COLONEL WILLIAM H. McLANE
Colonel William H. McLane was born in Cape Girardeau County, July 6, 1816 the youngest son of John McLane and Lydia Lorance and grandson of a Revolutionary soldier. he was only eight years old when he began helping in a store where he had a thorough training as a Merchant's Clerk. After his Father's fortune was depleted by losses he told the sons that they would have whatever they made as their own while they were minors. The mother provided William H. McLane with his clothing, thus at an early age he started to make his own way. He was a man of steady habits, of great ambition and energy, and for some years of his youth he would arise at three in the morning and study until it was time to open the store and get his breakfast.
After clerking, he engaged in merchandising for himself and also conducted a farm. he clerked in Illinois for several years, and on returning to Missouri went to work in the store of William C. Moore, whose daughter he married.
Col. McLane and George Glodfelter owned the first store at Appleton, a business opened by Kimmel and Taylor in 1829. His residence and place of business for a number of years was at Appleton in Cape Girardeau County, and he was a merchant there until after the war.
When the war came, he found the McLane family divided. Col. McLane and two of his brothers, James and Samuel, being the Union men, while the other three, Joseph, Anson and Alfred were southern in their sympathy. Two of them also had sons in the Confederate Army. Col. McLane and his father-in-law owned some negros, but neither believed in the doctrines of slavery.
Col. McLane had represented Cape Girardeau County in the State Legislature before the war and was one of the out-spoke members against secession in 1861. When the war came he was commissioned a Col. Of the Eight Provisional Militia and was stationed at Cape Girardeau. His regiment was raised October 4, 1862.
Shortly after the close of the war, Colonel McLane moved to Henry County and established himself in Clinton as a merchant. He was elected to represent that county in the Missouri General Assembly.
Colonel McLane married Catherine Moore, the daughter of William C. Moore and Isabel Schroder. They had four children: Mrs. Mary McBeth; Mrs. Isabel Beauvais; Mrs. Lydia Roberts and Miss Catherine McLane.
MISSOURI, MOTHER OF THE WEST. Volume V, pp 16-71.