BIO:  Col. John H. MCCLELLAN, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Page 362

COL. JOHN H. MCCLELLAN, retired, Gettysburg, was born in Adams County, Penn., 
March 5, 1808.  His grandfather, William McClellan, the second, was born near 
Coleraine, Ireland, in 1735, and came with his family to Marsh Creek, York Co., 
Penn., in 1739, died in 1796, and was buried on the farm in the family grave-
yard.  William McClellan, third, was born June 21, 1763.  He was married to Mary 
Magdalen Spangler, of York, daughter of Mr. Baltzer Spangler, of that town, 
January 31, 1788; died at Marsh Creek, and was buried in the family grave-yard 
July 27, 1831.  William, third, was quite an active, public-spirited man, and 
was once high sheriff of York County.  His family consisted of four boys and 
eight girls.  The boys were William, Baltzer, George Washington and John H., the 
last named, the only one now living, being the subject of this sketch, occupying 
the old hotel in the town of Gettysburg, which his father purchased from the 
executor of James Scott, in 1808, and which has been in the family ever since.  
William, fourth, the eldest son of William, third, was quite a prominent 
citizen.  He had one son and four daughters.  He was born December 22, 1789, and 
died May 4, 1845.  William B. McClellan, his son, was an attorney at law, and 
died in 1863.  The fifth William and his son, William B. McClellan, the sixth, 
are still living in Texas.  Our subject received but limited educational 
advantages, and began life as a clerk in the bank at Gettysburg, which position 
he filled for thirty-three and one-third years, one-third of a century.  He has 
been a successful business man, and has recently erected a block of buildings in 
Gettysburg, which stand as a monument to his enterprise.  In 1840 he was 
appointed treasurer of the county, and served until 1843, when he was elected to 
the same office.  Mr. McClellan is identified with the Presbyterian Church, and 
is highly esteemed for his excellent qualities.  He has never married.  “Col.” 
McClellan, as he is familiarly called, related that, in 1842, he had the 
pleasure and rare experience of riding in a balloon from Gettysburg to the 
vicinity of York, two miles high (see Wise’s history).  He is now in his 
seventy-ninth year.