Ancestors

John McClellan (1751-1775) was one of the first commissioned officers in the Continental Army from Cumberland County Pennsylvania. John was the first lieutenant in Captain Hendricks company of riflemen. His younger brother Daniel was a private in this same company.

John’s family had fled Scotland for the American colonies after the failed rebellion of 1715. Unlike many they apparently managed to hold onto a good portion of their wealth as they established themselves in central Pennsylvania. By 1775 John was 24 years old, married and had a daughter.

To celebrate receiving his commission, his parents had Richard Butler craft a tomahawk pipe for John to carry. Long rifles had no bayonets so a tomahawk was necessary equipment. In 1775 John’s company became part of Benedict Arnold’s expedition to Quebec.

The march was anything but pleasant. In October 1775 John McClellan wrote to James Chambers from Maine that he should be eternally grateful Washington did not send his company on what was surely the most miserable march ever. Less than a month later McClellan was dead of pneumonia and the tomahawk was given to his brother Daniel.

Daniel fought in the Battle of Quebec, was captured and the tomahawk was confiscated by a British officer. The tomahawk was purchased by the Earl of Warwick and displayed in the Tower of London. It remained in the Warwick collection until it was sold in 1997 to an American collector. The tomahawk was part of an exhibit that was at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.

Daniel McClellan survived the war, returned to Pennsylvania and eventually migrated to Kentucky – where he was reputed to have the finest library in Bourbon County. John’s wife , Elizabeth Martin, never remarried and she lived under the protection of her father-in-law with her daughter Priscilla ,18 mos old at the time of her father’s death. Elizabeth passed away when Priscilla was 13. John’s sister Nancy McClellan Sanderson raised Priscilla to adulthood. Eventually she married David Grier and had 4 children of her own.

When experts describe the tomahawk pipe they tout its intricacies and remarkable condition. Much is made of the skill of Richard Butler and the beadwork of the Shawnee Indians with whom Butler traded. It is one of the very few tomahawks whose provenance is traceable which increases its value.

John McClellan is my DAR patriot ( since he only had one child tracing descent is easier). My oldest son also represents him in the Society of the Cincinnati. We both decided that he deserved to be honored and more importantly remembered for the sacrifice he made. When I see that artifact I don’t see an object of significant monetary and historic value. I see a 24 year old making a decision to fight for what he believed this country could become. I see a wife mourning the loss of her husband and a daughter growing up without her father. I see the people who fought and sacrificed so that there could be a United States of America. The value of the tomahawk pipe is in the story it tells.