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Louis McLane (expressman)

American financier (1819-1905)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ106131021 ↗
Source-derived summary

Louis McLane Jr. (January 20, 1819 – December 13, 1905) was an American financier from a prominent Maryland family, who became a prosperous California forty-niner.

Early life

McLane was born on January 20, 1819, in Wilmington, Delaware. He was one of thirteen children born to Catherine Mary "Kitty" (née Milligan) McLane and Louis McLane, who served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State in President Jackson's cabinet (until his resignation in 1834), and Minister to the United Kingdom. He later served as president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Among his siblings were Robert Milligan McLane (a U.S. Representative and Governor of Maryland who served as Ambassador to Mexico, France, and China), Lydia (née McLane) Johnston (wife of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston), Allan McLane (president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company), James Latimer McLane (president of the National Bank of Baltimore and father of Baltimore mayor Robert McLane), and Juliette (née McLane) Garesché (wife of Peter Bauduy Garesché).

His paternal grandfather was Col. Allan McLane of the Continental Army.

Career

In 1835, at just sixteen years old, he left his classes at Newark College when he was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the USS Ohio from 1838 to 1840. McLean submitted his resignation of his commission as a Lieutenant on January 20, 1850, to the Secretary of the Navy.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Louis McLane (expressman)” as american financier (1819-1905). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Louis, McLane and expressman.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1819, 1905, 1834, 1835—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1819-01-20. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Louis, McLane and expressman providing the first useful test.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106131021. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1819, 1905, 1834 and 1835.

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This entry incorporates text from “Louis McLane (expressman)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.