M. B. McClung was born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, in 1839, and is a son of Dixon and Ellen McClung. He received his early education in the common schools of his native county, in Virginia. At the beginning of the war he entered the Confederate army, joining an infantry company known as the “Nicholas Blues,” of which he was elected second lieutenant. This company belonged to the brigade of which General John B. Floyd was commander. In the fall of 1861, he resigned his position in the infantry and joined the Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry in which he served until the close of the war, in 1865. In 1868, he moved to Daviess county, having made a previous visit to this State in 1859. He received his medical education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa, at which institution he graduated in March, 1879.
In 1877, Dr. McClung was married to Miss Sarah A. Handy, daughter of R. W. Handy, of Salem, this county. They have two children: Theo. Myrtle and Maro Bertrand.