Joseph Washington McClurg

Education

At 19, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in Texas, although he never practiced.

Career

In 1841, he returned to Missouri to marry Mary Catherine Johnson. He was involved in lead mining and merchandising and created McClurg"s Old Salt Road through rural Missouri to assure a supply of salt for his customers. In 1850, McClurg left Missouri for the gold rush in California, where he opened a miner"s store in Georgetown (12 miles from Sutter"s Mill).

After two years, he returned to Missouri, this time to Linn Creek (now under the Lake of the Ozarks), where he established a thriving business supplying settlers and merchants in Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and the Indian Territory.

An avid unionist, he was a delegate to the historic Gamble Convention in March 1861, in which Missouri agreed to stay in the Union. Although he was later to sign the 13th Amendment as a Missouri Representative, Joseph McClurg was a slaveowner until shortly before the issuance of the During the Civil War, McClurg was a colonel of the 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry, until elected to the United States. House of Representatives in 1862, 1864 and 1866.

He resigned his last term to run for Missouri governor as a Radical Republican, a party against the re-enfranchisement of ex-Confederates. He served a two-year term and with Radical Republicanism falling from favor, lost his bid for re-election.

lieutenant was an entrepreneurial venture made promising on the basis of several years of mild weather.

However, the winter of 1886-1887 was a famously cruel one that convinced the family to return to Missouri. He was appointed Registrar of Lands at Springfield before returning to Lebanon, Missouri, where he died in 1900.

Connections

Father:

Joseph Mcclurg

Mother:

Mary (Brotherton) Mcclurg

Spouse:

Mary C. Johnson