Biography of R. B. McClenon This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Page 284. Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. R B. McCLENON, A. M., is principal of the city schools of Madison, Lake county. Professor McClenon was born in Franklin, Delaware county, New York, November 13, 1852. His father, Thomas McClenon, born in 1817, was a native of Delaware county also. He subsisted by tilling the soil. His father, John McClenon, came from Ireland - from the north of Ireland - very near Scotland, in fact. He died in 1828, after having come to this country. Our subject's mother, whose maiden name was Frances Benedict, was born in November, 1828, near Northfield, New York. Linaus Benedict was her father. He came from New Canaan, Connecticut, and was a farmer by occupation. His father was one of the early settlers of the Nutmeg state. Our subject was the eldest of a family of four children, the others being Mary, Charles and William. He attended the common schools of Delaware county, and then Walton academy, from which he was graduated in 1874. Upon completing the course there Professor McClenon entered Williams college, at Williamstown, Massachusetts. He received his diploma from this wellknown institution four years later, in 1878. He then began teaching, and spent one year at Croton, New York, one year at Belmont, and two at North Granville. He then came to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He taught school there for three years, and then went to Oconto, where he was principal of the high school for two years, leaving at the end of that time to become instructor at the Beloit academy, at Beloit. He remained there for two years. In 1889 Prof. McClenon came to South Dakota, and soon afterward took the principalship of the Sioux Falls high school, which he retained until 1893, the year of his coming to Madison. He had been offered the superintendency of the city schools, and decided to accept. Since that time Professor McClenon has been the head of Madison's excellent school system, and the credit for its present standing and reputation is principally due to him and his tireless efforts in. behalf of better methods and higher standard in the education of youth. Mr. McClenon politically is an uncompromising Prohibitionist, and is greatly interested in the work of suppressing the liquor traffic, one of the banes of our present civilization. He was a candidate for state superintendent of schools in 1894, but failed of election, though running considerably ahead of his ticket. Professor McClenon is a member of the Congregational church; also of the I. O. G. T. and the M. W. A. He was grand chief templar of the former for several years, and assisted in organizing lodges throughout the state. Professor McClenon in 1882 married Miss Adeline White, who was born March 11, 1854, at Walton, New York. Mrs McClenon is a daughter of William A. White, who was a native of Connecticut. He went with his parents to Walton, New York, when a boy, and afterward became a well- known newspaper man. His father, Nathaniel White, was also a native of Connecticut, and of English descent. Mrs. McClenon's mother, Samantha (Metcalf) White, was born in New York. Mrs. McClenon was the fifth in a family of nine children. She received her education in the schools of Walton, and at Vassar college, from which she was graduated in 1878. She then taught "the young idea, etc.," for five years at various places, among them Newburgh, New York, Jacksonville, Illinois, and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Prof. and Mrs. McClenon are parents of two sons, Raymond B. and Walter H.