knoxville, Tenn.; Mr. Hugh S. McClure, New York City; Mr. Wm. A. McClure, Fairfield, Va.; Mrs. N. J. Baker, Nace, Va., Mr. Edward Frazer, Lexington, Ky.; Dr. J. D. McClure, London; Mr. John Wilfried McClure, Dublin.
The classification of the material which covers over two hundred years, seven generations, is as follows:
The first generation, born about 1700, is undesignated.
The second generation, born about 1733, is designated A, B, C, etc.
The third generation, born about 1767, is designated I, II, III, etc.
The fourth generation, born about 1800, is designated 1, 2, 3, etc.
The fifth generation, born about 1833, is designated (1), (2), (3), etc.
The sixth generation, born about 1867, is designated a. b, c, etc.
The seventh generation, born about 1900, is designated (a), (b), (c), etc.
There are doubtless errors and omissions other than typographical, to which readers will kindly call my attention.
It is my desire to have members from the various branches of the family send me from time to time all items of family interest, marriages, births and deaths, that they may be carefully filed as a basis of information for any future family record.
And may there be fulfilled unto us the prophecy of Jeremiah, who said unto the house of the Rechabites, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he hath commanded you, Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me forever."
- Petersburg, Virginia,
- October 15, 1914.