Colonel Jackson M'Clain
was born in Henderson County, on the fifth day of October, 1816. His father, James McClain, was born in Henderson, and was a leading farmer and influential citizen to his death, in 1839. His mother was Miss Butler, her father also being a farmer. Colonel McClain was educated at the common and private schoos of his county, and being a young man of strong mind and retentive memory, he learned rapidly and with ease to himself. At the age of twenty-three, his father died and left his son with his large estate to look after, and the younger members of the family to educated and raise. He performed these arduous duties with signal ability, and to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.
Colonel McClain is a very large land owner, and has farmed it for a great many years of a large scale. The war robbed him of a large number of valuable slaves, but, notwithstanding that, with his usual indomitable will-power, he has annually, with the uncertain labor at his command, grown large crops. He is a continual thinker, applying his mind to the successful management of his business affairs. He is a man of sound judgment upon all matters, and his long and eventful career has proven it. In 1841 he was married to Miss Mary Watson, and unto them was born one child, Annie. She married Colonel A. H. Major, a highly educated gentleman, and he died several years past leaving a family of four children, Kate, Jackson, Samuel and Ella. Mrs. McClain died, and again, in 1869, Colonel McClain married Miss Carrie S. Hunt, of Warsaw, Illinois. She died a few years since leaving five sons, Jackson, Hunt, William, Henry and George. He again married, Mrs. Helen Trafton his present wife.
Colonel McClain has served as a Director in the Henderson & Nashville Railroad Board, and was largely instrumental in the success of the enterprise. For several years he served as a Director of the Farmers' Bank, and, on the second day of August, 1862, was elected its President. He has served several terms as a member of the Public School Board, and has oftentimes been sought to take charge of trust funds, estates, &c. He is an uncompromising Democrat and for many years has served as a member of the County Committee. He is a member of the Episcopal church.
-The History of Henderson County, Kentucky by Starling 1887 page 813-14;