William McLean

William McLean (August 10, 1794 – October 12, 1839) was a lawyer, legislator and businessman. He served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1823 to 1829. Biography William McLean was born in Mason County, Kentucky and moved in 1799 with his parents Fergus and Sophia (Blackford) McLean and his older brother John McLean (who would become a Congressman from Ohio and a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) to a farm in Warren County, Ohio. There he attended the common schools, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1814. He commenced practice in Cincinnati, Ohio and then was a lawyer at Lebanon, Ohio. He removed from Lebanon to Piqua, Ohio about 1820 and was the first regular professional lawyer who settled in the village. He was receiver of public moneys and through his efforts a subsidy of 500,000 acres (2000 km2) of land was procured for building the Ohio Canal from Cincinnati to Lake Erie. Congress In 1822, William McLean was elected from Ohio's 3rd congressional district, which covered nearly all Western Ohio north of Warren County. He took his seat in the Eighteenth Congress. He was reelected to the Nineteenth, and Twentieth Congresses. In the Twentieth Congress, he served as chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs.