West Point Cadets - Circa 1900
Library of Congress, Memories Collection
Generously
Submitted by Robert Weis, Sr.
Thanks Bob!
The
Family of and a history of a Crittenden Boy Who Made a Difference Nathaniel F.
McClure
Research by Robert L Weis
Sr.
Ezra
K. McClure was born in Grant
County, Ky.
August 24, 1836
, is the second son born to John Allen and
Eunice Fish McClure, Ezra K. McClure was reared on his father’s farm and
educated at the
Crittenden
Union
College
. In
1863 he volunteered in Gen. Churchill’s Arkansas Brigade,
remained one year, and left as second lieutenant. He then returned to
Grant
County
and engaged in the manufacture of plug
tobacco until 1870, when he commenced farming and buying tobacco, he left the
farming to his son Jack in 1872, devoting his entire attention to buying and
selling tobacco. He sold the tobacco at
Cincinnati
and handled from 160,000 to 400,000 pounds.
The tobacco factory was a frame building 100 x 40 feet with an L 40 x 25 feet.
Located in Crittenden
Grant county court
documents state that some of E.K. Neighbors Took E.K. to court for operating a
public nuisance seems he decided to raise hogs in a pen next to the warehouse,
to the dissatisfaction of the townspeople”.
Ezra was a stockholder and founding board member of the new Tobacco
Growers Deposit Bank in Crittenden in 1893. On
July 26, 1859
, Mr. McClure married Miss Nancy Dickerson, a
native of
Bourbon County
,
Ky.
Nancy
known as Nanny owned a boarding house and
school for young women in Crittenden. Mr. McClure was a Royal Arch Mason.
They
had five children:
1)
Conn
McClure
was born
September 11, 1860
and died at the age of one in
May 17, 1862
they have buried him in
Lebanon
Church
Cemetery
.
2)
Ezra K. (Jack) Jr, born
November 25, 1862
, Married Callie Horton. He worked with his
father on the farms and in the family tobacco business; he died
July 13, 1936
and is buried in
Crittenden
Cemetery
alongside Callie.
3)
Nathaniel F. McClure, born July 21,
1865, graduated in June 1887 from
the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY; twenty-third in a class of
sixty-five, and was second lieutenant with the Fourth United States Cavalry at
Fort McDowell, Arizona Territory. He married Mamie Chapin in Woodford County
Kentucky. They had one child a son who died at an early age Nathaniel reached
the rank of Brigadier General during World War One, after fighting in
France
in 1918 between the
Argonne
Forest
and the
Muse
River
.
4)
Dickerson McClure who was born in 1867, he died in 1869 at age two
from pneumonia and is buried in
Lebanon
Church
Cemetery
.
5)
Lucien Dickerson McClure born October 31, 1870 and died at age 30
in 1900 from a ruptured appendix at the Navy hospital in Norfolk Virginia; E.K.
was at his son’s side when he died. He brought Lucien home by train where they
buried him at
Lebanon
Church
Cemetery
. Before
going to Norfolk Lucien taught school in the new
Dry
Ridge
District
Two
School
and in several adjoining counties.
Ezra and Nancy are buried in
Crittenden
Cemetery
near their son Ezra Jack and his wife.
This is the text of Nathaniel’s
obituary sent to me by Dr. Steven B. Gore USMA Historian at
West
Point
. This
appeared in the Alumni Journal in 1942
“Nathaniel
Fish McClure No.3196 West Point Class of 1887. Died
June 26, 1942
at
Walter Reed Hospital
Washington
. D.C. He was born
July 21, 1865
at
Crittenden
,
Kentucky
. His Great-grandfather for who he is named
migrated to
Kentucky
from
Virginia
in 1795, and settled near Crittenden. A son
John Allen McClure married Eunice Fish an immigrant from
Canandaigua
,
New York
. Their second son Ezra Koehler McClure
married Nancy Dickerson. Five sons were born of this marriage; Nat McClure was
the last survivor.
Local school’s provided such education as Mac had prior to
West Point
. Through personal correspondence with Rep.
John G Carlisle of Kentucky (twice speaker of the house and later secretary of
the treasury) ,he secured an appointment to the Military Academy, entered as a
“sep” in 1883 and graduated in 1887, above the middle of his class. He was a
sergeant in his first class year, a Lieutenant in his second.
Mac was assigned to the
Calvary
his first assignment being to the 4th
at
Fort McDowell
Arizona
. Most of his service was in that regiment and
the 5th in the southwest. In the world war he organized the 22nd
cavalry then transformed it into the 80th Field Artillery thirty days
later. Sometime after the war he commanded the 111th cavalry at
Monterey
California
. His home service was in a third of the
states; his foreign service was in
Puerto Rico
, the
Philippines
,
Hawaii
,
Mexico
,
England
and
France
.
Mac was a distinguished
Graduate Of
·
Army
School
Of The Line 1909
·
Army
Staff
College
1910
·
Instructor Dept of Military Army Service School’s 1913-1916
·
Army
War
College
1917.
He
Sailed for
France
November 2, 1917
, where he was successively Chief of Staff, of
line commutations,
·
Commander of Debarkation Camp 1 at Saint Nazarie.
·
Commander Base section No-5 at
Brest
.
His commission as
Brigadier General, National Army, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on
February 2 1918
, the day he arrived at Briest. There he
remained until the latter part of May. He was prouder of his service there than
any other in his career From a rather wretched base with a capacity of 14,000
men he built up a base with a capacity of 100,000 with a complete new water
system, barracks and storage facilities, and a lighter system whose capacity was
3800 men per trip.
But he wanted and sought combat duty and on Memorial Day 1918, he took
over command of the 69th Infantry brigade at Abbeville. The division
was slated for duty with the British but this was changed and by June 12th
it was in a quiet sector in the Vogues. in eastern
France
. There by seniority he commanded the division
for five weeks, during which part of the division was in the front line all of
the time, and all of it for three weeks. The division was in Army Reserve in the
St Mihiel operation (under a permanent commander)
and was moved to the
Argonne
and given a front line position for the
attack on September 26. McClure had completed placing his brigade in position
for the attack when the order came relieving him and Brigade General Charles I.
Martin whose brigade was in reserve of duty. In the combat zone there is little
time for investigations McClure took this blow with fortitude of the good
solider he was.
Among duties performed after thee war were General Staff, Assistant
Commandant, Disciplinary Barracks; Colonel,11th
Cavalry; Signal Corps; He retired because of age July 21,1929, and was
promoted to Brigadier General, Ret., June 21, 1930.
McClure married Mamie Chapin Crovat
July 14, 1890
in
Lexington
Ky.
A son was born to this union buy died at the
age of two years. His step-daughter, Ella Crovat Koch, did outstanding work in
the Red Cross during the World War and when she died
October 24, 1918
was accorded a full military funeral.
Socially Mac and his wife were outstanding exemplars of the “old
Army” now largely traditional. Their home in city or post, tropical jungle or
frontier desert, was always open house to friend or wayfarer.
Mac was a lover of the great outdoors, a seeker in pages of nature. The
Sierra Club of California recognized his attainments by making him an Honorary
Life Member. His fondness for mountaineering nearly led to his death when he was
a member of the Pershing Expedition into
Mexico
in 1916 to capture bandit Pancho Villa. From
the Mexican plain where the horses were grazed daily, a tiny speck of green was
visible high on a mountain. That meant water, and one day he set out to climb
it. He reached his objective, which proved to be a small spring, and stopped to
get a drink. His 45-calibre revolver fell from the holster, was discharged, and
the bullet after passing twice through the upper leg, lodged in his body near
the base of the spine. He managed to drag himself nearly to camp when he was
found. Then came a two hundred mile ride in a truck over terrible roads to a
hospital. Only Mac’s splendid physique saved him.
Tennis was his favorite game and he played a strong game well up into his
sixties. Until a year of so before his death few days passed without his taking
a long walk, and his pace was worthy of a younger man.
In all his studies and they were many he showed remarkable persistence,
following the subject through to a logical conclusion. Regardless of
difficulties. Perhaps this is best shown in his last work, a history of the
West Point
class of 1887. At its fiftieth reunion he
suggested that such a work should be undertaken and quite naturally, found
himself elected a committee of one to write it. He started with the idea that it
should comprise a biography of every man who had ever been a member. From the
Adjutant General he got the names and home addresses given in 1883, and by
letters to the home towns eventually got a biography of ever man. The last just
the day before the book went to press! Mac
had had no office, no clerk at call; those hundreds of letters and the text were
typed by him. The book is an excellent biography, is probably the only one of
the sort covering every individual and represents two years of untiring labor.
For a man in the seventies it is monumental.
Mac was a member of the American Legion, the Military Order of the World
War, the Union League of Chicago, the Military order of the Carabao and
vice-president of the Associates of Graduates, the Army and Navy Club of
Washington, D.C., the Sierra Club of California.
His many friends will never forget his sweet smile, his bright blue eyes,
his kindly warmth, his unfailing loyalty. To many, as to this writer, his
passing marked the end of an epoch.
Mac was one of the kindliest of souls- if he had a fault it was his
acceptance of all people as imbued with his own virtues of generosity and good
will. He was sentimental, particularly as to the State of his birth. Shortly
before his death, listing to a band in the hospital grounds, he made his last
request, which that tune should be played at his
funeral it was “My Old Kentucky Home”.
General McClure has always been one of the most loyal supporters of
West Point
. His great courage, inspiration, and love of
the Academy are guiding light to all those who have been fortunate enough to
know him directly or indirectly. In his death the
Military
Academy
and his many
West Point
associates have suffered a distinct loss
Brig. General E.D. Scott
Home