Biography of Timothy McClure, pages 734/735/736.  History 
of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



In presenting the biography of this well remembered 
gentleman, whose life was that of a high grade man, of 
noble ideals and laudable ambitions, we believe that the 
reader will be benefited and encouraged,  for his life was 
a life that made for success because of the honorable 
principles he employed in dealing with his fellowmen and 
because of the many admirable attributes he possessed which 
made his daily walk one worthy to be emulated. Timothy 
McClure was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1818, and his 
death occurred at this home in Grant township, DeKalb 
county, Indiana, on September 1, 1878.  He was a son of 
Samuel and Emily McClure, and was of Irish ancestry. From 
the age of eight years he was reared in the home of Simeon 
and Elizabeth (Haynes) Aldrich in Vermont and eventually 
married Olive Aldrich, the daughter of his benefactors. 
After his marriage he and his father-in-law and his family 
went by wagon to the Hudson river, thence to Lake Erie and 
by water to Toledo, and from there by canal to Defiance, 
Ohio. Mr. Aldrich had been a wealthy farmer in New England, 
and, on starting west, stored his money in gold coin in 
bags in a chest. At Toledo, while transferring the stuff 
from the ship to a lighter, the chest of gold was dropped 
and broken and the gold went to the bottom of the lake, 
but, after an anxious time, was restored to its owner. Mr. 
Aldrich’s two sons, Simeon and Terry, had come west some 
time before this and had spent four years in Williams 
county, Ohio. Soon afterwards the Holton family came across 
from that county to DeKalb county, Indiana, being the first 
settlers, here, and in 1834 the Aldrich boys followed. 
These sons met Mr. McClure and the Aldrich family at 
Defiance, Ohio, and with ox teams were four days coming 
across the country to Troy township, locating four miles 
east of Hamilton. There Mr. Aldrich entered land for all 
his children, giving each of them a good start in life, and 
there his wife got lost in a swamp a year later, her death 
occurring from the effects of the exposure. Subsequently 
Mr. Aldrich returned to Vermont, where he married and 
brought his wife back to the frontier home, and here her 
death occurred about eight years later.  Mrs. Olive McClure 
received from her father eighty acres of land and a house, 
each of her brothers being given one thousand dollars each. 
Mr. Aldrich, who had been a stock breeder in the east, came 
here in order to secure larger opportunities for the 
members of his family. Things were not very encouraging 
here at that time and it is related that a letter written 
him in 1836 from Vermont was sent to his nearest 
postoffice, Lagrange Center, about forty miles from his 
home. From about 1848 to about 1855 he carried the United 
States mail from Defiance to Lagrange, thence to Coldwater, 
Michigan, and to the neighborhoods between these points, 
riding horseback over roadless prairies and fording 
unbridged streams. He bought and sold farms frequently, 
owning a large number of them and was really more of a 
business man than a farmer.  In 1860 Mr. McClure moved to 
the eastern part of Grant township, where he spent the 
remainder of his life. He was for two terms trustee of 
Union township and was administrator and guardian of many 
estates, it being stated that for a period of nearly forty 
years he was constantly guardian of not less than half a 
dozen wards.  A man of keen perception, strong character 
and bright and kindly face, he won the good opinion and 
friendship of all who knew him, he being familiarly called 
“Uncle Timmie.”  Politically, Mr. McClure was a lifelong 
Democrat, but during the Civil war he remained loyal to the 
Union. A man of natural musical talent, he was a leader in 
the drum corps that during the war escorted each new 
military company on its way to Indianapolis.  Religiously, 
he was a member of the Disciples church, as was his wife, 
and they were loyal and earnest in their support of all 
worthy causes. It is related in testimony to Mr. McClure’s 
humane and kindly disposition that in the early days he 
constantly carried a gun with which he expected to shoot 
deer, but never shot when he saw deer, his humane impulses 
forbidding the act.  Of Mrs. McClure it is related that one 
night when left at home alone a big bear came close to the 
cabin and attempted to take a sow and pigs, but she scared 
it away with firebrands. To Mr. and Mrs. McClure were born 
five children, namely: A boy who died in early youth; 
Sarah, who was married three times, her last husband being 
Rev. S. P. Klotz; Timothy is a resident of Waterloo, this 
county; Olive became the wife of John D. Eckhart, of 
Toledo, Ohio, but both died at about the same time of 
typhoid fever; Mary, the wife of  Jefferson W. Jackman, of 
Grant township, this county, who is represented elsewhere 
in this work. 

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@cltnet.com