Spouse:
Sarah A. CROSTHWAITDr. John D. McCleary has attained a gratifying measure of success in a professional career, being particularly skilled in surgery. He is today the dean of his profession in Warren County and has long maintained a foremost place in the ranks of the medical fraternity of Indianola, where he still practices, although he has attained the age of seventy-eight years. He was born in Wabash county, Illinois, September 27, 1829. His parents were James and Sophia Payne (ELLIS) MCCLEARY. The father was born in Ohio and was of Scotch-Irish lineage, his ancestors removing from Pennsylvania to the Buckeye state in an early day.
James McCLEARY was a farmer by occupation and in 1817 left Ohio for Illinois. He was but a boy at the time and accompanied his father, who entered land from the government in Wabash County. There James McCLEARY resided until 1849, when he became a resident of Fulton County, Illinois, where he remained until 1866. In that year he removed to Wayne County in the same state, where his last days were passed, his death occurring February 12, 1875, when he was in his seventy-fourth year. His widow was born in Kentucky and passed away in 1887, in her eighty-first year. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church while James McCLEARY was connected with the United Brethren Church. They were the parents of twelve children, nine of whom reached adult age, John D. McCLEARY being the second in order of birth. His brother, Ralph B. McCLEARY, is now engaged in the practice of medicine at Monmouth, Illinois, and during the civil war was connected with the surgical department of the Union army.
Dr. McCLEARY of this review was reared to farm life and attended the country schools. He afterward engaged in teaching in Illinois for several terms and later for two terms in Iowa, the first one being two and one-half miles from Mount Pleasant and the last one at Indianola in 1859. It was in the year 1854 that he arrived in this state, settling in Indianola, where he secured a clerkship in the general store of E.G. and H.W. CROSTHWAIT. He there continued for a year after which he clerked for others until the spring of 1861, when he made out the tax list for the county. In the meantime, however, he became imbued with the desire to practice medicine as a life work and to this end he entered the Rush Medical college at Chicago in the fall of 1861, remaining there for one year. In the fall of 1862 he went to Missouri as commissary clerk and in March, 1863, he became assistant surgeon of the Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, remaining with the command until the fall of Vicksburg. He had been stationed at that place and after the surrender of the city he resigned on account of disability. His professional service gave him rank as first lieutenant. It was several months after his return to Indianola before he fully recuperated. In the spring of 1864 he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Forty-sixth Iowa Infantry under Colonel David B. HENDERSON and remained at the front during the term of his enlistment - one hundred days. He then returned to Indianola but had received another commission as assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry. This he did not accept, however, as the war was drawing to a close.
Dr. McCLEARY resumed the private practice of medicine and in 1867, in order to still further perfect himself in his chosen calling, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, receiving a diploma the same year. He then again came to Indianola, where he has since been in continuous practice and is today the oldest physician in active connection with the profession not alone in Warren County but probably throughout the state. He is well know in Iowa and has long ranked with its ablest physicians and surgeons, being particularly successful in his surgical work. He understands thoroughly the anatomy and the component parts of the human body, the onslaughts made upon it by disease and the difficulties to be encountered by reason of inherited tendency. While many years have passed since he entered upon active practice, he has yet continued a student of the profession and reading and stud have kept him in touch with its onward march.
In 1852 Dr. McCLEARY was married to Miss Sarah A. CROSTHWAIT, a daughter of Joseph P. and Roberta CROSTHWAIT, who came from Tennessee about 1830 and settled in Fulton, Illinois. They afterward removed to Cass County, Iowa, in 1856, and the father engaged in farming. Unto Dr. and Mrs. McCLEARY were born seven children. Irene, now the widow of Joseph Cook, is a teacher in the public schools at Villisca. Horace is located in Indianola, Josephine is a teacher in Simpson College. The others have now passed away.
The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which Dr. McCleary is serving as a trustee, while in the church work he is deeply interested. Fraternally he is a Mason and an Odd Fellow and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and a comrade of James Randolph Post, G.A.R. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and in 1856 he was assessor of Washington township. He has also been a member of the city council and has always been a stalwart champion of the cause of education. He has seved as school director, was the first secretary of Simpson College and was regent of the State University fro 1892 until 1900.His associations in more specifically professional lines are with the Warren County Medical Society, the State and Medical Associations and the American Association of Railway Surgeons. He is entitled to membership in the last named by reason of the fact that he has been local surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad for over thirty years. The career of Dr. McCLEARY has been one of signal usefulness and his fellowmen honor him for what he has accomplished. His life, viewed from both a professional and financial standpoint, has been successful and, moreover, the sterling qualities of manhood which he has displayed have won for him the unqualified confidence and esteem of all who know him."
(Source: The History of Warren County, 1879)