Biography
ARCHIBALD McLELLAN was born in New Brunswick, Canada, educated in Boston, and began his business career in New York. He moved to Chicago about 1886, obtaining a legal degree while pursuing his career. Although the healing of his wife, Jeannette McLellan, by Christian Science made him sympathetic to the religion, he did not give it his wholehearted acceptance until 1888, when he heard Mrs. Eddy’s well-known speech “Science and the Senses,” delivered in Chicago at Central Music Hall (see Miscellaneous Writings, 98-106). Archibald joined First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago, in 1895, and served as trustee and chairman of the Executive Board. He was working as Committee on Publication for Illinois when he was called to Boston in 1902 to edit the periodicals. Archibald McLellan became the fifth member of the Christian Science Board of Directors in 1903, and was chairman from that year until June 1916, during which time The Mother Church Extension was completed. It was he who, at Mrs. Eddy’s bidding, acquired the Chestnut Hill property and prepared it for her occupancy, and when The Christian Science Monitor was launched in 1908, he was named its first editor.