Samuel McClure
In any account of the history of Grant County, mention must be made of Samuel McClure, who had a large share in shaping the destinies of this section. He was one of the men of the pioneer type, who were willing to sacrifice much for the sake of the community, and who bent all their efforts towards building up the country in which they had made their homes. The name of Samuel McClure is especially associated with the early Indian affairs of this region and no man did a more unselfish work for the Indians than did Mr. McClure. In the memories of all the older settlers of this country he is remembered as a man of splendid business ability and of great strength and nobility of character.
Samuel McClure was descended from Scotch and English-Irish ancestors. His great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland at a very early day and settled in Richmond, Virginia. Here a son was born, named Robert, and the latter about 1770, emigrated to Newberry District, South Carolina. Here Samuel McClure, the first, was born on the 11th of November, 1777. He grew up in this state and in 1804 married Mary Stewart, who was born on the 31st of January, 1777, in South Carolina. in the same year in which they were married the young couple set forth on a journey to Ohio, which was then the Northwest Territory and here they located near Dayton, on the Little Miami River. After living here for five years they removed to Shelby County, Ohio, where they remained until the outbreak of the War of 1812. At that time Samuel McClure returned to South Carolina and there remained until the fall of 1813. During his return trip to Ohio he and his team were seized and impressed for United States service. They were taken to Fort St. Mary's and there he assisted in building the fort and blockhouse, and after its completion returned to his home. In 1815 he settled on Nine Mile Creek, two miles above his former home and here he remained until Christmas Day, 1826. At this time he left Ohio and came to Indiana, settling on the present site of the city of Wabash. He only remained here a short time before removing to Grant County. This was in 1827, and during this year, or the year following, he built the first mill on the Mississinewa River that was located within the limits of Grant County, and this mill was only the second to be erected in the county. He managed this mill successfully for some years and then returned to his former home in Wabash, where he died on the 22nd of September, 1838. His widow survived him only a short time, dying on May 27, 1839.
Samuel and Mary McClure became the parents of ten children, of whom Samuel McClure, the second, was born on the 16th of November, 1807, in Shelby County, Ohio. He lived with his father until he was about twenty years of age and he then concluded to enter the Indian trade, his interest in the Indiana tribes scattered throughout his region having always been a very deep one. At this time there were about eighteen hundred Indians settled along the Wabash and Mississinewa Rivers and prospects for trade among them were very good. In the spring of 1822 he therefore went to live with W. G. and G. W. Ewing, who were Indiana traders, in order that he might learn the business. He remained with them for several seasons, but in the fall of 1828 he procured a smalls tock of goods with which to carry on a winter trade from the Ewings, and then, building two log cabins on the banks of the Wabash, he started out in business for himself. In one of his cabins he placed his stock of goods and made a trading post while he used the other as a place to cook and sleep in. Using as his motto the word "Efficiency" he set to work to do everything within his power to make his business a success, and with this in view struggled over the intricacies of the Indian language and various dialects, and exerted all his powers to win the confidence and friendship of the tribes among whom he traded. He was extremely successful in both endeavors, after a time becoming a fluent speaker of the Indian tongue, and everywhere he went he obtained the confidence of the natives. In the winter of 1832-33 he moved his post to a point three miles below the Wabash River, and located it on his father's farm. He now became a farmer in the summer while continuing his trading operations in the winter. In 1833 he and his brother Robert cut the first state road than ran through Wabash County.
It was in 1833 that Samuel McClure was united in marriage to Susannah Furrow, the ceremony taking place on the 10th of January. Mrs. McClure was a daughter of James G. Furrow, of Fort Laramie, Ohio, After his marriage Mr. McClure remained in Wabash County until February, 1834, when he removed to Marion, in Grant County. Here he rented store room from his father and engaged in the mercantile business, trading with both the white settlers and the Indians, but in particular carrying on trading operations with the Meshingomesia band. He at this time had very little capital and it was only through the kindness of Jacob and Abel Furrow that he was able to obtain his first stock of goods from New York City. These two men were merchants in Piqua, Ohio, and were uncles of his wife's. It was shortly after he had opened his store and when he had just about exhausted his first stock of goods that he paid a visit to Dayton, Ohio, where he met Mr. Phillips, a wholesale merchant of that city, and from him obtained another small stock of goods. It was in this way that he struggle forward, but after a time prosperity began to come to him, and this was chiefly through his strict adherence to the principles of honesty and square dealing. In Indian trading at that time there were untold opportunities to cheat the red men, but Mr. McClure was cast in a mold in which dishonesty was utterly impossible to his nature. He consequently won their implicit trust and at the same time the confidence and friendship of the white settlers. It was not long before his creditors discovered that he paid his debts promptly and he was soon established on a solid business basis. he was engaged in business along mercantile lines in the city of Marion from 1834 to 1880 and during this time his business grew steadily until he became one of the wealthiest men of this section, very influential in all matters of public interest.
It was for his interest in the affairs of the Indians that Mr. McClure was best known in the community, for during all these years his activity, engendered by his acquaintance with the Indians during his early years as a trader, was steadily directed toward bettering their conditions and seeing that they received fair play. He early became intimately acquainted with the business affairs of the Indians of the surrounding tribes and in all transactions which they had with the white people he became their chief counselor. He had their implicit confidence and in time came to have almost entire charge of the business relations of all the surrounding tribes. They never had any occasion to regret this trust which they placed in him, ever finding him a wise and able adviser. Several times he went to Washington to intercede with the government in their behalf. Assisted by Mr. Miller, he was instrumental in securing the payment of the annuity at Peru, Indiana, and in 1853, with the assistance of the same gentleman, and accompanied by a delegation of Miamis, he succeeded in having a census taken of all the Miami Indians. He also assisted in making the treaty of 1854, and in securing the legislation for the partition of the Meshingomesia reservation in 1873, and in every way manifested the deepest interest in the affairs of the Indians.
From one of the poorest men to one of the wealthiest in a community, is no small rise, and this is what Mr. McClure did. He at one time owned over five hundred acres of land and much valuable city realty in Marion and Toledo, Ohio. However, many men become wealthy, and that is not the reason the citizens of Marion honor his memory, but the fact that in gaining his wealth he used only clean, upright business method is and the good name which he left is a priceless heritage to his sons. He die din 1889 at the age of eighty-two. He and his wife became the parents of the following children: James M., Mary A., Eliza J., Rosetta M., Louis A., and Erastus P., the latter being elsewhere mentioned in this volume. Eliza J. and Erastus P., are the only surviving children.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 693, 694, 695.