Roane County, West Virginia Biography of WILLIAM DENNIS McCLUNG, M. D. This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 429 Roane WILLIAM DENNIS McCLUNG, M. D., who has practiced medicine and surgery a number of years in West Virginia, was in the public health service under the Government at the great war plant at Nitro, and came from there to his present important duties as superintendent of the Spencer State Hospital for the Insane in Roane County. Doctor McClung was born at Rupert in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, April 17, 1876. The McClungs are a family that came out of Ireland, seven brothers of the name arriv- ing in New York some time in Colonial days. The father of Doctor McClung was Joseph Edward McClung and the grandfather, Andrew C. McClung. Andrew C. McClung was horn at Rupert in Greenbrier County in 1818, and after his marriage moved to Nicholas County, but in 1856 returned to Rupert, where he was prosperously engaged in farming until 1896. In that year he removed to Maywood in Fayette County, and died there in 1912. Though past military age, he furnished a substitute during the Civil war. Andrew C. McClung married Susan Sharp, who was born in Greenbrier County in 1821, and died at Rupert in 1884. Joseph Edward McClung was born near Mount Lockout in Nicholas County, July 7, 1848, but from early boyhood his home was at Rupert in Greenbrier County, where his time and abilities were taken up with his extensive farming inter- ests. He was a republican and a very active member of the Baptist Church. He had his home at Rupert, but his death occurred in the Charleston Hospital, March 9, 1921. Joseph E. McClung married Catherine Haggerty, who was born in Nicholas County in 1847, and is still living at Rupert. She is the mother of three children. Dr. James is a physician and surgeon at Richwood in Nicholas County and is a former member of the State Senate. William Dennis is the second in age. Laura is the wife of Sidney Smith, a fanner at Rupert. William Dennis McClung acquired a public school educa- tion at Rupert. As a youth his inclinations were in the di- rection of the law, and for nearly three years he was a student in the law department of the West Virginia Uni- versity at Morgantown. In 1901 he was admitted to prac- tice in Greenbrier and Nicholas counties, and for two years he was busy with this profession at Lewisburg. Then, abandoning the law, he entered the Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he graduated M. D. in 1907. After his graduation Doctor McClung practiced medicine three years in Pocahontas County, and then for eight years was a physician and surgeon at Richwood. Early in the great war he passed an examination and was commissioned for duty in the public health service, and was assigned as assistant surgeon to the Government plant at Nitro, West Virginia, where he remained two years. For eighteen months he was also surgeon for the Charles- ton Industrial Corporation at Nitro. Doctor McClung re- signed this work to become superintendent of the Spencer State Hospital in July, 1921. He has had charge of the hospital since September 1, 1921. He is a republican, and for two terms was mayor of Richwood. He is affiliated with Richwood Lodge No. 122, A. F. and A. M., is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, and a member of Hinton Lodge No. 821, Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks. Doctor McClung is a director and stockholder in the Citizens Bank of Richwood. In 1912, at Baltimore, he married Miss Louese Kirby, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter V. Kirby, residents of Ellamore, Randolph County, West Virginia. Her father is a farmer.