5th_generation_thomas_jefferson_and_abigail_points

5th generation

Thomas Jefferson ("Jeff") McClure

(1805-1881)[1]

Abigail Points

(abt 1826-1891)[2]

Thomas Jefferson (Jeff) McClure was born 20 May 1805 in Crittenden, (then in Harrison County), now Grant County, Kentucky, the son of James and Agnes McClure. It appears that he was named after the President of the United States at the time.

His first marriage was to Mary Dungan[3] about 10 December 1828[4], and they had 8 children[5]. Mary was born 31 May 1807 and died June 11, 1843, and is buried in the Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Grant Co., KY.

Mary Dungan McClure Tombstone

Jeff's and Mary's children were as follows:[6]

i. Samuel, b. abt 1834, m. Elizabeth, at least 5 children[7]

ii. Hanna, b. abt 1838

iii. Thomas D., b. about 1840

iv. through vii. Two other daughters, ages 5-10, and two others under 5 not named in 1840 census and no longer living with the family by 1850.

viii. James W., b. about 1843 (same year his mother died) (Civil War service: enlisted 20 Aug 1861, age 19, served in 16th Independent Battery, Ohio Light Artillery)[8]

Jefferson McClure appears in the 1840 Grant County census[9], where only the name of the head of household is given. Using the names and ages in the 1850 census as a guide, we can name four of the seven children as follows:

Male 30-40 (Jeff, age 35)

Female 30-40 (Mary, age 33)

Male 5-10 (Samuel, age 6)

Female under 5 (Hanna, age 2)

Male under 5 (Thomas D., infant)

Two other females under 5 and two other females 5-10 do not appear in the 1850 census and thus are unknown.

Jeff married Abigail Points (b. about 1826, possibly in Illinois[10]) on February 8, 1845, in Grant County, KY. William Points (Abby's brother?) was bondsman on the marriage certificate.[11] She was apparently known as Abbie or Abby. (See Abigail's family history under POINTS.)

Jeff and Abbie had at least 11 children:[12]

i. Henry A. (1846-bef.1880) m. Sarah Elizabeth Hendrix, 4 children[13]

ii. John, b. 1848 (d/m before 1870 census)

iii. Robert Fielding, (1849-1925) m. Mary Ellen Kendall, 7 children

iv. Andrew, b. 1850, m. Mary E., at least 3 children[14]

v. George, b. 1854 (this is the only brother Stephen mentioned by name to his family)

vi. Lawrence W., b. 26 Jul 1855, d. 1 Aug 1858; buried Old Lebanon Presbyterian Cemetery with parents.

vii. Nancy, b. 1856 (d/m before 1880)

viii. Marion, b. 1857 (d. before 1870)

ix. Stephen Douglas McClure (1859 -1939)

x. Sarah A., b. 1862 (m. William Thomas Benson)

xi. Laura, b. 1866 (m. John E. McClure)

It appears that Jeff McClure fathered at least 19 children by his two wives.

A letter written by Jeff's sister Susannah in 1862 (quoted in full in Jeff's father James' biography in this book), says that "Brother TJ is the father of 17 children and looks like he will have that many more ... he had one dead."[15] That number coincides with the census lists, 8 children with Mary and by 1862, 9 more with Abigail, with Abigail's son Lawrence having died in 1858.

Jeff was a farmer in Grant County for most (all?) of his life. His real property was valued in the 1860 Grant County census as $1100 and his personal property as $900.

On September 19, 1855, the heirs of John A. McClure deeded "by commissioner" a parcel of land to T.J. (Jeff) McClure.[16] John was the son of Nathaniel McClure, half-brother of Samuel McClure, Jeff's grandfather. Thus, John was Jeff's half-great uncle. John McClure's estate owed a note to Jeff, thus the division of land included him.

Thomas J. McClure and his wife Abigail appear in the 1850 Grant Co., KY census, with four of Mary's children still living at home: Samuel 16, Thomas D. 10, Hanna 12, and James 6. By this time Abbie had also given birth to Henry 4, John 2, and Fielding, age 1.[17]

Thomas J. McClure, age 53, and his wife "Abba," age 38, appear in the 1860 Grant Co., KY[18] census with the following children: James W., 17, Henry 14, John 12, Andrew 10, Fielden 7, George 6, Nancy 4, and Marion 3. Stephen Douglas is not listed, although if he was born in 1859 he would have been one year old.

Thomas J. and Abigail appear in the 1870 Grant County census[19], with Andrew, Fielding, George, Stephen (age 11), Sarah, and Laura living at home.

Jeff and Abbie appear in the 1880 Kentucky census, with only Stephen, age 21, and Laura, age 14, living at home.[20]

Jeff's son Stephen told his grandchildren that his family had moved to Missouri (around Kansas City or Joplin?) at some point and that he had returned to Kentucky when he was 21.[21] Since most of Jeff's older sons do not show up in the Kentucky census after 1880, perhaps they are the ones who went to Missouri.

Jeff's sister Susannah died in 1871 and is buried in the Old Lebanon Presbyterian Cemetery very close to the graves of Jeff and his first wife Mary. Her tombstone reads "Susanna (Susie) McClure, November 18, 1807 - 1871").[22] She is the "Susan" listed in the 1860 census, living in the home of her youngest sister Nancy McClure McDaniel, along with her oldest sister Hanna.

Jeff died 27 April 1881 in Grant County, KY (?), and is buried in the Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Grant County, KY, beside his first wife Mary. [23]

Thomas Jefferson McClure Tombstone
photo taken in 2002

Abigail McClure died 14 January 1891 at the residence of her son George in Walton, and according to the newspaper account of her death[24], she was buried in Walton. According to the History of the Points Family[25] she is buried in the Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, so she must be in one of the numerous unmarked graves.[26]

Thomas Jefferson McClure was an elusive ancestor to find because for many years the only information I had about him came from Jeff’s great-granddaughter Pricie McClure and her cousin Robert Speagle. They told me only that his name was Jeff McClure, that they had heard he was born in Virginia in the Hatfield-McCoy feud area (Mingo County). He married Abbie Points and they had three sons and a daughter. From Virginia, they went to live in or near Kansas City or Joplin, Missouri, and when their son Stephen Douglas McClure was 21, he left Missouri and went to Grant County, Kentucky. That little "family history" with its numerous errors kept me off the track for a long time.

On his son Stephen’s death certificate, it gives his father's name as Jeff, Jeff's birthplace as Virginia, Abbie’s birthplace as Kentucky, and Stephen’s birthplace as Kentucky.[27] The only completely correct information is Stephen’s birthplace.

However, I was finally able to find, first, the marriage record of Abby Points and Thomas J. McClure, then the Thomas J. McClure family in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 census, then Thomas J. McClure's grave along with that of his first wife, who died a year and a half before he married Abby. An index of the Lebanon Presbyterian Cemetery had an annotation that Thomas J. was the son of James and Hanna, which was in error.

The story about the move to Missouri is still a mystery. Since Jeff's family appears in every Kentucky census from 1840 through 1880, if they went to Missouri at all, it must have been for a short time. (Or maybe Stephen went to Missouri with one or more of his brothers, then returned.)

Also on the Grant County genealogy web pages are two McClure family histories, Alexander McClure and Nathaniel McClure[28]. Both families came from Virginia to Grant County. Alexander McClure is the son of the immigrant Moses McClure (son of Halbert) who married Jane Gibson; their son Thomas Gibson McClure married Jeff and Abbie McClure’s daughter Laura. Nathaniel McClure is the grandson of the immigrant John McClure (son of Halbert) and his second wife Mary Allen.[29] According to my genealogy software, that makes him the half great-uncle of Thomas Jefferson McClure.

Janet Pease, a Points family researcher, and I have attempted with limited success to find the children of Thomas Jefferson McClure and Abigail Points McClure, the siblings of Stephen Douglas McClure. We found some of their marriages and we found some of them in the census, but somewhere along the line we lost track of most of them.

Further information on the children of Thomas Jefferson McClure
and his first wife Mary:

Samuel McClure: By 1860 Jeff and Mary's oldest son Samuel, 26, had married Elizabeth, 25, and the census shows they had three children: Loueza Ann 3, James T. 2, and Mary Ann 4 months.[30]

Jeff and Mary's son Samuel appears in the 1870 census[31] as age 36, his wife Elizabeth is 35, and the children are Louisiana 15, Elizabeth 8, John S. 6, Mary A. 4, and William A., 2. Samuel and his family also appear in the 1880 Grant Co. census with two more children: Ida, and "Mody." Samuel and his family were not found in the 1900 census.

Further information on the children of Thomas Jefferson McClure
and his second wife Abigail Points:

Henry McClure: Jeff and Abigail's son Henry appears in the 1870 census[32] as age 24, married to Elizabeth 23, a daughter age 4, and Elizabeth’s mother, Sabra Hendricks, age 50. In the 1880 census, Sarah is a widow living with her brother Solomon Hendricks in Miami, KS. Sarah's youngest child is 3, born in KY, thus Henry probably died between 1877-1880 in Kentucky.

Andrew McClure: Jeff and Abigail’s son Andrew appears in the 1880 census[33] as age 27, married to Mary E., 26, children Mary 6, Bill 3, and Willie 1. Andrew and his family were not found in the 1900 census.

Robert Fielding McClure: Jeff and Abigail’s son Robert Fielding McClure married Mary Ellen Kendall in about 1877. They appear in the census as follows:

1880 Mt. Zion, Grant co., KY census, p. 93D:

R. F. MC CLURE Self M Male W 28 KY Farmer

Mary E. MC CLURE Wife M Female W 23 KY

Lillie MC CLURE Dau S Female W 1 KY

Mary MC CLURE Dau S Female W 3M KY

1900 Sherman, Grant Co., KY census: Robert McClure 49, Jun 1851, md 23 years; wife Mary E. 48, Oct 1851; 6 children, 5 living; son Leslie R. 13, Feb 1887; dau Junie R. 10, Mar 1890; dau Hettie 8, Jul 1891.

1910 Grant Co., KY census: Robert F. McClure 57, wife Mary 51.

Robert and Mary moved to Platte County, Missouri, where Mary died in 1916.

1920 Marshall twp, Platte Co., MO census, p. 3A, Ancestry.com image 5: Leslie McClure 32 KY single, Robert F. father 68 KY widower.

George McClure: The only record we have found of George McClure is in the Grant Co. newspaper issue of 22 Jan 1891: Abigail McClure died 14 Jan 1891 of consumption at the residence of her son George McClure near Walton, buried Walton. He does not appear in the 1900 census.

Sarah A. McClure: Jeff and Abbie’s daughter Sarah A. McClure married William Thomas Benson in February 1882. According to their great-granddaughter J. Kuhn, Sarah and Thomas had 3 children: William J. (born 1883), John (1884-1974), and Ada (1887-1970). Sarah died 7 Aug 1892 in Shelby Co., IN. Thomas married his second wife Susan in 1896 and they appear in the 1900 Shelby Co., IN census.

Laura McClure: Jeff and Abbie’s daughter Laura McClure married on 29 December 1885 John E. McClure, son of Thomas Gibson McClure and Mary A. Coons. They moved to Illinois and appear in the 1900 census as follows: 1900 Empire, McLean Co., IL census, Ancestry.com image 20: John E. McClure 38, Nov 1861, married 14 years, KY KY KY; wife Laura 33, Nov 1866, 5 children, 4 living, KY KY KY; dau Mary A. 13, Oct 1886, KY; dau Bertha 7, May 1893, IN; son Oscar 5, Aug 1894 IL; son Thomas J. 1, Jan 1899 IL.

The Alexander H. McClure Family submitted by Robert Weis, online at Grant County website, gives John McClure’s date of death as 1907. Laura may have remarried, but she and her children are not found in the 1910 census.

Robert Fielding McClure’s obituary was published in The Grant County News, Friday, September 11, 1925, page 8: Robert F. McClure was born in Mt. Zion, Kentucky, June 4, 1851, moved with his family to Weston [Platte Co., MO] some sixteen years ago and died at the home of his son, Leslie McClure, Saturday evening, August 22. His good wife, Mary Ellen McClure, with whom he lived half a century, passed to her home beyond nine years ago. Two children also preceded him to that home. Since the death of his wife he has made his home with his children in the vicinity.

Mr. McClure was one of sixteen children, one brother, Steve McClure of Mt. Zion, Kentucky, now is the only remaining link of that large family chain. Besides his brother, he is survived by four daughters, Mrs. Ed Lambert, Mt. Zion, Kentucky; Mrs. Max Lambert, New York City; Mrs. Jess Beach and Mrs. J. D. Dennis, Weston, Missouri; seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

His funeral was held from the home of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie McClure Tuesday morning, Reverend James Froman conducting the services, after which he was laid to rest under a canopy of beautiful flowers, beside his wife in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery.

Thus, according to that obituary, it is fairly safe to say that by 1925 Stephen Douglas McClure was the last surviving member of his large family.

Other sources of information:

Letters and conversations with their great-granddaughter Pricie McClure (1909-2000)

Conversations with their grandson Homer McClure (1919-1988)

Correspondence with their great-great-granddaughter J. Pettit

**End Notes**
[1] Death certificate of his son Stephen Douglas McClure #24755 gives name of his father as Jeff McClure. Tombstone in Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Grant Co., KY.gives full name as Thomas Jefferson McClure, birth and death dates. [2] 1850 and 1870 Grant Co. census give her name as Abigail; son Stephen's death certificate gives name as Abby Points. Grant County marriage record gives name as Abby Points. Birth date estimated from age given in census. Grant Co. newspaper gives date of death. [3] Mary's tombstone in Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery gives birth and death dates. [4] Harrison Co. marriage bond #2274 dated 10 Dec 1828, Thomas J. McClure and Mary Dungan; bondsman Thomas Dungan, Sr. [5] Census records of Grant County. [6] Grant Co., KY census 1840, p. 86; 1850, p. 317A; 1860 p. 700. [7] Grant Co., KY census 1860, p. 645; 1870, p. 556. [8] Grant Co., KY webpage military records. [9] Grant Co., KY census 1840, p. 86. [10] Abigail's son Stephen's marriage bond shows his mother's birthplace as Illinois. Age from census. [11] Grant Co., KY marriage records found on Grant County website. [12] Grant Co., KY census 1850, p. 317A; 1860, p. 700; 1870, p. 552. [13] Grant Co., KY census 1870, p. 543. [14] Grant Co., KY census 1880. [15] Haddon, McClure & Related Families by Brevoort and Wheeler, 1952, p. 198. [16] Grant Co. Atlas 1858, plate 10, referencing Grant Co. Deed Book J235, p. 75A. [17] Grant Co., KY census 1850, p. 317A. [18] Grant Co., KY census 1860, p. 700. [19] Grant Co., KY census 1870. p. 552. [20] Grant Co., KY census 1880. [21] Conversations with and letters from his great-granddaughter Pricie McClure (1909-2000) [22] Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church cemetery records on Grant County, KY website. [23] Ibid. [24] Grant County, KY newspaper abstracts. [25] Phyllis Taylor Hawes and Janet Pease: The History of the Points/Pointz Family, Vol. E-John Points of Boone County, Kentucky, Third Generation, Abigail, p. 1) [26] June Bowen Pettit: Descendants of Halbert McClure. [27] Ky death certificate of Stephen Douglas McClure, #24755. [28] Alexander McClure Family by R. Weiss; Nathaniel McClure Family by R. Weiss posted on Grant County website. [29] McClure, et al, Following the McClures--Donegal to Botetourt. [30] Grant Co., KY census 1860, p. 645 [31] Grant Co., KY census 1870. p. 556. [32] Grant Co., KY census 1870, p. 543. [33] Grant Co., KY census 1880, Soundex.

[1] Death certificate of his son Stephen Douglas McClure #24755 gives name of his father as Jeff McClure. Tombstone in Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Grant Co., KY.gives full name as Thomas Jefferson McClure, birth and death dates.
[2] 1850 and 1870 Grant Co. census give her name as Abigail; son Stephen's death certificate gives name as Abby Points. Grant County marriage record gives name as Abby Points. Birth date estimated from age given in census. Grant Co. newspaper gives date of death.
[3] Mary's tombstone in Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery gives birth and death dates.
[4] Harrison Co. marriage bond #2274 dated 10 Dec 1828, Thomas J. McClure and Mary Dungan; bondsman Thomas Dungan, Sr.
[5] Census records of Grant County.
[6] Grant Co., KY census 1840, p. 86; 1850, p. 317A; 1860 p. 700.
[7] Grant Co., KY census 1860, p. 645; 1870, p. 556.
[8] Grant Co., KY webpage military records.
[9] Grant Co., KY census 1840, p. 86.
[10] Abigail's son Stephen's marriage bond shows his mother's birthplace as Illinois. Age from census.
[11] Grant Co., KY marriage records found on Grant County website.
[12] Grant Co., KY census 1850, p. 317A; 1860, p. 700; 1870, p. 552.
[13] Grant Co., KY census 1870, p. 543.
[14] Grant Co., KY census 1880.
[15] Haddon, McClure & Related Families by Brevoort and Wheeler, 1952, p. 198.
[16] Grant Co. Atlas 1858, plate 10, referencing Grant Co. Deed Book J235, p. 75A.
[17] Grant Co., KY census 1850, p. 317A.
[18] Grant Co., KY census 1860, p. 700.
[19] Grant Co., KY census 1870. p. 552.
[20] Grant Co., KY census 1880.
[21] Conversations with and letters from his great-granddaughter Pricie McClure (1909-2000)
[22] Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church cemetery records on Grant County, KY website.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Grant County, KY newspaper abstracts.
[25] Phyllis Taylor Hawes and Janet Pease: The History of the Points/Pointz Family, Vol. E-John Points of Boone County, Kentucky, Third Generation, Abigail, p. 1)
[26] June Bowen Pettit: Descendants of Halbert McClure.
[27] Ky death certificate of Stephen Douglas McClure, #24755.
[28] Alexander McClure Family by R. Weiss; Nathaniel McClure Family by R. Weiss posted on Grant County website.
[29] McClure, et al, Following the McClures--Donegal to Botetourt.
[30] Grant Co., KY census 1860, p. 645
[31] Grant Co., KY census 1870. p. 556.
[32] Grant Co., KY census 1870, p. 543.
[33] Grant Co., KY census 1880, Soundex.

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