By John Mallo
The McClay Family of Eden Prairie has lost two sons in service to our county. The first lost was John McClay in the Civil War, the second was his grandson Everett McClay who was killed in the First World War. This is a story of that family.
Coming to America
The McClay family was originally from Scotland. They moved to Ireland during English rule known as the “plantation of Ireland.” In order to gain control of Catholic Ireland England gave land to Scotch residents (Protestants). The McClays lived in Letterkenny, Ireland. While in Ireland the family changed their family name to “McClean.” Around 1834/35 they returned to Scotland to a city named Ayr, on the coast directly across from Ireland. Upon their return to Scotland they changed their name back to “McClay.”
Around 1850 the family started their trip to America. The research of Lorraine McClay tells us the McClay family entered North America through Nova Scotia, Canada, with six or seven brothers and possibly two or three sisters and their families. This large group supposedly made their way down into Pennsylvania where there is presently a line of McClays at Cowansville, Penn. From there some of the group made their way into Ohio, thence to Springfield, Ill., and then on to St. Louis, Mo.
There is substantiated evidence the McClays spent some time in St. Louis before coming to the Minnesota Territory in 1854. Three brothers came to Minnesota from St. Louis. Samuel McClay settled in Montevideo, John settled in the Long Lake area of Hennepin County and James settled in Eden Prairie. The three brothers probably came to Minnesota by boat from St. Louis to St. Paul.
Once in St. Paul, James, his wife Mary Jane Moody McClay and their family probably boarded a smaller ferryboat that brought them to the Bloomington Ferry Landing from where they walked to Eden Prairie. Both James and Mary Jane had been born in Letterkenny, Ireland: James in 1812 and Mary Jane in 1810. James and Mary Jane had seven children. John was born on Jan. 2, 1839.
The summer of their arrival surveyors came to Eden Prairie and the land was opened for settlement. To get title of the land one had to go to the courthouse in the village of Minneapolis and file a claim to the land selected for homestead. The cost was $1.25 per acre. Under the preemption laws, the land had to be improved for each 40 acres. After that you could prove up and get a title for the land. The land selected was in Eden Prairie on Bloomington Township Road, today known as Highway 169, between Anderson Lakes Parkway and Pioneer Trail.
James McClay died Oct. 25, 1858, and is buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Eden Prairie. James is one of the first settlers to be buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery. The 1860 census shows the McClay family still living in Eden Prairie; Mary Jane is 45, John 23, James 20, Mary J. 17 and Margaret 15.
Stories of Eden Prairie in 1862
A neighbor of the McClay family, Mary Jane Hill Anderson in 1935, at the age of 95, wrote the following stories. All the houses and barns at this time and for many years after were made of logs, sometimes just left in the rough, sometimes barked and squared, and then hauled onto the ground ready for the raising, which was often quite an occasion for festivity. It took all the men in the neighborhood to set the logs in place “up to the square,” or ready for the roof. Such baking and brewing as was done by the women to feed the hungry men!
In the spring of 1862 James Anderson had a log rising to build his barn. About 11 o’clock, Ezra Paine, a boy about 11 years old, came to the log raising to tell the men that the Indians had broken out up on the frontier and were killing the people and burning the houses and villages. The men were in a meeting by one o’clock at the Gould schoolhouse to decide whether to build a fort at Eden Prairie or go to Fort Snelling for protection.
At the schoolhouse it was decided to send William and Robert Brewster and William Anderson on horseback in the direction of the trouble, toward Shakopee about four miles southwest of Eden Prairie, to learn the truth about the report. Late that night they returned, the report was that there was some problems, several had been killed, both Indians and whites. The story had grown. There was some uneasiness on the part of the settlers because the Indians were beginning to resent their coming, and this particular rumor started in this way:
A white man bought a gun from an Indian and paid for it in counterfeit money. The Indian took the money to the store and when he found it worthless, tried to get the white man to give him back the gun, which he refused to do. This led to an argument, and the white man beat the Indian with a stovewood stick. Not long afterward a score of Indians came to the white man’s farm and shot a steer and took it away for the meat. This led to an attack on the Indians by the whites, and a few were killed on both sides, which led to the story of the uprising.
In many cases the white settles were at fault and the Indians grew more rebellious, but it was not until the Civil War that they gained courage to attack the whites openly, and then they took advantage of the fact many of the men were at the front. The fire, which Mrs. Brewster thought was Shakopee burning, was only a straw stack burning.
By the fall of 1862, Mary Jane McClay’s children were dismissed early from school, sent home and told to go to Fort Snelling because Indians had attacked settlers in the Mankato area. Many neighbors went with their families to Fort Snelling for protection, about 20 miles away. After a few days it was found there was no danger within 50 miles and they returned home. That fall Gen. Sibley, in command of the Sixth Regiment from Fort Snelling, captured 300 Indians. They were kept prisoners, tried by court martial, and most of them found guilty. President Lincoln pardoned all but 38, the leaders, who were hanged at Mankato, all on one platform, as an example.

Mallo is an Eden Prairie resident and chair of Eden Prairie’s Veterans Memorial Committee.