Biographical Sketch of Dr. Elijah McLean, Franklin County, Missouri

>From "History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and 
Gasconade Counties", Biographical Appendix, Goodspeed Publishing 
Company, 1888.

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Dr. Elijah McLean, physician and surgeon of Washington, is a native of
Estill County, Ky., born July 18, 1804 the son of David and Leanora
(Oldham) McLean.  The father was born in North Carolina in 1765, and 
was of Scotch-Welsh descent.  He was a farmer by occupation and was 
also a Missionary Baptist minister by profession.  He went to Estill
County when young, was there married, and afterward moved to Howard 
County, Mo., there being but seven white families within 125 miles of
him; he took an active part in the War of 1812.  During the year 1815
he lived in St. Louis County, and the following year returned to Howard
County, where he died in 1819.  He was one of the pioneer settlers of
Missouri, and as his ministerial work was local preaching, fifteen or
twenty miles from home was nothing unusual.  He was the second preacher
if not the first, in Howard County.  His wife was born in Kentucky in
1771, and died in 1811; she was the mother of ten children, Elijah be-
ing the sixth.  He was only six years old when his parents moved to
Missouri, and was only seven when his mother died, and but fifteen when
his father died.  He only attended the common schools about six or 
eight months, and in 1820 went to Warren County and began the study of
medicine, Dr. John Jones being his preceptor.  In 1824 he entered upon
the practice of his profession at Newport, Franklin County, and in 1826
and 1827 attended a course of lectures at Lexington, Ky.  He then re-
turned with renewed energy to his profession.  The Doctor resided at 
Newport until 1832, when he moved to Union, and at the end of seven
years, or December 25, 1839, he came to Washington and has resided 
there ever since.  In 1831 he was elected to the State Legislature and
served one term.  Dr. McLean is the oldest physician and surgeon in
Franklin County, and is one of the oldest citizens.  He had a lucrative
practice, and once went as far as seventy-five miles to see a patient,
and often forty miles.  He continued his practice until 1850, and since
then has lived practically a retired life.  In August, 1832, he married
Mrs. Judith Rule, nee Stanton, a native of Georgia, and the daughter of
Judge John Stanton.  She died in 1855, and the following year he marr-
ied Miss Mary Stafford, who was born in Tennessee, and who is the 
daughter of Rev. James Stafford.  To this marriage were born seven
children, four now living: James, Mary (a physician in St. Louis),
William E. and Jennie C.  Dr. McLean is a life-long Democrat, casting
his first presidential vote for Gen. Jackson, and has voted the Demo-
cratic ticket ever since.  He lost his second wife in 1871.  He has 
been a member of the Presbyterian Church for thirty-five years, and has
been an elder of the same for thirty-four years.

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