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The actual relevant passages are at the bottom of this post, to which availability the wonderful Project Gutenberg, where actual text of many of the great and lesser books in the public domain can be downloaded, at http://www.gutenberg.org/ should get the full credit:
Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical / Hunter, C. L.
Author: Hunter, C. L.
Title: Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical
Date: 2004-07-19
Contributor(s): Garnett, Constance, 1861-1946 [Translator]
Size: 692258
Identifier: etext12953
Language: en
Publisher: Project Gutenberg
Rights: GNU General Public License
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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sketches of Western North Carolina,
Historical and Biographical, by C. L. Hunter
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical
Author: C. L. Hunter
Release Date: July 19, 2004 [eBook #12953]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF WESTERN NORTH
CAROLINA, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL***
E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
SKETCHES OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
Illustrating Principally the Revolutionary Period of Mecklenburg,
Rowan, Lincoln and Adjoining Counties, Accompanied with Miscellaneous
Information, Much of It Never before Published
By
C. L. HUNTER
1877
DEDICATION.
TO THE DESCENDANTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOTS OF NORTH CAROLINA,
WHETHER NOW ABIDING WITHIN HER BORDERS AND SHARING HER PROSPERITIES
AND ADVERSITIES, OR SCATTERED ABROAD IN OTHER STATES OF THE AMERICAN
UNION, BUT WHO STILL CHERISH A LASTING VENERATION FOR THE MEMORIES OF
THEIR HEROIC FOREFATHERS; AND TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE STATE GENERALLY,
WHO WOULD DRAW LESSONS OF WISDOM, PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE
FROM THE EXAMPLES HEREIN DESCRIBED, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.
======================
"DR. WILLIAM M'LEAN.
Dr. William McLean was born in Rowan county, N.C., on the 2nd day of
April, 1757. His father, Alexander McLean, was a native of Ireland,
who emigrated to America, landing at Philadelphia, between the years
1725 and 1730. Some time after his arrival in Pennsylvania he married
Elizabeth Ratchford, whose father emigrated from England shortly after
McLean left Ireland. Three of his daughters, Jane, Margaret and Agnes,
were born in that State. He then joined the great tide of emigration
to the more enticing fields and genial climate of the southern
colonies, and settled in the Dobbin neighborhood, eight miles from
Salisbury, Rowan county, N.C. Here he remained for a few years, during
which time his eldest son John, and William, the immediate subject of
this sketch, were born. He then moved to a tract of land he purchased
near the junction of the South Fork with the main Catawba river, in
Tryon, (now Gaston county,) where three more sons were born,
Alexander, George and Thomas. This place he made his permanent abode
during the remainder of his life, surrounded with the greater portion
of his rising family. He attained a good old age, his wife surviving
him a few years; both were consistent members of the Presbyterian
church, and are buried at the old "Smith graveyard," near the place of
his last settlement. Soon after the Revolutionary war, Alexander
McLean, Jr., moved to Missouri, and George McLean to Tennessee. Thomas
McLean, the youngest son, retained the old homestead, where, at an
advanced age, he ended his earthly existence. Although only thirteen
years old at the time of the battle of King's Mountain, he could give
a glowing account of the heroic bravery which characterized that
brilliant victory in which many of his neighbors, under the brave
Lieut. Col. Hambright and Maj. Chronicle, actively participated. John
McLean, the eldest son, performed a soldier's duty on several
occasions during the war. Upon the call of troops from North Carolina
for the defence of Charleston, he attached himself to Col. Graham's
regiment, under Gen. Rutherford, and was there captured. Immediately
after being exchanged, he returned to North Carolina and joined the
command of Capt. Adlai Osborne, and about three month's afterward was
killed in a skirmish at Buford's Bridge, S.C.
After the removal of Alexander McLean to his final settlement on the
south fork of the Catawba, as previously stated, William assisted him
on the farm, and when a favorable opportunity offered, went to school
in the neighborhood, acquiring as good an education as the facilities
of the country then afforded. His instructor for the last three months
in this early training was a Mr. Blythe, who, noticing his rapid
advancement in learning, and capacity for more extended usefulness,
advised him to go to Queen's Museum, in Charlotte. This institution
was then in high repute under the able management of Dr. Alexander and
Rev. Alexander McWhorter, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman from
New Jersey.
Dr. McLean complied with the advice of his instructor, and became a
pupil of Queen's Museum. In this venerated institution, shedding
abroad its enlightening influence on Western North Carolina, many of
the leading patriots of the Revolution acquired their principal
educational training. Its president, Dr. McWhorter, was not only an
eminent preacher of the gospel, but was also an ardent patriot, and
never failed, on suitable occasions, to discuss the politics of the
day, and instil into the minds of his youthful pupils the essential
principles of civil and religious liberty. His sentiments in this
respect were so generally known, that it is said Cornwallis previous
to his entrance into Charlotte in 1780, was extremely anxious to
_enfold him in his embraces_. Dr. McLean remained in this institution
of learning about two years and then returned home. Having made up his
mind to become a physician during his collegiate course, he gathered
all the medical books he could procure at that period, and diligently
devoted his time to their study. In this stage of his early
preparation for future usefulness, Dr. Joseph Blythe, a distinguished
surgeon in the Continental Army, wrote to him in terms of warmest
friendship, and offered him the position of "surgeon's mate." This
offer he accepted, repaired to Charlotte, and they both marched with
the army to James Island, near Charleston. In this immediate vicinity
at Stono (the narrow river or inlet, which separates John's Island
from the main land) a severe but indecisive battle had been fought
between a detachment of General Lincoln's army and the British, under
General Prevost, in June, 1779. At the time of Dr. McLean's arrival at
James Island, many soldiers were sick with the pestilential "camp
fever" of that sultry climate, or were suffering from the wounds of
battle at the army hospital. Some of these sufferers were from Lincoln
and Mecklenburg counties, with whom he was personally acquainted.
Under judicious medical treatment he was pleased to see most of them,
in a short time, restored to health and ready for the future service
of their country.
In the summer and fall of 1780 Dr. McLean was constantly with the
Southern army watching the movements of Ferguson in the upper Tory
settlements of South Carolina, previous to his defeat and death at
King's Mountain. After that battle he went to Charlotte to wait on the
sick and the wounded at that place.
In 1781 he was with General Greene's army, near Camden, and at other
military encampments requiring his services. In all of these
responsible positions he continued to faithfully discharge the duties
of "Surgeon's Mate," or Assistant Surgeon, until the close of the
Revolution.
Having completed his preparatory studies Dr. McLean went to the
medical University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, and received from
that venerable institution his diploma in 1787. In a short time after
his arrival at home he purchased a farm in the "South Point"
neighborhood, soon engaged in an extensive practice (frequently
charitable) and became eminent in his profession.
On the 19th of June, 1792, Dr. McLean married Mary, daughter of Major
John Davidson, one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of
Independence. In 1814 he was elected to the Senate from Lincoln
county. In 1815 he delivered an address at King's Mountain,
commemorative of the battle at that place, and caused to be erected,
at his own expense, a plain headstone of dark slate rock, with
appropriate inscriptions on both sides. The inscription on the east
side reads thus: "Sacred to the memory of Major William Chronicle,
Capt. John Mattocks, William Robb and John Boyd, who were killed here
on the 7th of October, 1780, fighting in defence of America." The
inscription on the west side reads thus: "Colonel Ferguson, an officer
belonging to his Brittanic Majesty, was here defeated and killed."
Dr. McLean, after a life of protracted usefulness, died with peaceful
resignation on the 25th of October, 1828, in the seventy-second year
of his age. His wife survived him many years, being nearly
ninety-seven years old at the time of her death. They were both long,
worthy and consistant members of the Presbyterian church, dignified
their lives with their professions, and are buried in Bethel
Graveyard, York county, S.C."
===============================
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