James Willson McClung

Notes:

CENSUS RECORDS

1880 Census
Name: James Mc Clung
Age: 13
Birth Year: abt 1867
Birthplace: Virginia
Home in 1880: South River, Rockbridge, Virginia
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son (Child)
Marital Status: Single
Father's name: Andrew A. Mc Clung
Father's Birthplace: Virginia
Mother's Birthplace: Virginia
Household Members:
Andrew A. Mc Clung 49
Bettie Mc Clung 19
Phoebe Mc Clung 17
Margaret Mc Clung 15
James Mc Clung 13
Charles Mc Clung 9

1900 Census
Name: W Mcclung
Age: 33
Birth Date: Dec 1866
Birthplace: Virginia
Home in 1900: Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Head
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Didi Mcclung
Marriage Year: 1894
Years Married: 6
Father's Birthplace: Virginia
Mother's Birthplace: Virginia
Household Members:
W Mcclung 33
Didi Mcclung 32

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

From Find A Grave

James Willson McClung is the son of Andrew Alexander McClung and Estaline Montgomery Willson. He married Demaris Irene Berry on 9 May 1894.

James had some serious problems with his employer but following his time served, he turned out a record amount of historical cemetery surveys, old homes surveys built before 1860, with photographs of them, old churches, court records, etc. for Rockbridge County's Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in about 1936.

He also wrote a book called the Historical Significance of Rockbridge County, Virginia, Staunton, VA, McClure Co., Inc, 1939 and 1979. This book is available to view on Heritage Quest thorough local libraries, using your library card number. It contains many W.P.A. surveys of the old homes, cemetery, court records, individuals, local history, etc.

According to the Foundations of the Past, The WPA Historical Inventory Project in Virginia by Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr., and Stacy Gibbons Moore online at the Library of Virginia: There were a total of 621 W.P.A. reports or surveys in Rockbridge County and James prepared 534 of them.

Born in 1866 to a farm family in Brownsburg, a resident of Lexington for decades, and treasurer and deacon of the Lexington Presbyterian Church, McClung already knew and appreciated much about Rockbridge County.

He worked at the Rockbridge National Bank in Lexington, People's National Bank and treasurer of Virginia Military Institute. He was led astray in the funds at the latter and pleaded guilty to all charges mounting to just under $31,000. with interest over a period of many years. He paid back the money through the sale of his property and served a year in the Virginia State Penitentiary, with one year off for good behavior.

Thus by the mid-1930s McClung found himself one of many applicants for WPA employment assistance. Assigned to the Virginia Historical Inventory Project, he began collecting materials in March 1936 and by early June was already submitting detailed reports to his district supervisor, William A. Moon Jr., in Waynesboro. Moon was responsible for field-workers in fifteen different counties and, like so many other WPA employees, brought several skills to his tasks. He was an avid historian and had developed a considerable knowledge of rural public libraries. Moon was later temporarily assigned to Richmond as the project's statewide supervisor.

What Moon may have thought of his new staff member is not known. In any case, as McClung went about his work, it must at times have been painfully difficult to face his Lexington and Rockbridge neighbors. Despite that, he gamely asked for the community's assistance, especially welcoming "any suggestions" and "any historical data which anyone may have."

Like every other field-worker's, McClung's files underwent editorial scrutiny. He apparently submitted his last research notes in the autumn of 1937, at which point the regional and Richmond offices organized the hundreds of files and made corrections or additions, sometimes by retyping pages, and sometimes by simply pasting revisions onto an earlier draft. McClung, like many of his fellow WPA workers, was justifiably proud of his accomplishment--so proud, in fact, that a year and a half later, in 1939, he published an abbreviated sampling of his work. In the book's preface he commented that he had completed some 700 reports, whereas the Rockbridge County files attributed to McClung total 534. That was not a remarkable discrepancy. Files were often declined and far more often merged. What is remarkable is that McClung completed so much within as few as eighteen to twenty months. Perhaps it was a restitution of sorts. Remarkable, too, is that when he died in 1945 his obituaries made no mention of his singular feat, or of his crime.

James Willson McClung wrote about his family home, he called the old home of Andrew A. McClung, located about midway between Fairfield and Brownsburg, in Rockbridge Co., VA, about 1/4 mile from the raod, built 1740 - 1910. Samuel Willson (1st owner) sold it to Isaac R. Jordan in about 1750. Jordan built the home around 1760 and following his death, it was sold to Andrew A. McClung. The deed was recorded 3 Jan 1861 in Rockbridge Co., VA Deed Book HH, page 374. Originally built as a log structure, 2 stories tall. About 1760, a brick addition, 2 stories was added on. James W. McClung was born and raised in this house. Taken from: James Willson McClung's Historical Significance of Rockbridge Co., VA., 1939, page 63-64. More data on his family is given in this source.

Many of his WPA inventories are online at the Library of Virginia.

Birth:
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Name: James W McClung
SSN: 226121480
Birth Date: 24 Dec 1866
Birth Place: Virginia
Claim Date: 3 Feb 1942
Type of Claim: Life Claim
Notes: 03 Dec 1976: Name listed as JAMES W MCCLUNG

Buried:
Grave location, biography, and tombstone photo:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=62643648&ref=acom

Died:
Virginia, Deaths, 1912-2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.
Name: James Willson Mcclung
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age at Death: 78
Birth Date: 24 Dec 1866
Death Date: 31 Jan 1945
Death Place: Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia
Registration Date: 1 Feb 1945
Father: Andrew Alexander Mcclung
Mother: Estaline M Willson
Spouse: Damaris Irene Berry

James married Demaris Irene Berry. Demaris was born 01 Feb 1866, Augusta Co. VA; died 16 May 1943, Lexington, Rockbridge Co. VA; was buried , New Providence Presbyterian Church Cemetery Raphine Rockbridge Co. VA. [Group Sheet]