and Agnes, were born in that State.  He then joined the great tide of emigration to the more enticing fields and genial climate of the southern colonies, and settled in the Dobbin neighborhood, eight miles from Salisbury, Rowan county, N.C.  Here he remained for a few years, during which time his eldest son John, and William, the immediate subject of this sketch, were born.  He then moved to a tract of land he purchased near the junction of the South Fork with the main Catawba river, in Tryon, (now Gaston county,) where three more sons were born, Alexander, George and Thomas.  This place he made his permanent abode during the remainder of his life, surrounded with the greater portion of his rising family.  He attained a good old age, his wife surviving him a few years; both were consistent members of the Presbyterian church, and are buried at the old “Smith graveyard,” near the place of his last settlement.  Soon after the Revolutionary war, Alexander McLean, Jr., moved to Missouri, and George McLean to Tennessee.  Thomas McLean, the youngest son, retained the old homestead, where, at an advanced age, he ended his earthly existence.  Although only thirteen years old at the time of the battle of King’s Mountain, he could give a glowing account of the heroic bravery which characterized that brilliant victory in which many of his neighbors, under the brave Lieut.  Col.  Hambright and Maj.  Chronicle, actively participated.  John McLean, the eldest son, performed a soldier’s duty on several occasions during the war.  Upon the call of troops from North Carolina for the defence of Charleston, he attached himself to Col.  Graham’s regiment, under Gen. Rutherford, and was there captured.  Immediately after being exchanged, he returned to North Carolina and joined the command of Capt.  Adlai Osborne, and about three month’s afterward was killed in a skirmish at Buford’s Bridge, S.C.

After the removal of Alexander McLean to his final settlement on the south fork of the Catawba, as previously stated, William assisted him on the farm, and when a favorable opportunity offered, went to school in the neighborhood, acquiring as good an education as the facilities of the country then afforded.  His instructor for the last three months in this early training was a Mr. Blythe, who, noticing his rapid advancement in learning, and capacity for more extended usefulness, advised him to go to Queen’s Museum, in Charlotte.  This institution was then in high repute under the able management of Dr. Alexander and Rev. Alexander McWhorter, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman from New Jersey.