"DEATH OF A.C. McCLURG.: Head of Chicago Publishing House Expires at St. Augustine, Where He Went to Seek Health." New York Times, Apr 16, 1901.
"Chicago, April 15.-- A telegram received here announces the death to-day, at St. Augustine, Fla., of Gen. A.C. McClurg, head of the publishing house of A.C. McClurg & Co. Gen. McClurg's health began to fall a year ago, and during last Winter he went to Palm Beach, Fla. later removing to St. Augustine, where his death occurred.
Alexander C. McClurg won an enviable position as a soldier, accumulated large capital as a business man, and received deserved praise for his contributions to periodicals of the higher class, He was greatly interested in economic questions, and one of his latest acts was the reorganization of his immense book business on the lines of industrial co-operation. He was born in Philadelphia sixty-seven years ago, but grew up in Pittsburg. After being graduated from Miami University in 1853, he went to Chicago and became a clerk in the book store of S.C Griggs & Co. He was well situated when the war broke out, but he gave up his prospects in 1862 to enter the army, enlisting as a private soldier. Later he became Captain of the Eighty-eighth Illinois Volunteers, and was afterward promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, being breveted a Colonel and Brigadier General.
Gen. McClurg was Chief of Staff of the Fourteenth Amry Corps and participated in the battles of Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. He also accompanied Sherman to the sea.
After Appomattox he became a partner in the Griggs establishment, which firm became known as Jansen, McClurg & Co., and later as A.C. McClurg & Co. He brought the concern into prominence as one of the largest book-distributing companies in the United States. The house, with all its valuable contents, was burned in 1899, and Gen. McClurg almost immediately announced that he would retire from active business and devote himself to literary pursuits. The demand was so strong for reorganization, however, that a corporation was organized with a capital of $600,000, and he was made its President. Much of the stock was distributed gratis among employes, who were also permitted to buy shares on easy terms."