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Death of a Pioneer Furnaceman

Death of a Pioneer Furnaceman
Categories Person

Death of a Pioneer Furnaceman

Mr. W.E.S. McLean1, proprietor of the McLean House, corner of Second and Jefferson streets, died yesterday morning at a quarter to one o’clock.”

“Mr. McLean was the son of a sister of the late Judge Salters, and was born in Unionville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, September 16th, 1811. He came to Ohio in 1831, locating at Scioto Furnace, and was a clerk and manager of the furnace for about four years. In 1837 he was married to Miss Lucinda Powell, by whom he had four children, three of whom are living. Shortly after his marriage he removed to, and become manager of, Hecla Furnace. After one or two years at Hecla, he removed to Wheelersburg, and after a few years he went to Jackson Furnace, which he managed four or five years. In the meantime his first wife died, and on December 20th, 1851, he married a widow, Mrs. Nancy Spencer, by whom he had seven children, all of whom, with his wife, survive him. After parting with his interest in Jackson Furnace, he returned to Wheelersburg and kept a grocery store and hotel until April 1875, when he purchased the property known as the White Bear Hotel, corner of Second and Jefferson streets, in this city, which he has managed up to the time of his death.”

“The immediate cause of his death was from lung fever, he having been compelled to take his bed last Saturday night. He injured himself last December while cleaning a heavy snow-fall from his pavement, and has been in poor health ever since.”

“The deceased became a member of the M.E. Church twenty-five years ago, under the ministration of Reverend SP Cummins2. His funeral services will be held in the Wheelersburg ME Church, at nine o’clock tomorrow, and the remains will be deposited in the family burying ground hard by the village.”3

  1. William Eli Salter McLean
  2. Reverend Samuel Parker Cummins
  3. Death of a Pioneer Furnaceman. (1877, March 17). Portsmouth Times, p. 3.
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