Alexander McClure

Early life and education McClure was born on January 9, 1828, in Sherman's Valley, Perry County, Pennsylvania, to Alexander and Isabella Anderson McClure. He grew up on a farm and received little formal education. At the age of fourteen, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and apprenticed as a tanner. He traveled west as far as Iowa but returned to Pennsylvania after failing in the tannery business. He worked as a printer at the Perry County Freeman and the Juniata Sentinel in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania.

He became editor and publisher of the Sentinel in 1846, and became known for his Whig political views.

McClure was appointed to the staff of the first Whig governor of Pennsylvania, William F. Johnston, with the honorary rank of colonel. In 1850, Millard Fillmore appointed McClure deputy United States Marshal for Juniata County. He moved to Chambersburg in 1852 and purchased the Franklin Repository newspaper.

He studied law and was admitted to the Franklin County, Pennsylvania, bar in 1856.

At the 1860 Republican National Convention McClure became a well-known political figure, opposing fellow Pennsylvanian Simon Cameron's bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency. McClure and Andrew G. Curtin helped swing the state's vote away from Cameron and William Seward to Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln's election, McClure became chairman of the Republican state committee and helped to elect Curtin governor of Pennsylvania.

He served in the Pennsylvania Senate for the 18th district in 1861 and for the 4th district in 1873.

When the Civil War began, McClure rallied support for the war as Chairman of the Senate Committee of Military Affairs. He assisted Governor Curtin in planning a meeting of fourteen Northern state governors known as the "Loyal War Governors of the North", in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in order to secure their continued support of the war. McClure personally met with Robert E. Lee during the second occupancy of Chambersburg by the Confederate army. The home was rebuilt and sold to Wilson College. The building that housed the Franklin Repository newspaper operations was also destroyed in the blaze.

In 1864, McClure moved to Philadelphia, opened a law office and helped Lincoln carry Pennsylvania again in the general election.

In 1865, McClure was elected again to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a Union Party member.

In 1873, McClure was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate for the 4th district. In 1874, he ran for mayor of Philadelphia but lost by only 900 votes.

McClure returned to newspaper editing by founding the Philadelphia Times in 1875. He continued as The Philadelphia Times editor until 1901, when he sold the newspaper to Adolph Ochs.

He lost much of his fortune in the stock market but was able to obtain an appointment as prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. and the Alexander K. McClure School in Philadelphia are named in his honor. Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1905.

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