MERCER COUNTY PAGenWeb Project

Samuel McClure  


SAMUEL MCCLURE,  agent and general manager of the Stewart Iron Company, Limited, of Sharon, Mercer county, is one of the veteran leaders in the founding, management and development of the industrial and financial institutions of the Shenango valley. He was born in Little Beaver township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1839, and is the eldest son of Joseph and Nancy (Clark) McClure, of Clarksville, Pennsylvania. The father was born in the parish of Convoy, county of Donegal, Ireland, in April, 1810, and was a son of Nathaniel and Catherine (Noble) McClure, natives of the same place. In 1831 Nathaniel  and wife, with three sons, Joseph, John and Thomas,  emigrated to Little Beaver township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where they settled on a farm and where the father resided until his death. During the construction of the Beaver and Erie canal Joseph McClure began working on that improvement in Beaver county and while thus engaged learned the stone-cutter’s trade. He continued working and contracting on the same public improvement until he arrived at Clarksville, Mercer county. He there met and married  Miss Nancy, daughter of Samuel and Mary Clark.

Samuel Clark was born near the Lehigh river, in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, January 17, 1770. Seven months after his father’s death, in the latter part of 1771, his mother returned to Wallpack, Sussex county, New Jersey, where she had been reared. Her people were Germans, and little Samuel first learned to speak that language. By her industry the mother supported her family in their infancy, all through the tedious war of the Revolution, and was often subjected to much trouble and annoyance (the Indians being on the north and west and the British army on the south and east) and more than once she was forced to seek safety in the fort. At the age of fourteen Samuel was bound out to John Dimon, a carpenter and wagonmaker, and served through seven years of drudgery. On April 18, 1792, he married Mary Custer, by whom he had ten children, as follows: William, born June 8, 1794, in Sussex county, New Jersey; Samuel,  born in New Jersey, August 13, 1796, died near Sharon; Catherine,  born in Jefferson county, Ohio, April 12, 1798, married James Simonton; Abraham, born in Jefferson county, Ohio, May 21, 1800, died in Clarksville in October, 1888; Mary, born in Jefferson county, Ohio, March 10, 1802, married John Conley; Sarah, born in Jefferson county, Ohio, April 11, 1804, married John Gillespie; Susannah, deceased, born in Pymatuning township, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1806, married John Fruit; Jane, born in Mercer county, January 8, 1811; Nancy, born in Mercer county, September 6, 1813, and died April 17, 1890, the wife of Joseph McClure, of Clarksville; and Jacob. Samuel Clark, Sr., the father, died October 29, 1860, aged ninety years. nine months and twelve days, and his widow, Mary (Custer) Clark, died October 7, 1863. aged ninety-one years, eleven months and twenty-three days. Her family gave to the world the brave General Custer, who was killed by the Sioux Indians in June, 1876.

Soon after his marriage Joseph McClure returned to the old home in Beaver county, where he remained until 1840, when he sold the farm and removed to Clarksville, which was the headquarters of a general business, with branches at other points in Mercer county. His mother, with his brothers, John and Thomas, afterward removed to Girard, Pennsylvania, where  John and the mother resided until their decease, and where  Thomas  still lives. In 1846 Joseph McClure, with his brother John, formed a partnership with B. B. Vincent and David Himrod, and, under the firm name of Vincent, Himrod & Co., erected the first blast furnace in Sharpsville, this county, and Joseph located at that point. After a trial of several years, this venture proving unsuccessful, he returned to Clarksville and resumed the merchandise business in connection with farming and contracting until his death.

To Joseph and Nancy McClure were born ten children: Samuel, Joseph N., Thomas, Catherine, Mary, Nancy, Sarah, John, Nathaniel and Rebecca, all whom are living except Catherine,  who died July 22, 1883, John, who died March 8, 1892, and Joseph N., who died in May, 1898. Mr. McClure was a Whig until 1854, when the growth of Knownothingism made him a Democrat, which he remained until the breaking out of the war ; he then voted with the Republicans until 1863. when he again became a Democrat, supporting the principles of that party until the time of his death. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church, and was largely connected with the growth and development of the Shenango valley for nearly half a century.

Samuel McClure received the usual common school education and then spent several years at the Girard (Pennsylvania) Academy. He grew to manhood under the parental roof, working on the farm and clerking in his father’s store during boyhood, and in 1861 he began clerking in Clarksville. In 1862 he entered the employ of James Wood & Son, of Pittsburg, and was sent to Homewood Furnace, Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, to take the management of the firm’s store at that place, being transferred during the following year to Wheatland as cashier and bookkeeper of its interests there. He filled these positions, as well as those of superintendent and manager, until 1873, when the firm failed, and he then went to West Middlesex as manager of a blast furnace at that place.

In January, 1874, Mr. McClure came to Sharon to accept the position of superintendent of the Stewart Iron Company, Limited. In October, 1889, he acquired an interest and was elected one of the managers, as well as being general manager of the iron business of this company in the Shenango valley and of its coking interests at Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, the plant at the latter point being tinder his direction. Under Mr. McClure’s able management the business of this firm has grown prosperous and stands second to none in the valley. In 1886 he became associated with F. H. Buhl and Daniel Eagan in the organization of the Sharon Steel Casting Company, of which he was elected vice president. This company was later acquired by the American Steel Casting Company, which in 1902 became a constituent company of the American Steel Foundries. Mr. McClure is president of the Sharon Savings and Trust Company and is also president of the Union Lime stone Company, the Valley Connecting Railroad Company and the Shenango Machine Company. Professionally he is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and of the British Iron and Steel Institute; fraternally, a Mason, and, socially, a member of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg and numerous other organizations. Mr. McClure was initiated into Sharon Lodge No. 250, A. F. & A. M., in 1865, and is one of its oldest members. He also belongs to Norman Chapter No. 244,R. A. M.; Rebecca Commandery No. 50, K. T., of which he is past eminent commander.

On July 1, 1863, Mr. McClure married Miss Augusta R. Dickson,  of Clarksville, to which union three daughters have been born, all living; Mary A., who on August 30, 1883, married Charles F. Phillips, assistant manager of the Stewart Iron Company, Sharon; Anna D., who in October, 1895, married David M. Forker; and Jennie, wife of Dr. Clifford Marshall. Mr. McClure is a leading Republican and in 1884 was elected state senator for the Forty-seventh district and was the choice of his county for renomination.

Source: (Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, 1909, pages 364-367)


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