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DR. JOSEPH ALAN McLANE, died Friday morning at eleven o'clock at the home of his son, Dr. Charles H. McLane on North Sixth street, aged seventy-four years. The subject of this sketch was born March 27th, 1820, at Connellsville, Pa., his parents being Dr. Charles and Eliza McLane. He comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry which can be traced back to old and prominent Scottish clans, and it was this element in his blood that made him a power in his day and generation. When he was but a boy his parents moved to Morgantown, W. Va., where he grew to manhood and received his education. He studied medicine under his father and later took a course at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1838, when only 18 years of age. His family are all born physicians, it being a second nature, and it was no more than natural that he should gain the favor of the people of Morgantown and Monongalia county, and attract notice by his success and skill in the line of his profession. He practiced medicine there for forty years and in all that time maintained the respect of all. He was an upright man in every sense, which taken with a nobility of character of the rugged sort, made him friends who once made were so for life. Too much horseback riding brought about bladder troubles which in later years gave him considerable trouble, although his health was good in other ways. Owing to these causes he has been practically an invalid for several years and has been confined to his room. He was married to Mary Lazier of Morgantown and a happy union it proved to be although she died shortly after the birth of her youngest child. Her loss was a severe one to Dr. McLane who never ceased to mourn her death. The following children survive: Dr. Charles H. McLane and Alan E. McLane of this city, Mrs. Lizzie D. Zoller of Baltimore and Dr. William L. McLane of West Union, W. Va. Mrs. Isaish Warren of Wheeling, a sister also survives. Dr. McLane lived here for the past two years at the home of his son Charles H. McLane, where he has been shown every possible care. Politically he was a staunch Democrat. During the rebellion he was a fervent Union man and at the time of Jones' raid which passed through Morgantown it was the arguments of Dr. McLane who with a committee of citizens pleaded with Jones not to burn the bridge across the Monongahela there that saved it from destruction. Dr. McLane said to him, "You had better leave the bridge to escape back again over in case you are attacked", and the wily Rebel Raider concluded that it was a good argument. Religiously Dr. McLane was a member of the Methodist church and very decided in his convictions. His father's reputation is worldwide by reason of patening Dr. McLane's celebrated liver pills. Too much cannot be said for the skill of the deceased in his practice of medicine or of his purity of character, his name being a household synonym for these in Morgantown and the surrounding country. His remains were taken to Morgantown Saturday for interment, services being held at his own house. The Steubenville Weekly Gazette, Friday, January 12, 1894  Return to the Obituary Index
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