1799 They finally settled in the lush forests of the Miami River valley. Over years of hard labour they cleared a farm in the township of Clearcreek, Warren Co., Ohio. However the family was in for a brutal surprise.Fergus McLean
Pioneer
In 1789, the revolution won, "having a large family and being limited in means, he soon decided to go west". So began their pattern of homesteading for a few years, then pushing on, further west, deeper into the wilderness. They traveled over land by covered wagon, living first in Morgantown, Virginia. (Beer spelt it Morganstown).1 5 7 From 1789 on he cleared the land and farmed.2
Abt 1791 they lived in Jessamine Co., Kentucky. near Nicholasville. 5 8 9
1793-1794 they lived by Maysville, Mason Co., Kentucky.2 10
News reached that on 20 Aug 1794 the Battle of Fallen Timbers had taken place in what was then known as the North West Territories and in now Ohio. After driving the native inhabitants from their lands, John Cleves Symmes was given a grant by the federal government for a quarter of a million acres consisting of the rich Miami valleys which lie east of Cincinnati along and between the Little and Big Miami Rivers.66"Tales of the attractiveness of the area reached the ears of pioneers in Northern Kentucky, and in 1796 a group of neighbors in the Mayslick region went to investigate... Convinced of it's desirability as a place of residence, they at once concluded a contract with Symmes and his associates. In the spring of the next year Fergus McLean with his son John and a neighbor, Mr. Welch, and his eldest son, about John's age, were among those who set out for a preliminary trip to their new home."
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Fergus McLean was one of those individuals who bought and paid for what they supposed was 320 acres from the Symmes Purchase. Unfortunately for him, it was north of the line above Lebanon where the land ended that Symmes was able to pay for. As a result, he paid twice for his fine farm - a sad commentary on early land dealings. |
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-"John McLean...", The HistoricaLog, Vol. 52, No.3 |
On 29 Dec 1801 the McLean family farm is shown as consisting of 320 acres located between the Miami, Ranges iv-xv R-04 T-04 S-36 (Hamilton Dist)12 . In 1814, on a small section of his acreage, Fergus laid out the town of Ridgeville.5 11
Fergus became a central figure in the Old School Baptist Church in Clearcreek Twp.
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"...the first organized church within the bounds of Warren Co. was the Clear Creek Baptist Church. It was organized as early as 1797, and its first meeting house was built that year. It stood about a half a mile north of the site of Ridgeville. ... The church at this time included in its membership the Baptists on Turtle Creek and consisted of but twenty members. Thomas Kelsey was one of the first and most active, and for many years the leading member of the Clear Creek Baptist Church. Nathaniel Blackford and Fergus McLean, father of Justice John McLean, were also early and prominent members of this church. 5As early as 1800 the Miami Baptist Association, at a meeting held at Turtle Creek, adopted the following:
This is believed to have been the origin of a custom which for a long period was nearly universal among the Baptists of Western Ohio and Indiana, and still prevails among the Old School Baptists." |
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-The History of Warren County, Ohio, (Beers & Co., Chicago, IL, 1882), pp. 263-4, 268. |
Fergus saw Ohio became a state in 1803. At the time of the 1830 census he was still alive and noted as being literate.
Fergus McLean was described as being "a rigid Presbyterian, faithful in his observance of family prayer, even if he, in his feebleness, did not rise until eleven of the day. He was quiet and studious and lived to a good old age, an honest faithful man."13
Fergus lived to be 91 years of age. He died on the 12 of February 1837 at Ridgeville in Clearcreek Twp.
2 He was buried in the Old School Baptist Church Cemetery, where his gently listing slab grave stone still stands today.3 4 Still legible when visited in the late 1980s, the stone reads:"Corruption earth and worms
Shall but refine this flesh,
Till thy triumphious spiret coms
To put it on afresh"
3
Sources
1 Francis P. Weisenburger, The Life of John McLean, a Politician on the United States Supreme Court, Graduate School Series, History and Political Science No. 15, (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, Ohio, 1937), p. 1.
2 Dictionary of American Biography, (USA, 1933), p. 127.
3 Old School Baptist Church Cemetery, (Clear Creek Twp.), gravestone as located by Joseph McLean. This small but important graveyard of early settlers lies just north of Ridgeville via Rt. 48 on the east side of St. A house stands near where church stood. The couple in residence at the time of the 1988 visit said they were astonished to find the gravestones in amongst what had just appeared to be a large yard of high over grown grass.
4 Old Cemeteries from Eight Townships of Warren Co. Ohio, vol. VI, (Warren Co. Genealogical Society, 300 East Silver St., Lebanon, Ohio 45036, 1987), p. 346.
5 The History of Warren County, Ohio, (W. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, IL, 1882), p. 268, Old School Baptist Church, private residence now on spot.
6 The History of Warren County, Ohio, (W. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, IL, 1882), p. 370
7 Melanie Blair (Maddox) Hunt, <huntmc2@fuse.net >, to Duncan McLean, (Cincinnati, Ohio), "Re: mchuntjt@fuse.net?", 20 July 1999.
8 Dictionary of American Biography, (USA, 1933), p. 127 "about 1793".
9 Francis P. Weisenburger, The Life of John McLean, a Politician on the United States Supreme Court, Graduate School Series, History and Political Science No. 15, (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, Ohio, 1937), p. 1 "a year later after moving to Morgantown". Ibid, p. 2 "two yrs later". Ibid, p. 4. Warren County Historical Society Museum, Lebanon, Ohio and State Auditor's Office, Columbus, Ohio. 3 C. S. McLean (candidate author), "M C L E A N, including Sketch of Hon. John McLean", (original and carbon copy of type-written manuscript on C.S. McLean letterhead, written during W.W.I.), p. 1 citing Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Found among the papers of Milton W. McLean and preserved and received from Bernice Denton of Washington State.
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