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Community Loses Pioneer Resident
Mrs. Mary E. McClelland passes away at age of 81
Here over 60 Years
Only seven houses in Village When She Took Up Her Residence 66 Years Ago
Was Able to Teach School Where Others Had Failed
Wrote Interesting Articles Before Newspapers Were Established Here and
During Her Long Life Was A Factor in All Phases of Community Uplift.
In the death of Mrs. Mary E. McClelland, aged 81, which occurred at her home No. 172 Broadway, Friday night, at 7:30 o’clock, Saranac Lake lost another of its pioneer citizens and a resident who for more than sixty years was a powerful factor in all phases of community uplift and betterment.
Mrs. McClelland was born at Elizabethtown, Sept. 13, 1836, the daughter of the late Roswell and Mary Demon Wise. At the age of 15 she was married to James McClelland, who died here 21 years ago. Shortly after her marriage, Mrs. McClelland came to Saranac Lake, and with the exception of four or five years during which she resided in Canada, she had lived here until her death.
When Mrs. McClelland came to Saranac Lake the village was then a very small hamlet. It was little more than a logging camp. Seven families comprised its entire population. The inhabitants led the rough woods life. Mrs. McClelland, who was the second teacher in the community, brought with her a kindliness and a keen insight into human nature that won the respect and the friendship of the youths and she was able to teach the rudiments of education and to lay the groundwork for the fine community spirit that quickly developed. Many of her pupils became prominent citizens and accumulated considerable wealth. She taught two years in the red schoolhouse on Lake Street. She was successful because of her remarkable patience and her unfailing good nature which characterized her through life and won for her the endearment of hundreds of friends. This kindliness of spirit which made her a loving wife and mother, was omnipresent and through it was wielded a powerful influence for good in religious and community movements.
Mrs. McClelland was naturally of a literary turn of mind and during her life she contributed many interesting articles to the press. When she came here there were no newspapers, but papers from other parts of the Northern New York circulated here and Mrs. McClelland was the local correspondent. She wasn’t a correspondent in the sense of writing day to day news but devoted most of her time to articles of splendid literary merit and carrying always an inspiring note. During the Civil War she wrote many poems and clippings of what she had written were voluminous. These were destroyed in a fire a few years ago. Mrs. McClelland retained a remarkable grasp of her mental faculties until her death and was able to recite from memory 90 poems.
Mrs. McClelland was active in church circles, being deeply religious but without fanaticism. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was always at the forefront in Sunday School activities and the organization of other church societies. She was for many years the president of W.T.C.U. attended in a drinking fountain erected near the St. Regis Hotel on Bloomingdale avenue, but it is said the fountain was destroyed by saloonkeepers whom she opposed.
Mrs. McClelland’s property extended over a large part of the village.
There were 13 children in the family, of whom the following survive; Mrs. Frank S. Barton and Mrs. George W. Walton of Salem, Oregon, Fred S. McClelland of Whitinsville, Mass., Mrs. Herbert Hazelwood of Mattawa, Ontario and Miss Lena C. McClelland of Saranac Lake, besides one brother, George W. Wise of Saranac Lake.
The funeral was held from the Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock. Rev. Alexander McKinley, pastor of the church officiating. There was a profusion of beautiful flowers. Members of the Women’s Relief Corp attended in a body. A special program of music was given, two hymns, “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere” and “Abide With Me” being beautifully sung by a mixed quartet. The pall bearers were her grandsons, Thomas, Charles, and Gaylord McClelland, Paul Walton, Frank Washburn and George Quick. Burial was in Pine Ridge Cemetery.
—Transcribed by Michele Tucker of the William Chapman White Room, Saranac Lake Free Library, 4/11/2006, from Alfred L. Donaldson's Scrapbook 8.
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