Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....McClellan, Reuben F. 1859 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 19, 2005, 7:47 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)

    R. F. McCLELLAN, capitalist and influential citizen of Sawtelle, a native of
the State of Maine, was born in the town of Brownville, Piscataqua County, April
21st, 1859. His father, John McClellan, was the son of Scottish parents who were
pioneers of the "Pine Tree State;" located in Piscataqua County where they took
an active part in the early developments of that far famed pine timber country.

    John McClellan grew up in the vicinity of Brownville and became thoroughly
identified with its business growth and there married Miss Emily A. Mayo and
with their six children came west to the timbered regions of Northern Minnesota
in the year 1867. They located in the town of Princeton, where the family of
five sons and two daughters grew up. In 1868, the father, while on a prospecting
trip into the timbered wilderness of the Upper Mississippi River Valley, died
under circumstances never fully ascertained by the family.

    At thirteen years of age young Reuben F. McClellan commenced work in the
lumber woods, doing whatever work came to hand. He acquired a thorough knowledge
of the logging and lumber business. At the age of nineteen he embarked in the
business on his own account, getting out timber by contract on Rum river
tributary to the Upper Mississippi, and was thus engaged for several years.
Later he dealt extensively in timber lands with offices at Princeton.

    He finally decided to enter upon a business enterprise that had for some
time appealed to his aggressive and somewhat adventurous spirit and accordingly
organized what later became known to the mining world as the McClellan party,
for the purpose of prospecting the undeveloped mineral country of Alaska. He
enlisted seven "good men and true" of his personal acquaintance in his home town
of Princeton.

    Mr. McClellan had devoted much time and thought to a somewhat critical
investigation of mining developments in Alaska—that new field of mineral
developments—and had selected a place of destination, shown on the maps as the
head of Copper River. The party left Princeton in the month of April, 1898, and
via Seattle (where they outfitted) proceeded by steamer to a point about 600
miles northwest of Sitka, where they disembarked on a bleak and forbidding
shore, in six feet of snow, where, as yet no human foot had trod, but where now
stands the new and thrifty town of Valdez, having a population of about 6,000
people. From this point they crossed the Valdez Glacier, a mountain of ice and
snow some thirty miles in length, each man making his way independent of others,
drawing a sled freighted with 1,400 pounds of provisions and camping equipment,
and by relaying succeeded in getting into the field with about 1,400 pounds
each. They towed their boats up the main channel, making at best only an average
of about one mile a day.

    It was May first when they struck a tributary to the Copper River about one
hundred miles above its outlet and the same distance from its source. Here they
tarried long enough to construct boats from spruce timber that grew along the
stream, whip-sawing the lumber therefrom, and they then ascended the main valley
of the Copper River to it head waters. Two hundred miles into the interior they
opened camp in the month of July and commenced prospecting. Gold was found but
not in paying quantities.

    The party then divided and Mr. McClellan, with four of his comrades, crossed
the country a distance of five hundred miles onto the Yukon River, making their
own trail through a barren and forbidding country. They were the first white men
to pass over that route. They arrived at Dawson August 24th, returning that fall
to the Copper River Valley, finally discovering and locating what is known to be
the most extensive and valuable copper deposit in the world.

    Mr. McClellan soon thereafter went to New York, made known his discoveries
to heavy eastern capitalists, who at great expense inspected the property, the
result of which is the capitalization of a company that has set aside
twenty-five million dollars for the construction of a railroad from tidewater to
the copper beds and equipment of a line of vessels to connect therewith for the
purpose of transporting the ore of the Great Bonanza Copper Mine to the world's
market. In this stupenduous enterprise are enlisted the Guggenheims, the New
York copper kings; the Havermaiers, and other capitalists of almost limitless
means. Mr. McClellan realized a large sum of money on this deal and still
retains a valuable interest in that country. This deal was consummated in 1901,
following which Mr. McClellan spent his winters in California and, in 1905,
located with his family at Sawtelle where he has made liberal investments in
city realty.

    In 1906, he, with W. E. Sawtelle and others, organized the Citizens State
Bank of Sawtelle, of which Mr. McClellan is president, W. E. Sawtelle, vice
president, and H. M. Crane, cashier. The bank has established a branch at The
Palms.

    Mr. McClellan married at Wall Hollow, North Dakota, Miss Grace G. Loring, a
daughter of George D. Loring, formerly of Princeton, Minn. Mr. McClellan is a
Blue Lodge Mason, member of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Arctic
Brotherhood, a fraternal secret order of Alaska. Mr. and Mrs. McClellan have one
son, Neil D. McClellan.

    Mr. McClellan is one of Sawtelle's most public spirited and popular citizens
and his influence is always found favorably aligned with all movements looking
to the progress and development of his home city.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief
history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County,
1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and
embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative
people.

Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)


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