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The W.W. Watkins Letter
MIDLAND
TENN Mr.
Hugh Davidson My
Dear Sir and Cousin: Your
letter was received yesterday, telling me of the visit last
summer of your kinsman, Gen. Thomas Davidson, of Ashville,
N.C., that he is compiling data for a history of the
Davidson family and their kin, and asked concerning a letter
bearing on the genealogy of our families, which he had heard
my father had written. I
have in my possession this letter, which we prize very
highly; not alone for the valuable family history it
contains but also for the reason that it was written by my
sainted father. I will forward this manuscript under separate cover at the time I mail you this letter, which you can use for the purpose i I
indicated in you letter, of getting some historys of our
families, both McLean and Davidson. Preserve same and return
at some convenient time. Your
letter was very interesting to me. Like yourself, I inherit
that love of family, especially and preeminently peculiar to
both McLean's and Davidson's. It
strikes me that I would like to be at that reunion next
summer of the Davidson's and kindred which you say Gen.
Davidson is arranging to take place on the old farm of Gen.
Wm. Davidson in Buncomb County, N.C. Whenever
I meet one of my name of a Davidson, or a Vance, my first
impulse is to know if he is of that same good stock to whom
we trace. When I find some of the same name but spell the
name other than McLean I have no desire to cultivate that
acquaintance for we claim to be the thoroughbred branch of
the name. Going
back to the origin of the name of our ancestors in Scotland,
they took the name from, and trace their origins as a
"Clan" to Gillean, who flourished about the year
1250. The name Gillean underwent several changes, before it
became McLean. Scotch history even traces their origin with
precision back to the year 1100, but they were not the
"Clan" McLean until about 1250. To
the name Gillean was prefixed "Mac", Mac, in the
scotch dialect, meaning son, showing that the clan as
composed of the sons of Gillean. The "G" in the
name was first left off, thus leaving the name Macillean.
Then finally the "IL' was left off, leaving then McLean
or MacLean. Of
all the clans of Scotland, none was ever more deserving of
honorable mention, and having its history carefully
recorded, than that of the clan McLean. For centuries they
held a conspicuous place for independence of being and
disinvested loyalty in the history of Scotland. This
"Clan" rapidly grew in influence and power, until
it reached it's zenith, at which time, during the reign of
James II, it was accounted the most powerful of any in the
Hebrides. At the date of the final forfeiture of the Lords
of the Isles, 1493, the lands belong to the clan McLean
comprised the greater part of Mull, The whole of Cull,
portions of Scarbo, Morvovan, Lochbor and Knapdale, not to
mention some of the smaller islands. Sir Walter Scott has
said concerning them "May the race of McGillean, the
fearless and free, remember Glenlevet, Harlaw and
Dundee". This clan McLean lived for many years in
conflict with other clans of Scotland. I
may be permitted to say the McLean's have reason to be proud
of their history. They were a noble people. The
name has been fully identified with the history of the
United States. Illinois has a McLean County. McLeansboro is
the County seat of Hamilton County, same state. One of the
counties of western Kentucky is named McLean. There is a
McLean County in Dakota. Minnesota has a McLean Township in
Ramsey County. Ohio has a McLean post office in Fayette
county, and a McLean township in Shelby County. Tompkins
County in New York has a McLean post office. McLean is a
post office in Kansas. McLean is a post office in North
Carolina. McLean is a post office in West Virginia, and
others could be named. This
family or clan united by ties of kinship and love continues
together for centuries during times of civil commotion and
revolutionary periods in Scotland. As
stated in my father’s "Stockard Letter" Ephraim
and Charles McLean, brothers, came from Scotland in 1750.
Ephraim being the head of our branch of the family. Later,
about 1765, three brothers, cousins of Ephraim and Charles,
John, James and Robert, emigrated to America. John settled
in Virginia, James South Carolina, John and Robert
afterwards removing to Ohio or Pennsylvania. To
give an accounting of the McLean's, of America, would be a
task that I would not be equal to, and would require a
volume as large almost as that of their highland Scottish
history. (Spare
the love as in the arts ) =can not read anymore from age=and
elements of civilization, surpassing those left on the
native soil. All the various walks of live have been adorned
by those of the name. They have attained eminence in
statesmanship, diplomacy, civil law, divinity, medicine,
invention, literature and the fine arts. While
holding to that idea that eugenics -to use the new coined
word, meaning what a man inherits by birth, is more potent
for good, than is euthenics -to use another new word of
opposite meaning to the former, and meaning what men receive
after birth by training. We may yet strive to better the
conditions of birth (Eugenics). The two forces, eugenics,
good blood, and euthenics, good training, must be combined
in our ancestors. Of one thing we may feel assured, that every mating of the McLeans, Davidsons and Vances with each other has been for the betterment of the races. I have heard my father tell that his mother, who you know was a daughter of David Vance of North Carolina, would visit her father, going all the way from this place horseback, taking a baby in her lap and an older child behind. It seems stranger than fiction to this generation that a woman could undertake such a task. What changes are wrought, not by time, but in time. I am not one to believe that our wives of today are less courageous than their grandmothers were, only conditions are changed. Your
Cousin, W.W.
McLean |
