Pattison Francis McClure Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1500-1501 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	PATTISON FRANCIS McCLURE, president of the Pierre National Bank, 
was born in Laurel, Franklin county, Indiana, on the 8th of August, 
1853, and is a son of James R. and Hester A. McClure, who removed from 
the Hoosier state to the territory of Kansas the year after the birth of 
the subject, and they located one hundred and thirty-five miles west of 
Kansas City, and as a pioneer the father of the subject became prominent 
and influential in the public affairs of the territory and state, having 
been one of the early members of the bar of the Sunflower state and 
having been successfully established in the practice of his profession 
in Junction City for nearly half a century and up to the time of his 
death, which occurred in 1903. As a young man James R. McClure ran away 
from college to tender his services to his country in its war with 
Mexico, while he also served with signal valor and gallantry during the 
war of the Rebellion, as a member of a Kansas regiment, in which he was 
made captain of his company and later promoted to the office of 
quartermaster. He did not come forth unscathed, since he lost his right 
leg in the battle of Shelbina, Missouri. During his many years' 
residence in Kansas, Captain McClure has much to do with the shaping of 
its political and civic history and material upbuilding, having been 
conspicuously concerned in many of its most important historical events 
and having filled numerous offices of public trust and responsibility. 

	The subject of this sketch received his preliminary educational 
discipline in the public schools of Junction City, Kansas, later being a 
student in the State Agricultural College, at Manhattan, Kansas, while 
he thereafter was matriculated in Cornell University, in Ithaca, New 
York, where he continued his course into the junior year. After leaving 
college he began reading law under the effective preceptorship of his 
honored father but before completing his technical course he went to 
Illinois, where he put his distinctive mechanical talent into play in 
connection with the perfecting of a self-binder reaper for a well-known 
manufacturer of harvesting machinery, being one of the first workers, in 
1874-5, who successfully brought about the solution of the mechanical 
problem involved. In 1878 Mr. McClure went abroad to assist in 
introducing American harvesting machinery in Great Britain, Belgium, 
France and Spain, while during 1870-80 he had charge of important 
affairs, throughout the state of Minnesota, for a large manufacturing 
concern in Ohio. 

	Mr. McClure identified himself with the city of Pierre at the time 
of its inception, having come here on the first passenger train to enter 
the town, in the autumn of 1880. Here he forthwith established himself 
in the hardware business, entering into partnership with William H. 
Gleckler, under the firm name of Gleckler & McClure, and they built up a 
most prosperous business, being thus associated until 1889, when our 
subject disposed of his interests in the enterprise. In that year he was 
one of the principals concerned in the organization of the Pierre 
National Bank, of which he was elected president, an office of which he 
has ever since remained incumbent, while to his wise executive policy 
and progressive methods is largely due the magnificent growth which has 
marked the course of this solid and popular financial institution. Upon 
the organization of Hughes county, in 1880, he was made the first county 
surveyor, and in 1882 he was elected a member of the board of county 
commissioners. In 1885 he was elected mayor of the city, and was chosen 
as his own successor in the following year giving, a most able and 
acceptable administration and doing much to further the municipal growth 
and material prosperity. He was one of the committee, in 1885-6-7 
representing this section of the state at the federal capital in the 
matter of urging upon congress the opening to settlement of a large 
tract of valuable land then included in the Sioux Indian reservation, a 
measure which was finally brought to a successful issue and which had 
great effect in hastening the development of the state and in affording 
opportunities for a large number of good citizens to secure homes. He 
has been one of the prominent and valued members of the board of trade 
of Pierre and in the connection rendered most effective service in the 
contest which secured the location of the state capital here, in 1889-
90, while his influence and energies are being again brought into action 
at the present time (1904) in defending the claims of his home city and 
in aiding to defeat the proposition to remove the capital elsewhere. In 
1887-8 Mr. McClure served as commissioner of immigration of the 
territory of Dakota, having been appointed by Governor L. K. Church. In 
1889 he was the first nominee for governor of the state on the 
Democratic ticket, and made a brilliant canvass, but was defeated by the 
Republican nominee, Hon. A. C. Mellette. In 1893 he was appointed 
commissioner of the state to the World's Columbian Exposition, in 
Chicago. He was most actively identified with the movement which 
resulted in the division of the great domain of Dakota territory and in 
the admission of North and South Dakota to the Union. Mr. McClure has 
ever given a staunch allegiance to the Democratic party and is one of 
its leaders in the state, while as a citizen and as a business man he is 
held in unequivocal confidence and esteem. 

	On the 24th of July, 1893, at Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. McClure was 
united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth S. Bowen, nee Bentley, and their 
beautiful home is a center of gracious hospitality.