James Creighton McClellan (1834 - 1910)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during James' lifetime.

In 1834, in the year that James Creighton McClellan was born, on August 14th, the Poor Law Amendment Act was enacted in the United Kingdom. The Act stated that no able-bodied British man could receive assistance unless he entered a workhouse (a kind of poorhouse). The Act was intended to curb the cost of relief for the poor since workhouses were designed to be unpleasant. Many workhouses used the men as free labor and employed them in such tasks as breaking stones, crushing bones to produce fertilizer, or picking oakum - tarred fiber used between planks on ships -using a large metal nail known as a spike.

In 1848, at the age of just 14 years old, James was alive when on January 24th, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in California. On August 19th, the New York Herald published news of the Gold Rush in California - alerting the east coast. The Gold Rush brought over 300,000 people to northern California from the rest of the US and overseas.

In 1873, James was 39 years old when on May 27th, German archaeologist and businessman Heinrich Schliemann found what he said was "Priam's Treasure" - confirming the existence of ancient Troy. The find in Hissarlik Turkey is still disputed as being a part of Troy.

In 1899, James was 65 years old when on February 4th, the Philippine–American War began. The Philippines objected to the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1898, that transferred possession of the Philippines from Spain to the U.S. Filipinos began a fight for independence and fighting between U.S. forces and those of the Philippine Republic broke out. On June 2nd, the Philippines officially declared war on the United States.

In 1910, in the year of James Creighton McClellan's passing, the Mann Act, also called the White-Slave Traffic Act, was signed into law. Its purpose was to make it a felony to engage in interstate or foreign commerce transport of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose". But the language was so broad that it was also applied to consensual sex between adults when wished.