James Henry McLean

James Henry McLean (August 13, 1829 – August 12, 1886) was a U.S. Representative from Missouri and a prominent nineteenth-century physician, patent medicine manufacturer, and inventor. Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, he spent his early childhood in Nova Scotia, Canada, where his father served as manager of the Albion Mining Company. While living in the mining community, McLean began studying medicine under the company’s resident physician, an experience that sparked his interest in the medical field and laid the foundation for his later career in both medicine and business.

In 1842, having received $200 from his father, McLean set out for the United States with the intention of pursuing a medical career. On his journey he remained aboard ship long enough to visit Bermuda, then proceeded to Boston, Massachusetts, before settling later that year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he secured employment as a clerk in a drug store, which enabled him to continue learning about pharmacy and medicine. While in Philadelphia he furthered his medical education by taking courses at the University of Pennsylvania, combining formal instruction with practical experience behind the drugstore counter.

McLean briefly left the pharmaceutical trade to work as a clerk for a mining company in Minersville, but in 1849 he moved west to St. Louis, Missouri, a rapidly growing city that offered broader commercial opportunities. In St. Louis he profited from the sale of building lots and soon entered the burgeoning patent medicine business. He became a partner in the distribution of George A. Westbrook’s “Mexican Mustang Liniment,” a widely advertised remedy promoted as suitable “for man, horse, and other beasts.” This venture introduced him to large-scale marketing and distribution of proprietary medicines, an area in which he would later achieve considerable success.

In 1850 McLean relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he demonstrated a keen sense for speculative trade. By purchasing and then re-selling the city’s only available supply of turpentine at a profit, he attracted notice and was entrusted with managing finances for the Narciso López expedition, a filibustering effort aimed at liberating Cuba from Spanish rule. The following year, in 1851, he returned to St. Louis to continue his medical studies and to reestablish himself in the patent medicine field. There he created and marketed “Dr. McLean’s Volcanic Oil Liniment,” a product that placed him in direct competition with his former associates in the “Mexican Mustang Liniment” enterprise and led to commercial controversy between the rival brands.

McLean formalized his medical training and graduated from the St. Louis Medical College in 1863. Over the ensuing years he greatly expanded his business enterprises, building a substantial patent medicine operation headquartered in St. Louis. He published a monthly newspaper and widely circulated almanacs to promote his products, which included “McLean’s Strengthening Cordial and Blood Purifier” in addition to his liniments. His remedies were marketed nationally and internationally, and the scale of his operations grew to the point that he employed an international sales force and operated fleets of wagons, ships, and railroad cars to distribute his medicines throughout the United States and abroad.

As a member of the Republican Party representing Missouri, McLean later entered public life and contributed to the legislative process during one term in the United States Congress. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative Thomas Allen and served from December 15, 1882, to March 3, 1883. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, and he participated in the democratic process by representing the interests of his Missouri constituents in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In addition to his medical and political endeavors, McLean was active as an inventor. During his career he patented several devices, including a dredging machine intended to improve navigation and harbor operations. In the early 1880s he also patented an early version of a machine gun. Although this weapon did not prove technically or commercially viable, it reflected his inventive curiosity. A devout Methodist who opposed violence, McLean is reported to have hoped that weapons capable of mass killing would be so terrible in their potential effects that nations would be deterred from going to war.

James Henry McLean died in Dansville, New York, on August 12, 1886, one day before his fifty-seventh birthday. His remains were returned to Missouri, and he was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, the city that had been the center of his medical, business, and political life.