Caldwell County MO Archives History .....WM. McCLELLAND FAMILY IN CLADWELL COUNTY 1845 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 1, 2008, 4:35 pm

WM. McCLELLAND FAMILY IN CLADWELL COUNTY 1845
	Narrator:  Mrs. Hattie Hooker, 86, of Hamilton, Missouri

	Old Salem Town

     Mrs. Hooker is the widow of Sam Hooker, grandson of David and Jane 
(Spurgeon) Snider orginial Mormon settlers in Caldwell County who did not join 
in the generation migration to Illinois after the Mormon wars.  (David b. 1795 
and Jane b. 1804 - lie in unmarked graves in the old Duston graveyard.)
     Mrs. Hooker is the grand daughter of Wm. and Elizabeth McClelland.  He 
died 1854 and she died 1884, both are buried in the old McClelland, which used 
to be considered McClelland ground; but after the graveyard was started in was 
ascertained that the first surveying was in error and it belonged to another.  
The McClelland family came here from Virginia probably about 1845 or earlier.  
The family themselves have been in the county so long that they have lost the 
exact date.  They settled just east of Kingston on what was known later as the 
Jess Butts farm.  They were not far from the Sam Richey farm on the site of 
Salem, hence we find Aramintha Richey becoming the wife of a son of Wm. 
McClelland.  This couple were the parents of Hattie Hooker and Jo McClelland 
of Hamilton.  Wm. McClelland built a fine house - a log house of three ground 
rooms and two above.  The kitchen was lower than the main part and formed an 
L.  There were three chimneys to the house and it was a famous landmark along 
the road in the forties and fifties as the house with three chimneys.  On this 
account too Wm. McClelland got the name of being very rich.
     Because her grand mother was Mother Richey of the old Mill Mrs. Hooker 
was over to old Salem a great deal.  The old road from Salem to Kingston ran 
by Grandma Richey's home which was on the site of the old town.  As a small 
girl, she used to ride the sweep on the old mill horse at the Mother Richey 
horse mill.  Grandpa Richey was dead by then.  In fact, she still has a scar 
from falling off the sweep while the horse went around.
     She recalled the terrible news that her Uncle Alex Richey had been shot 
in the Civil War by the Militia.  Her story of the killing is some what 
different from that found in the Caldwell-Livingston History.  The Richeys 
sympathized with the South but they were trying to get on good terms with the 
Northern militia for the sake of their homes and lives.  Mary Richey, a sister 
of Alex and a daughter of Mother Richey had married Dan Baker of the Crab 
Apple Southern sympathizers.  The Richey men and the Baker men had been to 
Kingston one day to swear not to harbour any bush whackers; and the next day 
they were to start to Richmond to swear allegiance to the Union; but hearing 
soldiers coming, they "laid out."  Their motives were mistaken and they were 
captured and killed as bush whackers.  Alex was buried in the Knoxville 
cemetery.
     Interviewed  April 1934.


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