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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Bradley County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Daniel W. McClain is the owner of an estate comprising 901 acres, with 200 acres under fence, and in addition to looking after his farm is engaged in ginning cotton for his neighbors, his fine steam cotton gin being erected in 1887 at a cost of $1,200, it having a capacity of about six bales per day and thirty per week. Mr. McClain was born in York County, S. C, May 31, 1850, his father, A. D. McClain, having also been born there in 1814, and so was his mother, Margaret Muskelly, in 1815. A. D. McClain was a mechanic and wheelwright by trade, but died in 1882, from the effects of a wound caused by a grapeshot at the battle of Gettysburg. His wife passed from life in 1876, in Yorkville, S. C, having borne a family of five children—four sons and one daughter— two sons and a daughter now living. The paternal grandfather, Obe McClain, was born in Scotland. Daniel W. McClain was reared and educated in his native State, and after remaining with his parents until about twenty-one years of age, he came to Bradley County, which place has since been his home. In 1872 he married Miss Mary Ferrill, a native of the same county and State as himself, but he was called upon to mourn her death in 1884, she having borne him five sons and a daughter: Alemoth, Pinkney M., Margaret, Edward, Baxter and John. In December, 1884, he married Miss Mary Martin, who was born in Mississippi, but was reared in Bradley County, Ark., and of two children born to them only one is now living, Gus M. Mr. McClain is a Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Greeley, and his first as well as his present wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 64 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Bradley County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Bradley County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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