by

Josh Duey

    Colonel William H. McClure was originally from Rochester, New York, where he had been born on May 5, 1829. In 1853, McClure decided to leave for Cedar Falls to become its first attorney. [1] He also was the first to be admitted to the bar and conduct a jury trial in the county. [2] His work as a lawyer occupied most of McClure’s life.

    The Civil War broke up McClure’s peaceful life however. He enlisted in the army on August 8, 1861. He served in the Third Iowa Battery and the Ninth Iowa Infantry, holding the post of commanding senior first lieutenant. [3] On March 25, 1865, McClure was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Iowa State Militia. [4] He fought in the battles of Sugar Creek and Pea Ridge, where the Union won on March 7, 1862. He was wounded in the latter battle. [5] McClure returned to Cedar Falls and lived the rest of his days here as an attorney. However, in his last years symptoms of dementia began to afflict him before his death on November 18, 1908, at the age of 79. [6] As the Waterloo Courier commented in his obituary:

    In the passing of Col. McClure the county loses one of its best known pioneers and one of its brilliant men, for when the colonel was in his prime he was an able, even brilliant attorney, an orator of unusual power, and a factor in the development of the county. [7]

Footnotes 

1. Historical and Biographical Record, Black Hawk County, Iowa (Chicago: The Inter-State
    Publishing Company, 1886), 601. 

2. "Oldest Lawyer Dies; Aged 79," Waterloo Courier, 20 November 1908, 1. 

3. Ibid. 

4. Ibid. 

5. Ibid. 

6. Ibid. 

7. Ibid. 

  Bibliography

 
Historical and Biographical Record, Black Hawk County, Iowa. (Chicago: The Inter-State
     Publishing Company), 1886, 601. 

Lyftogt, Kenneth. From Blue Mills To Columbia. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1993. 

"Oldest Lawyer Dies; Aged 79," Waterloo Courier, November 20, 1908, 1.