Traer Star Clipper, Friday, May 3rd, 1940 - page 1
The Traer community lost one of its most remarkable citizens when John W. McClain died yesterday morning at the Safely farm southwest of Traer where he had lived for sixty years. He was 81 years old. Mr. McClain had been in failing health several years, suffering from heart disease, and had been confined to his bed most of the time during the last few weeks. The funeral service will be held Saturday afternoon at the Boettcher Funeral Home in Traer, with the Rev. J. J. Snyder, local Methodist pastor in charge. Burial will be in Buckingham cemetery.
Mr. McClain, son of William and Mary Kelso McClain, was born March 30, 1859 at Masontown, Pennsylvania as a member of a large family which included nine brothers and five sisters. Of these only two brothers, S. D. McClain of Cherokee, Iowa and Joseph McClain of Canton, Ohio and one sister Mrs. Purcell of Salt Lake City Utah, survive.
He came to Iowa with his parents when young and lived on a farm south of Traer. In 1880 he started to work for Mrs. J. G. Safley who achieved notable success as one of Tama county's first successful women farmers before her death fifteen years ago and remained in the employ of her family ever since with the exception of winters spent in Florida, Mississippi, California and Arizona. He never married.
Intelligent, thrifty and industrious, Mr. McClain set a record for hard work and loyalty to his employers which is seldom duplicated. Through all the years of Mrs. Safely's struggle with problems caused by the untimely death of her husband, John McClain labored wholeheartedly for her interests. No small share of the credit for what she accomplished in freeing her land from debt, in rearing and educating her children, and in filling the prominent role in the life of the Traer community which she did during those strenuous years must go to John McClain's steadfast and unselfish aid. Mr. McClain was well read and a keen student of the Bible. Although efficient service to his employers was always his chief interest in life, he was widely known and respected, and will be missed by the Safley family as though he had been one of their own family.