My Genealogy Hound

J. H. McCLELLAND, M. D. Foremost in the van of the noble army of able, honored and successful medical men of Western Pennsylvania stands Dr. J. H. McClelland, of Pittsburgh, than whom no one has accomplished greater works in the same time, nor reached a higher position in the medical world at so early a period in life. He is a native of the city in which he resides, born May 20, 1845. His father, J. H. McClelland, Sr., who came of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, emigrated in 1816 from the north of Ireland to this county, when his vigorous intellect soon made him famous as a writer of and speaker on several subjects of public interest, and as architect and contractor he erected many public buildings in Pittsburgh and vicinity. From 1867 to 1871 he served as postmaster of his adopted city. The mother of the subject of this memoir was a daughter of Rev. John Black, D. D., of whom mention is made in the chapter on churches elsewhere in this work.

Dr. McClelland at the age of seventeen had received an appointment to Annapolis, but was induced by the family physician, Dr. J. P. Dake, to take up the study of medicine. This he did, graduating from Hahnemann Medical College, of Philadelphia, in 1867, and on returning to Pittsburgh became identified with the Homeopathic Medical and Surgical hospital then being established. His aptitude for surgical work giving him an enviable prominence, he was at once appointed to a position on the surgical staff of the new hospital, and performed the first capital operation in that institution, on the surgical staff of which he has ever since served. The doctor was for fifteen years secretary of the board of trustees, and for some years has been its chairman.

Dr. McClelland achieved success in the line of his chosen profession from the very outstart, and rapidly built up an extensive practice, the constantly increasing demands of which have not kept his pen in idleness. He has contributed from time to time many able papers on surgery to various journals, and county, state and national societies, and as member of the surgical bureau of the American Institute of Homeopathy he has prepared many papers on a variety of surgical subjects. The doctor organized the Anatomical Society of Allegheny County, of which he has been demonstrator and president, has also been president of the Allegheny County Medical society, and was president of the state medical society in 1881. At the world’s convention of 1876, at Philadelphia, he, by special appointment, presented a paper on one of the surgical diseases, and at the world’s convention of 1881, at London, he was by appointment one of the debaters. In 1876 and 1877 he filled the professor’s chair of surgery in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, his alma mater, and was president of that college for the year 1886-87. Many other honors have been offered Dr. McClelland outside his native city, but he has invariably declined to leave his home. While he has already won eminence in his profession, the doctor has still found time to cultivate and enjoy the graces of social life, and has won a large circle of friends. He was married in 1884 to Miss Rachel May, daughter of the late John P. Pears, of Pittsburgh.