Long believed to have been named simply "LJ" (including "L J" on his birth record) and used throughout his life. His military grave marker photo would seem to show differently. However, according to an account relayed by his niece, Doris Furney, she told her daughter that when L. J. went into the service, they insisted he had to have a name, so he used his father's, Leonard John.

Obit: L. J. McClish, 54, of 147 North Division Street, Battle Creek, a resident of Kalamazoo until 1940, died suddenly at his home early this morning. He was born in Leonidas July 18, 1892, the son of Leonard and Laura McClish. Mr. McClish was a salesman for the Oriental Rug Co. of Lima, O. Survivors are his wife Nina M. McClish; one brother Clifford E. McClish, Battle Creek, and six sisters, Mrs. Edna L. Johnson, Mrs. Minnie B. Resler, Mrs. Gertrude Neddo, Mrs. Mable Furney, Mrs. Rebecca Wright and Mrs. Emma Gillette, all of Kalamazoo.
[Note - Two birth records both show he was born in Springville Twp, Wexford Co, MI; though many of his records give Leonidas as the place.]

News article from 1918: L.J. MCCLISH HOPES TO BE BACK IN THE UNITED STATES BY SPRING
Private L. J. McClish of American field hospital No 3., is the son of Mr. and Mrs. (John) Leonard McClish of Leonidas. He is with the army of occupation, and writes home as follows:
"Luxemburg, Nov 24, 1918. "Dear Father: "Will drop you a few lines, now that the war is over, and I am on top of the sod; I stand a pretty good chance of getting back to the good old United States by spring, although we are farther away than we were.
"We are now in a fine city named Esch, Luxemburg. We are running a hospital in a large school house, where we have electric lights, running water, etc. It seems mighty good to see something besides shell-torn towns and trenches. There is an assortment of people here-German, French and Italian, and a great many of them speak good English. We were the first Americans in this country. The people celebrated all night long and the bands played until daylight next morning.
I was lucky enough the other night to find a watchmaker who used to make watches in the States. I got him to fix my watch so it runs, now as good as ever. The people here all seem to have plenty of money, but haven't much to spend it for, as the Germans came through here and bought everything. They had to sell, or else the Germans would have taken it anyway. Luxemburg had an army of only 200 men and two cannons, so you see they couldn't stop much of an army.
"I suppose that everybody back home is tickled that the war is over, as they are here."

Married first, 1923, Loretta "Gladys" E. Means (1897-1929).
Married second, aft 1930, Nina Niles (1896-1981).

Updates. Jul 2022 - fixed some typos and added additional notes about his birth place.