John Norman Maclean (minister) facts for kids
John Norman Maclean (Scottish Gaelic: an t-Urr. Iain Tormod MacGilleEathain) (1862–1941) was a Scottish-Canadian Presbyterian minister. This means he was a religious leader in the Presbyterian Christian church. He moved from Canada to the United States and worked in churches in California, Iowa, and Montana.
Rev. Maclean is most famous for being the father of the American writer Norman Maclean. Norman Maclean wrote many stories about his family, including the very popular book A River Runs Through It. This book is still a very important part of 20th-century American literature.
Early Life and Education
John Norman Maclean was born on July 28, 1862. His parents were Norman Maclean and Mary MacDonald Maclean. He was born on a homestead, which is land that his grandparents had settled on after moving from the Isle of Coll in Scotland. They settled in a community called Marshy Hope, Nova Scotia, where people spoke Canadian Gaelic.
John Norman Maclean showed he was very smart from a young age. He decided to train to become a minister. He first studied at Pictou Academy. Records from the school called him "J.N. Mclean of Glenbard". This community was known as the last home of a famous Canadian Gaelic poet named John MacLean. This poet was once the Chief Bard (Scottish Gaelic: Aois-dàna) for the leader of Clan MacLean of Coll. He is still a major figure in Scottish Gaelic literature.
John Norman Maclean continued his studies at Dalhousie College in Halifax. He then went to Manitoba College in Winnipeg. During his summer breaks, he traveled around to small Presbyterian churches. These churches were in new farming communities in the Pembina Valley Region of south-central Manitoba. It was here that he met Clara Davidson, who would become his wife. She was an English-Canadian schoolmarm, meaning a teacher.
Marriage and Ministry
Clara's father, John Davidson, was a Presbyterian immigrant from Northern England. He first settled near Argenteuil, Quebec. Clara was born there. However, the farmland was not very good, so John Davidson and his family moved west. They traveled by oxcart and settled on a homestead at New Haven, near Manitou, Manitoba.
While they were dating, Clara often went with John as he visited different churches. In 1893, John Norman Maclean finished his advanced studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. He then became an ordained Presbyterian minister. John and Clara Maclean were married in Pembina, Manitoba, on August 1, 1893.
Family Life
John and Clara Maclean had two sons. Both of their sons later graduated from Dartmouth College. In 1908, Rev. Maclean moved to Missoula, Montana. In 1909, he became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Missoula.
Their older son, Norman Maclean, was born in Clarinda, Iowa, in 1902. He grew up to become a professor at the University of Chicago. He is also a very respected writer in 20th-century American literature.
Norman Maclean was taught at home by his father for some time. He once said that the most important thing his father did was read aloud to them. He explained that every morning after breakfast, they had "family worship." His father, being a minister, would read from the Bible or from religious poems. Norman said his father was a very good reader. This helped him to love the rhythm of language.
The minister's younger son, Paul Davidson MacLean, became known as an investigative journalist. He worked in both Helena, Montana, and in Chicago during the Depression era.
Paul Maclean passed away on May 2, 1937, in Chicago. His brother Norman later wrote about their childhood and their last summer together with their parents. This story became the book A River Runs Through It. The book was published in 1976 and was later made into a movie.
Death and Legacy
John Norman Maclean passed away in 1941. In 2009, the First Presbyterian Church in Missoula honored Rev. Maclean. They dedicated a monument to remember him and his work.
