Richard Umphrey McLure was for many years a prosperous farmer of Troy, Alabama and in 1904 justice of the peace there. He was born near Brundidge, Pike county, Alabama, Oct. 30, 1853. His father, Samuel Rankin McLure, was a native of Camden, Kershaw county, S. C. He came to Brundidge in 1836, when he was eleven years old, with his parents, Richard Rankin and Mary (Young) McLure. He was a justice of the peace. He served in the Confederate army, and died in Richmond, Virginia, March 29, 1865, while in the service of the Confederacy. He was a grandson of John McLure, the first American ancestor of the McLure family, who came to America with his wife from Scotland and settled in South Carolina.
Eunice (Barr) McLure, mother of Richard U., was a daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Parker) Barr, of Barr’s Mills, Alabama. Richard Umphrey McLure received only a limited education, such as was procurable in the country schools of his time, but by reading he was a well informed man. While always a farmer, he interested himself in public affairs and held a number of offices of trust.
He was a lifelong Democrat and served on various district committees. In 1880 and 1881 he was justice of the peace, and this office he held from Nov. 5, 1898. (through 1904 when this article was written). He was for several years township trustee of schools, and in 1897-98 he was trustee of the city schools of Troy. He was an influential member of the Presbyterian church of Troy, in which he held the office of elder.
He married, March 30. 1881, at Troy, Sarah Elizabeth Hamill. daughter of John Milner and Nancy Eleanor (Wynne) Hamill, of that place. Mr. and Mrs. McLure had seven children in 1904, as follows:
