William McCleary, as the eldest of ten children. looked after the large farm, owned by his father, after he attained manhood. He was married in New Castle to Miss Selinda Moorehead, who was born and reared at that place, her parents, who were of Pennsylvania birth and of Scotch-Irish blood, having been early settlers of Lawrence County, moving there from Westmoreland county. Mr. and Mrs. McCleary lived in New Castle many years after their marriage, all of there all of their children were born. In 1865 they came to Illinois and established a new home in Lee County, in which the father passed the rest of his days. He died in the fall of 1880, at the age of sixty-seven, leaving behind him the record of a well-filled life and the legacy of a good name, which his children and children’s children hold in reverence. He was an active member of the Presbyterian Church and was deeply interested in every movement for the moral uplifting of the community. In politics he was thoroughly in sympathy with the Democratic party. His wife, who survives him and makes her home with her children, was born June 30, 1816, yet old age has not dimmed her faculties. She is a noble Christian woman and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Of the seven daughters and two sons born to the McClearys, one daughter and two sons are now dead. James enlisted in October, 1861, in Company B, of the famous Cooper’s Battery, in the First Pennsylvania Artillery, and fell while bravely fighting for his country at the battle of Gettysburg; John C., the eldest son, a farmer in Palmyra Township, married Mary Gruver, of Nelson; Mary is the wife of Jerry Hetler, a farmer of Dixon Township; George S. is the third son of the family; Kate, now deceased, was the former wife of D. C. Harden, of whom a biography appears in this work; William, a farmer in Carroll County, married Miranda Mason; Elliott S. is the next in order of birth; Joseph, who married Ida Long, is a member of the firm of McCleary & Long, boot and shoe merchants of Dixon. All the brothers are very successful in business. All but two of them are Presbyterians, and all of them are stalwart Democrats in politics.
Source: “George and Elliot S. McCleary” <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Portraits & Biographical Record of Lee County IL</span>. Chicago: Biographical Pub. Co., 1892. 211-212.