Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

McLean, James M.

Died: 1860-12-11 Lawrenceville, Illinois

McLean married Rebecca D. Marney on May 22, 1824, in Lawrence County, Illinois. He won election as a Whig in 1830 to the Illinois House of Representatives, where he represented Lawrence County. In 1832, he lost an election to the Illinois Senate, but won a seat in the Illinois House in 1840. He served as register at the United States land office in Palestine, Illinois, from 1842 to 1845 and again from 1849 to 1853. In 1850, he was a land officer living in Crawford County, Illinois, with his wife Rebecca. In 1860, he was farming in Lawrenceville, Illinois, and owned $5,000 in real property and $6,000 in personal property. Although they were friends and political allies, McLean was a defendant in five federal court cases in the 1850s, in which Abraham Lincoln was the attorney for the plaintiff.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Lawrence County, 22 May 1824, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 245, 254, 338; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Crawford County, IL, 243; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Lawrenceville, Lawrence County, IL, 132; William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1883), 143; For Lincoln's cases involving McLean, search "McLean, James M.," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; Gravestone, Lawrenceville City Cemetery, Lawrenceville, IL.