McClellan Lovelace

July 4, 1864 – July 13, 1947

McClellan “Mac” Lovelace was born on July 4, 1864, in Illinois, the son of Manuel Holman and Elizabeth Jane Lovelace. In his native Illinois he attended private schools. In 1877 at the age of thirteen McClellan came to Tulare County with his family and continued with his education.

While McClellan was a young man he clerked in the store of Fox & Sweetland, and later went into the merchandise business for himself.

McClellan had been interested in levee building on Tulare Lake and the reclamation of the Tulare Lake land at the mouth of the Kings River. He and his son-in-law, George A. Smith Jr., pooled their farming resources and were farming nearly 3,000 acres near Stratford, creating Consolidated Farms. He also had property in Fresno county, near Coalinga. In 1903 the Lovelace Reclamation District was formed and he served as the Charmian of the Board of Directors.

McClellan married Sarah Elizabeth Moyer on April 11, 1888, in Tulare County. Sarah died in Berkeley, on August 1, 1921.

After the death of Sarah, McClellan married Alpha Lamb. Alpha died in 1987, in San Francisco at the age of 105 and is interred in the family plot in the Grangeville Cemetery.

McClellan was a charter member of the Lemoore Fire Company, Number 1. He was almost totally deaf for many years. He died on July 13, 1947