McLain, William

Born: 1806-08-08 Ohio

Died: 1873-02-13 Washington, D.C.

William McClain was a Presbyterian minister and long-time officer of the American Colonization Society. McClain graduated from Miami University in 1831, and subsequently studied theology at Andover and Yale. In January 1837, he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, DC. Ill health forced him to resign this pastorate in June 1840. His work for the American Colonization Society began in 1830. In 1843, McClain became traveling agent and treasurer for the society. Later, he became corresponding secretary, and in 1858, financial secretary and treasurer, a position he held until his death. He married Louisa Mosby, a union that produced four children.

Gravestone, Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC; Alexandria Gazette (VA), 14 February 1873, 2:3; P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement 1816-1865 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), 239-40; Erie Burin, Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society (Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 2005), 77, 79, 97, 107, 113, 148-49; "The American Colonization Society: A Register of its Records in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division," (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1979), 5, 6, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=2ahUKEwitu_uii-zjAhVHVs0KHayeB2AQFjADegQIBBAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbl-libg-doghill.ads.iu.edu%2Fgpd-web%2Fhistorical%2Facs%2Facsregisterlc.pdf&usg=AOvVaw127MANKZUOgUnKCNRRQc-H; G. Brown Goode, Virginia Cousins: A Study of the Ancestry and Posterity of John Goode of Whitby (Richmond, VA: J. W. Randolph & English, 1887), 223; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 4, Washington, District of Columbia, 226; "Obituary," The African Repository 50 (February 1874), 33-34.