Stockard Letter

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The Stockard Letter Middleton , Tenn. August 26th, 1885 Mr. Samuel M. Stockard Springfield, Mo. My dear relative: Your letter addressed to me at Shelbyville was received four days since. Shelbyville is twelve miles from my place, hence, the delay in its delivery. Your letter is much appreciated. It is a pleasure to be able to give you the information desired. I am indeed the ALNEY McLEAN you knew when you were a mere child. I have now passed by three score and ten years. My health and strength have yielded to the weight of years upon me, and my nerves are so shattered, that I can only write with a pencil, and that with my left hand. My daughter, LELA VANCE, acts as penman in writing this letter. Our McLEAN family, of America, consists of two branches. EPHRAIM McLEAN being the progenitor of one branch, and CHARLES that of the other. EPHRAIM McLEAN, my grandfather, was born in Scotland in the year 1730. His father was JOHN McLEAN and his mother was a daughter of EPHRAIM MOORE, of that country. That accounts for the name "EPHRAIM" being so liberally patronized in the McLEAN families. EPHRAIM and his brother CHARLES came to America in the year 1750. CHARLES was the older of the two brothers, but I don't know how much. They both settled in Western North Carolina, and partly raised their families there. EPHRAIM married ELIZABETH DAVIDSON about the year 1761. She being the maternal head of the family demands some notice of her "DAVIDSON" family. Her father, Major JOHN DAVIDSON, moved from near Philadelphia to western North Carolina about the year 1748. He was the father also of WILLIAM DAVIDSON and GEORGE and JOHN DAVIDSON. JOHN and GEORGE married sisters, daughters of JOHN BREVARD. The large family of BREVARD'S were distinguished patriots in the war of the Revolution. Dr. EPHRAIM BREVARD wrote the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which was so enthusiastically ratified by the Convention assembled at Charlotte in May, 1775. The Convention then and there (assembled) appointed what they called a Committee of Safety, a kind of Legislature, which held regular monthly meetings at Salisburg in Rowan County. EPHRAIM McLEAN was a member of that committee. At the meeting of the committee, October, 1775, it was ordered that three additional brigades should be raised. THOMAS POLK was appointed Colonel, CHARLES McLEAN, Major of one of those brigades. I must say something more of the DAVIDSON family, before I leave them. John and his wife were killed by Indians. WILLIAM raised a large family of sons and daughters. Two of the daughters you have some knowledge of . They were Aunt RUTH and SALLIE WILLIAMS. RUTH was the wife of SAM WILLIAMS, and SALLIE the wife of JOSHUA WILLIAMS and the mother of your Aunt LUCRETlA. The sons of WILLIAM DAVIDSON were GEORGE, JOHN, HUGH, MITCHELL and SAMUEL. HUGH and MITCHELL married sisters of my mother. They were daughters of DAVID VANCE, of Ashville, N.C. He was grandfather of Senator ZEB VANCE, of that State, who is my cousin. I learn from Wheeler's History of North Carolina that EMPHAIM McLEAN was present at the meeting of the Committee of Safety at Salisburg on the 22nd of October, 1775. His name does not appear at any subsequent meeting of that body. Now, I suppose he must have moved soon after this to Kentucky. He went to Harrodsburg, in that state where he remained but a short time, when he moved to the Cumberland river and settled on that stream four miles above where Nashville now stands, on a six hundred acre tract of land near a bend of the river, which is now known as McLEAN's bend. At the time of Nashville's centennial celebration in 1880, a history of the early settlers of that city was published in the papers of the city, in which EPHRAIM McLEAN was mentioned as one of the three trustees of the school at that place. I suppose he left Nashville soon after, for I have been told that his youngest son, ROBERT, was born in Harrodsburg, Ky. in 1782. Sometime towards the close of the last century he moved to Maury County, Tenn., and settled on Knob Creek, where he remained until 1820. He was then ninety years old, and, being worn out with age, he went back to Kentucky to spend his few remaining days with his sons, ALNEY and ROBERT, who lived at Greenville His son, ALNEY, had a house built in the yard for his father and mother to live in. He lived three more years and died at the age of ninety-three, and I have never learned whether Grandmother survived him or not. EPHRAIM McLEAN was the father of twelve children. His oldest son, JOHN, was killed by the Indians, and his youngest, a daughter, died in infancy. He raised to manhood arid womanhood eight sons and two daughters. His sons were GEORGE, EPHRAIM, CHARLES, SAMUEL, ALNEY, WILLIAM, JAMES and ROBERT His daughters married and lived in Kentucky. One of them married Gen. ROBERT EWING, a brother of Rev. FINIS EWING. She (possibly JANE) was the mother of Judge EPHRAIM EWING, a distinguished lawyer of that state. He represents Ky. in Congress, and was appointed Supreme Judge of that state, which position he held until his death. And he is the EWING that endowed a professorship in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn. The other daughter (possibly MARGARET) married ROBERT BRANK, and she was the mother of HOUSTON BRANK and EPHRAIM BRANK. HOUSTON BRANK studied law in the office of Judge ALNEY McLEAN, and in a class with JOHN McLEAN, the eldest son of Rev. EPHRAIM McLEAN. GEORGE McLEAN married his cousin, a daughter (possibly PAMELA) of Gen. WILLIAM DAVIDSON. He settled in Logan County, Ky., twelve miles west of Russellville, about one hundred years ago. His youngest son, ANDREW JACKSON, died on the same farm since at the age of seventy six years. ALNEY McLEAN and EPHRAIM BRANK married sisters, and they are said to have been refined and accomplished ladies. Uncle ALNEY's sons were: WILLIAM, a farmer. His second son, THORNTON, was a Presbyterian minister of line ability who went to Mississippi and died there. His third son, ROBERT DAVIDSON, was a lawyer, lived at Grenada, Miss. and was judge of the Circuit Court of that District. He died there in 1878 and his wife and two daughters died there of yellow fever when it visited that place with such fatal results in 1878. His oldest daughter, ANNA, married a McBRIDE. They moved to Mississippi and there he died. She was an accomplished lady -so it is said. His second daughter, TABITHA, was also very accomplished; she never married. She is now seventy-one years old and living with her twin brothers, CHARLES and ALNEY, at Greenville Uncle ROBERT married a Miss WILSON, and they had five children; three sons and two daughters. The oldest son, ROBERT, was a practicing physician in Muhlenburg County. EDWARD and ALNEY went with their father to Miss. and settled there. CELIA married ROBERT RUSSELL, and they still live In Clarksville, Tenn. Her father died at her house at the age of ninety. I don't know what became of the other daughter, ELIZA. FINIS McLEAN, the youngest son of Rev. EPHRAIM McLEAN, once wrote me that he had a conversation with Uncle ROBERT, who told him that he was eighty years old and that he had not felt a pain in his body for thirty years and was then an active practitioner of his profession. Our ancestors were a hardy and athletic race of men. My father was six fleet two inches tall and weighed over two hundred pound6 and he did not carry any surplus flesh. I could tell many anecdotes of their athletic sports, but I must desist. I am running too much into detail. I must lop off or my letter will never come to an end. My father, Uncle SAM, Uncle EPHRAIM, and Uncle WILLIAM lived and died in Tennessee. The two latter, EPHRAIM and WILLIAM, were buried on Snow Creek, in Maury County, on the farm which belonged to your grandfather. Uncle WILLIAM has two sons, WILLIAM and SAMUEL living in Marshall county, of this state. His oldest son, Andrew, died two years ago and was eighty-three years old. I could relate how it was that CHARLES McLEAN, of Maury County, Tenn., met, wooed and won SALLIE VANCE, of the classic Swananoa, but I must refrain. My father lived in Maury county until 1811, when he moved to this, Rutherford county, where I now live. He died here in 1825, leaving my mother with ten children to raise - six sons four daughters. The sons were: DAVID VANCE, who died in Warren county at the age of seventy one years. EPHRAIM BAXTER died at Chattanooga in 1874 at the age of fifty-two. Dr. WILLIAM McLEAN died in Tyler, Texas. ROBERT BRANK, my youngest brother, lives in Nashville, the only one of the large family except myself. He is sixty-five years old Sister SUSAN HOWARD DAVIDSON died in Benton County, Ark. eight years past, being seventy years old. PRISCILLA BRANK McCUTCHEON died near Union City, West Tennessee, about six years since. SARAH JANE BAIRD died in Marshall County. CYNTHIANA WADLEY died in Williamson County. My mother died here in 1847, in her sixty-ninth year. Uncle SAM lived and died near Lawrenceburg, this state; Uncle JAMES in Madison County, Miss. he has one son living in that state, EPHRAIM McLEAN. he is about eighty years old, and his daughter, ELIZA HANNAH, is living at Hot Springs, Ark. I have devoted as much time and space to one branch of the family as will be of interest to you, and I will now take up the other branch, the one through which J. D. WALKER had descended. CHARLES McLEAN, a brother of EPHRAIM, married SUSAN HOWARD, a daughter of Dr. HOWARD, of Philadelphia, an eminent physician of that city in his day. She was, however, a Widow ALLISON when he married her. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. The oldest son, JOHN, distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War and died soon after its close. His daughter, REBECCA, married a man in North Carolina by the name of WHITE. She died young leaving one son, CHARLES. He was taken to Ky. while an infant and raised by his grandmother. EPHRAIM, the youngest son, married ELIZABETH BYERS. Her father moved from Rockbridge County, Va., before the Revolutionary War. He was engaged in indigo farming, which was a profitable pursuit in those days. When the war was prevailing he raised a company of volunteers, in which his three sons enlisted and entered the service, leaving his wife and three daughters on the farm. The patriotic position that his sons and Mr. BYERS had assumed aroused the malice of the Tories, who were numerous in that locality. They (the Tories) had frequently threatened Mrs. BYERS to take vengeance on her family by burning her home over her head and destroying her property, if she did not leave. She finally became alarmed for her safety and hastily gathered together what light household plunder she could pack on a two horse wagon and, with her faithful servant to drive, struck out for Rockbridge County, Va., where it was comparatively peaceful. When she got to the Catawba river, at Cowan's Ford, she found that stream very much swollen from recent rains. Gen. DAVIDSON, with his troops, was posted on this side of the ford expecting EARL CORNWALLIS to cross from the other side of the river. In this great dilemma she ordered the driver to chain the bed to the running gear of the wagon and take the stream. They forded in safety, and when they rose on the other side, CORNWALLIS had filed in behind them and attempted to cross, when the fight commenced at the ford. Gen. DAVIDSON was shot and fell off his horse into the river. Mrs. BYERS witnessed this battle from the top of the hill beyond They went on to Va. without any further trouble. After the battle of King's Mountain and the retreat of the British to Yorktown they returned to their home to find it greatly despoiled by the Tories; they had broken up the furniture, ripped open the beds and emptied the feathers in the yard, cut down the young orchard and destroyed the fencing on the farm. To complete the vandalism, they built a tire on the floor of one of the rooms of the house with the intention of burning it, but at this moment they discovered a sick man in the other room and raised the cry of small-pox. With this fear they hastily fled, and the sick man extinguished the Ire and saved the house. This is the version given by, ELIZABETH BYERS McLEAN in after life, and handed down by tradition through her generations. It has been my good fortune to obtain them through correspondence with her youngest son, FINIS EWING McLEAN, late of Greencastle, Ind. I am indebted to him for valuable information. At the time the above events transpired ELIZABETH was twelve years old. She and EPHRAIM McLEAN were united in marriage in 1788. In 1796 they, with their father, CHARLES McLEAN, moved to Ky. and settled in the wilderness twelve miles west of Russellville, in Logan County. In those days there were no doctors in that country, and from necessity EPHRAIM's mother took up the practice of medicine having learned something of the science from her father. She continued to practice as long as she lived and died at the age of ninety years Her husband preceded her to the grave many years. EPHRAIM McLEAN was converted under the preaching of the great McGready, in the revival of 1800, and soon after joined the Cumberland Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church as a candidate for the ministry. Church history will inform you why young men who were candidates for the ministry from that presbytery were candidates so long. On the evening of the 3rd of Feb., 1810, FINIS EWING and SAMUEL KING went to the house of EPHRAIM McLEAN to consult with him on the subject of the restrictions that the Synod of Ky. had placed on Cumberland Presbytery, under the control of Synod. That night's consultation, directed to the formation of an independent presbytery. resulted in the determination to go to SAMUEL McADOO'S, in Dixon County, Tenn., the next day, and if they could enlist him in their cause they would constitute an independent presbytery. Mr. McADOO, alter giving the matter careful consideration, decided to enter their plans. They then and there organized a presbytery and ordained EPHRAIM McLEAN to the full work of the ministry. His ordination was the constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. EPHRAIM died in 1812. The character and capabilities of a noble woman were developed in the person of his wife. She had been rocked in the cradle of the Revolution, inured to the privations and troubles of a long war and the hardships of frontier life in later years, which fitted her for the new field of life imposed upon her by the death of her husband. Her great merit was fully attested in the distinguished family of sons and daughters that she raised. She was left with a family of six sons and three daughters to provide for and educate. her eldest son, JOHN, after returning from the Indian War under Gen. JACKSON, studied law under the instruction of Judge McLEAN in Greenville. JOHN settled in Shawneetown, Ill., to practice law when Ill. was a territory. He was a fine scholar and a natural orator and a robust man weighing over two hundred pounds. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention that formed Illinois' first constitution, and was her first Congressman when she had but one representative, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824. He served out his first term and part of the second and died in Shawneetown, leaving a wife and one child. The populous county of McLEAN, in which Bloomington is situated, is named for him. His son WILLIAM settled in Ill. in 1820. He laid out the town of McLeansborough, which was named for him, in the county of Hamilton, where he lived a few years; then he moved to Randolph County Mo., bought a farm adjoining his brother CHARLES, where he farmed and practiced medicine very extensively, and died at an advanced age and was buried by, the side of his brother, CHARLES, who died a few years before him. They both left families. JAMES lived and died at Lawrenceville, Ill. He left three daughters and three sons ASELL McGEE died in Logan County, Ky., about twenty-five years ago, leaving a son and two daughters and was buried at the family burying ground where his father and mother were buried, and also his brothers, EPHRAIM and HOWARD, and his three sisters, SUSAN HOWARD, the oldest, ELIZABETH WALTON, the next, and ANN, the youngest. SUSAN HOWARD McLEAN was married to Col. JAMES B. WALKER of Logan County. She left four sons and one daughter, Senator J D WALKER being the youngest son. EPHRAIM died when young. FINIS EWING McLEAN, late of Greencastle, Ind., was the youngest child of Rev. EPHRAIM and ELIZABETH McLEAN. He died about two years ago at the age of seventy-seven. He was a lawyer in his younger days and practiced his profession in the courts of Judge McLEAN for about twelve years. In 1837 he was elected to the Legislature of Ky., and afterwards appointed a member of the Board of Internal Improvement for the state, and he fanned extensively in Todd County, near Elkton. In 1848 he was a member of the electoral college that cast the vote of the state for Gen. TAYLOR for President. He was elected to Congress in 1849, and served two years. His health broke down at that time and he retired to private life. He has three sons by, his first wife living, THORNTON lives in Rutherford County, near Murfreesboro, Tenn.; he married the daughter of Judge RIDLEY of this county, she leaving one son who is about twelve years old, and he is said to be a prodigy of smartness and manly behavior. FINIS, the next son, lives at St. Joseph, Mo., EDWARD C., the next son, gave his address in the last five minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Greencastle, Ind. he was a minister of that church. They (preachers) sometimes float around without any local habitation. Hon. FINIS McLEAN has left only one son by his last wife. His name is EWING, and he is twenty years old. I guess he is at Greencastle with his mother. He was to have finished his course at Asbury College last year. I have now finished my long letter, except to make some mention of my own family, which I will do right briefly. My wife has now been dead two years. I was married to her in 1845; she was eighteen and I was thirty. Her name was MARTHA MOORE, a sister of WM. R. MOORE of Memphis. He was elected to Congress from that district in 1882. I must be permitted to say that she was a woman of rare qualities of mind and heart and highly adorned with the Christian graces. She was a good wife and a loving mother; ever watchful of the best interests of her family and highly capable of training her children for useful lives. They loved her with a hallowed devotion, and her counsel will ever be remembered and cherished by them. May Heaven's blessings follow them for her sake. I have seven living children , three sons and four daughters. My eldest went to Memphis in 1864 when he was sixteen years old, to work in the store with WM R. MOORE, his uncle. MR. MOORE has been a wholesale dry goods merchant in that city since before the war. Robert long since became a partner in the house. My youngest son WALTER BAXTER, age twenty, went there two years ago to work in the store with his brother. They are in the largest establishment of it's kind in the South. My second son WILLIAM WATKINS, thirty-four years old, is in business with me in farming and merchandising. I have been in that business for thirty-two years. WILLIAM has a wife and four children. ROBERT is married and has only one child, a daughter. My oldest daughter, FANNIE, married a L.B. JARMON, a Baptist minister. My second daughter, SALLIE, married Hon H. H. NORMAN, a farmer of this county. The third daughter, DELLA, married on the 17th inst., a Mr. EARLY of Nashville, Tenn. My youngest daughter, LELA VANCE, and I constitute my present family. Since writing this off hand letter (imperfect as it is) I conclude it contains too much of our family history to be lost to them. Perhaps no other member of the family now living is in possession of all the facts contained therein. With this thought I decided to take a copy to be handed down to my posterity, hoping that their appreciation will secure for it careful preservation and transmission to succeeding generations. I will now tell you the relationship existing between Rev. FINIS EWING (mentioned in your letter) and our branch of the McLEAN family: His mother was a daughter of General DAVIDSON and a niece of my grandmother. FINIS EWING and my Uncle, GEORGE McLEAN, married sisters. did you know that your Grandmother McLEAN was a BOYD? She was a sister of old LARDNER BOYD of Maury County, Tenn. I think JOHN and LYNN BOYD were nephews of hers; if so, your Aunt BECKY married her cousin Give my affectionate regards to J. D. WALKER and all other relatives I have out West. Your kinsman, ALNEY H. McLEAN

Tennessee Flag

The Stockard Letter

Middleton , Tenn.
August 26th, 1885

Mr. Samuel M. Stockard
Springfield, Mo.

My dear relative:

Your letter addressed to me at Shelbyville was received four days since. Shelbyville is twelve miles from my place, hence, the delay in its delivery. Your letter is much appreciated. It is a pleasure to be able to give you the information desired. I am indeed the ALNEY McLEAN you knew when you were a mere child. I have now passed by three score and ten years. My health and strength have yielded to the weight of years upon me, and my nerves are so shattered, that I can only write with a pencil, and that with my left hand. My daughter, LELA VANCE, acts as penman in writing this letter.

Our McLEAN family, of America, consists of two branches. EPHRAIM McLEAN being the progenitor of one branch, and CHARLES that of the other. EPHRAIM McLEAN, my grandfather, was born in Scotland in the year 1730. His father was JOHN McLEAN and his mother was a daughter of EPHRAIM MOORE, of that country. That accounts for the name "EPHRAIM" being so liberally patronized in the McLEAN families. EPHRAIM and his brother CHARLES came to America in the year 1750. CHARLES was the older of the two brothers, but I don't know how much. They both settled in Western North Carolina, and partly raised their families there. EPHRAIM married ELIZABETH DAVIDSON about the year 1761. She being the maternal head of the family demands some notice of her "DAVIDSON" family. Her father, Major JOHN DAVIDSON, moved from near Philadelphia to western North Carolina about the year 1748. He was the father also of WILLIAM DAVIDSON and GEORGE and JOHN DAVIDSON. JOHN and GEORGE married sisters, daughters of JOHN BREVARD. The large family of BREVARD'S were distinguished patriots in the war of the Revolution. Dr. EPHRAIM BREVARD wrote the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which was so enthusiastically ratified by the Convention assembled at Charlotte in May, 1775. The Convention then and there (assembled) appointed what they called a Committee of Safety, a kind of Legislature, which held regular monthly meetings at Salisburg in Rowan County. EPHRAIM McLEAN was a member of that committee. At the meeting of the committee, October, 1775, it was ordered that three additional brigades should be raised. THOMAS POLK was appointed Colonel, CHARLES McLEAN, Major of one of those brigades. I must say something more of the DAVIDSON family, before I leave them. John and his wife were killed by Indians. WILLIAM raised a large family of sons and daughters. Two of the daughters you have some knowledge of . They were Aunt RUTH and SALLIE WILLIAMS. RUTH was the wife of SAM WILLIAMS, and SALLIE the wife of JOSHUA WILLIAMS and the mother of your Aunt LUCRETlA. The sons of WILLIAM DAVIDSON were GEORGE, JOHN, HUGH, MITCHELL and SAMUEL. HUGH and MITCHELL married sisters of my mother. They were daughters of DAVID VANCE, of Ashville, N.C. He was grandfather of Senator ZEB VANCE, of that State, who is my cousin.

I learn from Wheeler's History of North Carolina that EMPHAIM McLEAN was present at the meeting of the Committee of Safety at Salisburg on the 22nd of October, 1775. His name does not appear at any subsequent meeting of that body. Now, I suppose he must have moved soon after this to Kentucky. He went to Harrodsburg, in that state where he remained but a short time, when he moved to the Cumberland river and settled on that stream four miles above where Nashville now stands, on a six hundred acre tract of land near a bend of the river, which is now known as McLEAN's bend. At the time of Nashville's centennial celebration in 1880, a history of the early settlers of that city was published in the papers of the city, in which EPHRAIM McLEAN was mentioned as one of the three trustees of the school at that place. I suppose he left Nashville soon after, for I have been told that his youngest son, ROBERT, was born in Harrodsburg, Ky. in 1782. Sometime towards the close of the last century he moved to Maury County, Tenn., and settled on Knob Creek, where he remained until 1820. He was then ninety years old, and, being worn out with age, he went back to Kentucky to spend his few remaining days with his sons, ALNEY and ROBERT, who lived at Greenville His son, ALNEY, had a house built in the yard for his father and mother to live in. He lived three more years and died at the age of ninety-three, and I have never learned whether Grandmother survived him or not. EPHRAIM McLEAN was the father of twelve children. His oldest son, JOHN, was killed by the Indians, and his youngest, a daughter, died in infancy. He raised to manhood arid womanhood eight sons and two daughters. His sons were GEORGE, EPHRAIM, CHARLES, SAMUEL, ALNEY, WILLIAM, JAMES and ROBERT His daughters married and lived in Kentucky. One of them married Gen. ROBERT EWING, a brother of Rev. FINIS EWING. She (possibly JANE) was the mother of Judge EPHRAIM EWING, a distinguished lawyer of that state. He represents Ky. in Congress, and was appointed Supreme Judge of that state, which position he held until his death. And he is the EWING that endowed a professorship in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn. The other daughter (possibly MARGARET) married ROBERT BRANK, and she was the mother of HOUSTON BRANK and EPHRAIM BRANK. HOUSTON BRANK studied law in the office of Judge ALNEY McLEAN, and in a class with JOHN McLEAN, the eldest son of Rev. EPHRAIM McLEAN. GEORGE McLEAN married his cousin, a daughter (possibly PAMELA) of Gen. WILLIAM DAVIDSON. He settled in Logan County, Ky., twelve miles west of Russellville, about one hundred years ago. His youngest son, ANDREW JACKSON, died on the same farm since at the age of seventy six years. ALNEY McLEAN and EPHRAIM BRANK married sisters, and they are said to have been refined and accomplished ladies. Uncle ALNEY's sons were: WILLIAM, a farmer. His second son, THORNTON, was a Presbyterian minister of line ability who went to Mississippi and died there. His third son, ROBERT DAVIDSON, was a lawyer, lived at Grenada, Miss. and was judge of the Circuit Court of that District. He died there in 1878 and his wife and two daughters died there of yellow fever when it visited that place with such fatal results in 1878. His oldest daughter, ANNA, married a McBRIDE. They moved to Mississippi and there he died. She was an accomplished lady -so it is said. His second daughter, TABITHA, was also very accomplished; she never married. She is now seventy-one years old and living with her twin brothers, CHARLES and ALNEY, at Greenville Uncle ROBERT married a Miss WILSON, and they had five children; three sons and two daughters. The oldest son, ROBERT, was a practicing physician in Muhlenburg County. EDWARD and ALNEY went with their father to Miss. and settled there. CELIA married ROBERT RUSSELL, and they still live In Clarksville, Tenn. Her father died at her house at the age of ninety. I don't know what became of the other daughter, ELIZA. FINIS McLEAN, the youngest son of Rev. EPHRAIM McLEAN, once wrote me that he had a conversation with Uncle ROBERT, who told him that he was eighty years old and that he had not felt a pain in his body for thirty years and was then an active practitioner of his profession. Our ancestors were a hardy and athletic race of men. My father was six fleet two inches tall and weighed over two hundred pound6 and he did not carry any surplus flesh. I could tell many anecdotes of their athletic sports, but I must desist. I am running too much into detail. I must lop off or my letter will never come to an end. My father, Uncle SAM, Uncle EPHRAIM, and Uncle WILLIAM lived and died in Tennessee. The two latter, EPHRAIM and WILLIAM, were buried on Snow Creek, in Maury County, on the farm which belonged to your grandfather. Uncle WILLIAM has two sons, WILLIAM and SAMUEL living in Marshall county, of this state. His oldest son, Andrew, died two years ago and was eighty-three years old. I could relate how it was that CHARLES McLEAN, of Maury County, Tenn., met, wooed and won SALLIE VANCE, of the classic Swananoa, but I must refrain. My father lived in Maury county until 1811, when he moved to this, Rutherford county, where I now live. He died here in 1825, leaving my mother with ten children to raise - six sons four daughters. The sons were: DAVID VANCE, who died in Warren county at the age of seventy one years. EPHRAIM BAXTER died at Chattanooga in 1874 at the age of fifty-two. Dr. WILLIAM McLEAN died in Tyler, Texas.

ROBERT BRANK, my youngest brother, lives in Nashville, the only one of the large family except myself. He is sixty-five years old Sister SUSAN HOWARD DAVIDSON died in Benton County, Ark. eight years past, being seventy years old. PRISCILLA BRANK McCUTCHEON died near Union City, West Tennessee, about six years since. SARAH JANE BAIRD died in Marshall County. CYNTHIANA WADLEY died in Williamson County. My mother died here in 1847, in her sixty-ninth year. Uncle SAM lived and died near Lawrenceburg, this state; Uncle JAMES in Madison County, Miss. he has one son living in that state, EPHRAIM McLEAN. he is about eighty years old, and his daughter, ELIZA HANNAH, is living at Hot Springs, Ark. I have devoted as much time and space to one branch of the family as will be of interest to you, and I will now take up the other branch, the one through which J. D. WALKER had descended.

CHARLES McLEAN, a brother of EPHRAIM, married SUSAN HOWARD, a daughter of Dr. HOWARD, of Philadelphia, an eminent physician of that city in his day. She was, however, a Widow ALLISON when he married her. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. The oldest son, JOHN, distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War and died soon after its close. His daughter, REBECCA, married a man in North Carolina by the name of WHITE. She died young leaving one son, CHARLES. He was taken to Ky. while an infant and raised by his grandmother. EPHRAIM, the youngest son, married ELIZABETH BYERS. Her father moved from Rockbridge County, Va., before the Revolutionary War. He was engaged in indigo farming, which was a profitable pursuit in those days. When the war was prevailing he raised a company of volunteers, in which his three sons enlisted and entered the service, leaving his wife and three daughters on the farm. The patriotic position that his sons and Mr. BYERS had assumed aroused the malice of the Tories, who were numerous in that locality. They (the Tories) had frequently threatened Mrs. BYERS to take vengeance on her family by burning her home over her head and destroying her property, if she did not leave. She finally became alarmed for her safety and hastily gathered together what light household plunder she could pack on a two horse wagon and, with her faithful servant to drive, struck out for Rockbridge County, Va., where it was comparatively peaceful. When she got to the Catawba river, at Cowan's Ford, she found that stream very much swollen from recent rains. Gen. DAVIDSON, with his troops, was posted on this side of the ford expecting EARL CORNWALLIS to cross from the other side of the river. In this great dilemma she ordered the driver to chain the bed to the running gear of the wagon and take the stream. They forded in safety, and when they rose on the other side, CORNWALLIS had filed in behind them and attempted to cross, when the fight commenced at the ford. Gen. DAVIDSON was shot and fell off his horse into the river. Mrs. BYERS witnessed this battle from the top of the hill beyond They went on to Va. without any further trouble. After the battle of King's Mountain and the retreat of the British to Yorktown they returned to their home to find it greatly despoiled by the Tories; they had broken up the furniture, ripped open the beds and emptied the feathers in the yard, cut down the young orchard and destroyed the fencing on the farm. To complete the vandalism, they built a tire on the floor of one of the rooms of the house with the intention of burning it, but at this moment they discovered a sick man in the other room and raised the cry of small-pox. With this fear they hastily fled, and the sick man extinguished the Ire and saved the house. This is the version given by, ELIZABETH BYERS McLEAN in after life, and handed down by tradition through her generations. It has been my good fortune to obtain them through correspondence with her youngest son, FINIS EWING McLEAN, late of Greencastle, Ind. I am indebted to him for valuable information. At the time the above events transpired ELIZABETH was twelve years old. She and EPHRAIM McLEAN were united in marriage in 1788. In 1796 they, with their father, CHARLES McLEAN, moved to Ky. and settled in the wilderness twelve miles west of Russellville, in Logan County. In those days there were no doctors in that country, and from necessity EPHRAIM's mother took up the practice of medicine having learned something of the science from her father. She continued to practice as long as she lived and died at the age of ninety years Her husband preceded her to the grave many years. EPHRAIM McLEAN was converted under the preaching of the great McGready, in the revival of 1800, and soon after joined the Cumberland Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church as a candidate for the ministry. Church history will inform you why young men who were candidates for the ministry from that presbytery were candidates so long. On the evening of the 3rd of Feb., 1810, FINIS EWING and SAMUEL KING went to the house of EPHRAIM McLEAN to consult with him on the subject of the restrictions that the Synod of Ky. had placed on Cumberland Presbytery, under the control of Synod. That night's consultation, directed to the formation of an independent presbytery. resulted in the determination to go to SAMUEL McADOO'S, in Dixon County, Tenn., the next day, and if they could enlist him in their cause they would constitute an independent presbytery. Mr. McADOO, alter giving the matter careful consideration, decided to enter their plans. They then and there organized a presbytery and ordained EPHRAIM McLEAN to the full work of the ministry. His ordination was the constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. EPHRAIM died in 1812. The character and capabilities of a noble woman were developed in the person of his wife. She had been rocked in the cradle of the Revolution, inured to the privations and troubles of a long war and the hardships of frontier life in later years, which fitted her for the new field of life imposed upon her by the death of her husband. Her great merit was fully attested in the distinguished family of sons and daughters that she raised. She was left with a family of six sons and three daughters to provide for and educate. her eldest son, JOHN, after returning from the Indian War under Gen. JACKSON, studied law under the instruction of Judge McLEAN in Greenville. JOHN settled in Shawneetown, Ill., to practice law when Ill. was a territory. He was a fine scholar and a natural orator and a robust man weighing over two hundred pounds. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention that formed Illinois' first constitution, and was her first Congressman when she had but one representative, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824. He served out his first term and part of the second and died in Shawneetown, leaving a wife and one child. The populous county of McLEAN, in which Bloomington is situated, is named for him. His son WILLIAM settled in Ill. in 1820. He laid out the town of McLeansborough, which was named for him, in the county of Hamilton, where he lived a few years; then he moved to Randolph County Mo., bought a farm adjoining his brother CHARLES, where he farmed and practiced medicine very extensively, and died at an advanced age and was buried by, the side of his brother, CHARLES, who died a few years before him. They both left families. JAMES lived and died at Lawrenceville, Ill. He left three daughters and three sons ASELL McGEE died in Logan County, Ky., about twenty-five years ago, leaving a son and two daughters and was buried at the family burying ground where his father and mother were buried, and also his brothers, EPHRAIM and HOWARD, and his three sisters, SUSAN HOWARD, the oldest, ELIZABETH WALTON, the next, and ANN, the youngest. SUSAN HOWARD McLEAN was married to Col. JAMES B. WALKER of Logan County. She left four sons and one daughter, Senator J D WALKER being the youngest son. EPHRAIM died when young.

FINIS EWING McLEAN, late of Greencastle, Ind., was the youngest child of Rev. EPHRAIM and ELIZABETH McLEAN. He died about two years ago at the age of seventy-seven. He was a lawyer in his younger days and practiced his profession in the courts of Judge McLEAN for about twelve years. In 1837 he was elected to the Legislature of Ky., and afterwards appointed a member of the Board of Internal Improvement for the state, and he fanned extensively in Todd County, near Elkton. In 1848 he was a member of the electoral college that cast the vote of the state for Gen. TAYLOR for President. He was elected to Congress in 1849, and served two years. His health broke down at that time and he retired to private life. He has three sons by, his first wife living, THORNTON lives in Rutherford County, near Murfreesboro, Tenn.; he married the daughter of Judge RIDLEY of this county, she leaving one son who is about twelve years old, and he is said to be a prodigy of smartness and manly behavior. FINIS, the next son, lives at St. Joseph, Mo., EDWARD C., the next son, gave his address in the last five minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Greencastle, Ind. he was a minister of that church. They (preachers) sometimes float around without any local habitation. Hon. FINIS McLEAN has left only one son by his last wife. His name is EWING, and he is twenty years old. I guess he is at Greencastle with his mother. He was to have finished his course at Asbury College last year.

I have now finished my long letter, except to make some mention of my own family, which I will do right briefly. My wife has now been dead two years. I was married to her in 1845; she was eighteen and I was thirty. Her name was MARTHA MOORE, a sister of WM. R. MOORE of Memphis. He was elected to Congress from that district in 1882. I must be permitted to say that she was a woman of rare qualities of mind and heart and highly adorned with the Christian graces. She was a good wife and a loving mother; ever watchful of the best interests of her family and highly capable of training her children for useful lives. They loved her with a hallowed devotion, and her counsel will ever be remembered and cherished by them. May Heaven's blessings follow them for her sake. I have seven living children , three sons and four daughters. My eldest went to Memphis in 1864 when he was sixteen years old, to work in the store with WM R. MOORE, his uncle. MR. MOORE has been a wholesale dry goods merchant in that city since before the war. Robert long since became a partner in the house. My youngest son WALTER BAXTER, age twenty, went there two years ago to work in the store with his brother. They are in the largest establishment of it's kind in the South. My second son WILLIAM WATKINS, thirty-four years old, is in business with me in farming and merchandising. I have been in that business for thirty-two years. WILLIAM has a wife and four children. ROBERT is married and has only one child, a daughter. My oldest daughter, FANNIE, married a L.B. JARMON, a Baptist minister. My second daughter, SALLIE, married Hon H. H. NORMAN, a farmer of this county. The third daughter, DELLA, married on the 17th inst., a Mr. EARLY of Nashville, Tenn. My youngest daughter, LELA VANCE, and I constitute my present family.

Since writing this off hand letter (imperfect as it is) I conclude it contains too much of our family history to be lost to them. Perhaps no other member of the family now living is in possession of all the facts contained therein. With this thought I decided to take a copy to be handed down to my posterity, hoping that their appreciation will secure for it careful preservation and transmission to succeeding generations.

I will now tell you the relationship existing between Rev. FINIS EWING (mentioned in your letter) and our branch of the McLEAN family: His mother was a daughter of General DAVIDSON and a niece of my grandmother. FINIS EWING and my Uncle, GEORGE McLEAN, married sisters. did you know that your Grandmother McLEAN was a BOYD? She was a sister of old LARDNER BOYD of Maury County, Tenn. I think JOHN and LYNN BOYD were nephews of hers; if so, your Aunt BECKY married her cousin Give my affectionate regards to J. D. WALKER and all other relatives I have out West.

Your kinsman,

ALNEY H. McLEAN