Walla Walla Mc Biographies

Walla Walla Valley
Mc - Biographies

Herbert McARTHUR

James McAULIFF

Frank McCOWN

HERBERT McARTHUR

Herbert McArthur, deceased, was one of the representative residents of Walla Walla county and a self-made man who in his business career steadily progressed. He started out to earn his living when a little lad of but nine years and from that time forward depended entirely upon his own resources. He was born in the state of New York, November 11, 1868, and was a son of Albert and Grace (Scoville) McArthur, both of whom are natives of the Empire state and are still living there. In their family were four children, two of whom survive.

Herbert McArthur pursued his education in the schools of his native state but his opportunities in that direction were quite limited, for he left home when only nine years of age and began to earn his living. He came in time to be one of the most successful men of the Walla Walla valley. In 1890 he arrived in the city of Walla Walla without a cent. He was then a young man of twenty-two years, and though he lacked capital, he possessed ambition, determination and energy. He utilized every opportunity that promised advancement and he was not afraid of hard work. After a time he embarked in merchandising n Walla Walla and so continued for eight years, after which he sold his business and took charge of the interests of the Blalock Fruit Company, of which he became a large stockholder. This company owned seventeen hundred acres of valuable land devoted to fruit cultivation and Mr. McArthur remained in charge until his death. He closely studied every phase of fruit culture in the northwest, knew where to secure the best nursery stock and also knew just what soil conditions were required for the best production. He studied scientific methods for the care of his trees and the fertilization of the soil, the spraying of the trees, and in fact every branch of work that could facilitate the interests of the company was carefully looked after by him. Following his death Mrs. McArthur purchased two hundred and twenty-five acres of raw prairie land which she has since improved, erecting thereon fine buildings and bringing the fields under a high state of cultivation. She now has one of the finest farms in the state of Washington. All of the trees upon the place have been planted since it came into possession of Mrs. McArthur, who is a most capable business woman, readily recognizing and utilizing opportunities and discriminating quickly between the essential and non-essential in all business affairs.

It was in 1886 that Mr. McArthur was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Abel Gee, who was born in Cuba, New York, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron G. Gee, who were also natives of the Empire state, where her father passed away, as did the mother, whose death occurred in Cuba. Both were laid to rest in New York. In their family were three children, two of whom are now living.

The death of Mr. McArthur occurred in June, 1908, and he was laid to rest in Walla Walla cemetery. His demise was deeply regretted by many friends, for he had won for himself a creditable position not only in business circles but in the regard of those with whom he was associated. Mrs. McArthur is also widely and favorably known in Walla Walla county and ranks with the most representative business women, controlling an estate valued at over three hundred thousand dollars. She possesses notable energy and sound judgment and carries forward to successful completion whatever she begins.

Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 667, 668

GEN. JAMES McAULIFF, the present Mayor of Walla Walla, who has been eleven times elected to that position, was born in Malta, May 25, 1828. His father was an officer in the British army, and both parents were natives of Ireland. In 1836 they emigrated to Canada, and six years later crossed into the United States. In 1845 the subject of this sketch enlisted at Buffalo, New York, into the 2nd U.S. Inf., and during the Mexican War, acquitted himself in a manner that seucred promotion. "For his gallant services on the field." In 1848, he was transferred with others, to the 4th U.S. Inf. that was ordered to Fort Gratiot, Michigan. In 1852, he came with this regiment to California as Sergeant in Major Alvord's company. The since world-famed General Grant was at the time, Lieutenant of his company, and Acting Regimental Quartermaster. On being discharged from service in 1855, at Vancouver, he entered immediately upon an active business life, starting as a merchant at the Dalles, and while there was twice elected Treasurer of Wasco Co., Oregon. In 1859 he removed to Walla Walla, where he was elected County Treasurer in 1862, which position he held until 1867, and became a member of the Territorial Legislature in 1864. In 1869 he was elected Sheriff of the county. His service as mayor of Walla Walla has been noted, to which he would add that the Governor twice commissioned him Commissary General of this Territory. The principal events of his military record as Captain of company B, Oregon Mounted Volunteers, during the Indian war of 1855 and 6, will be found in the history of that war contained in this work. The General's public life, though an active one, has not prevented his gaining some temporal benefits while the county that has become his home was advancing in wealth, and we find among his possessions two farms containing 400 acres, a steam saw mill in the Blue mountains, seven acres and seven lots, besides his residence and lumber yard, in Walla Walla City.

In 1851, March 19th, he was married to Miss Isabel Kincaid in Port Huron, Michigan, and their living children's names and dates of birth are as follows: - Anna P., wife of Dr. W.B. Clowe, March 24, 1854; Thomas, September 17, 1855; William, January 8, 1859; Frank, September 8, 1864. Of General McAuliff's character, reputation, or standing in the county, comment would be out of place, where his record given so forcibly portrays it. Few men like him have been so constantly in public service and retained that degree of confidence which prevents a candidate from opposing his continued re-election.

Gilbert's Historic Sketches
Biographical Supplements
1882
Page 24

FRANK McCOWN.

Frank McCown, who is living retired after many years devoted to agricultural pursuits, was born in Clakamas county, Oregon, November 15, 1855, a son of William and Sarah (Best) McCown, both natives of West Virginia. In 1846 they removed to Kansas and six years later crossed the great plains by ox team to Oregon. The father took up a donation claim of four hundred and eighty acres in Clakamas county and erected a large cabin, which remained the family home for a number of years. In 1878 removal was made to Walla Walla county, Washington, and later the father purchased land which he operated until his death. To him and his wife were born seven children, but only two are living, the brother of our subject being J.L., now a resident of Portland, Oregon.

Frank McCown was reared and educated in Oregon, and during his boyhood and youth received valuable training in farm work. When he was twenty-three years old he came to Washington, and has since resided in Walla Walla county. He devoted his active life to farming and from time to time added to his holdings until he now owns fifteen hundred acres of land which he leases, having retired in 1902. He maintains his home in Waitsburg but spends his winters in California. The success which he has gained has proved that he is quick to recognize and take advantage of business opportunities, and in the development of his farm he was always willing to profit by the work of investigators along agricultural lines.

Mr. McCown was married in 1881 to Miss Laura Walker, and they have become the parents of five children, namely: Emory D.; Malcolm W.; Annie N., the wife of Walter Minnick; Hazel B.; and Frank J.R.

Mr. McCown supports the democratic party at the polls but has not taken an active part in public affairs although he ha taken the interest of a good citizen in matters of government. He belongs to Lodge No. 5, I.O.O.F., in which he has filled all of the chairs. The standards by which he has governed his life are further indicated in his membership in the Christian church, to which his wife also belongs. His friends are numerous and his qualities are such that all who come in contact with him hold him in high esteem.

Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 807, 808

WILLIAM H. McGWIRE was born in Jefferson county, Iowa, April 14, 1843. Three generations back his great grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Virginia, where his grandsire was born. His father, John G. McGwire, is a native of Floyd county, Kentucky, where he was born August 4, 1817. The early years of the subject of this sketch, were passed upon a farm in Iowa, years as uneventful, as unchangably even and alike, as those which have marked the youthful lives of thousands of the rising yeomanry of our land. It was an existence parallel to that of the mass of American youth whose parents are tillers of the soil, such as are often looked back to, when recalled through all the after years, with a feeling of warmth at the heart and a pang of regret at their loss. With William this was not destined to last always, for in 1862, with his parents, he crossed the plains to Washington territory, where a new life opened up to him, as stirring and varied as the old had been quiet and devoid of change. He left home upon the arrival of his parents in Walla Walla, and went into the mines, where he worked for wages. Later, he purchased a team and freighted from Walla Walla to Boise. Then he sold the team and took notes for pay, and lost the avails of all his labor. Again he went to work for wages until sufficient had been laid aside to purchase, with some credit, another team for freighting, when he started on the highway to success. In 1869 he purchased eighty acres of the land that has since been added to until it includes 450 acres, which constitute his farm. It is situated seven and a half miles southeast of Walla Walla, in the foot hills of the Blue mountains. There his picturesque, unpretentious little home is located at the mouth of a ravine, with a creek rambling by the house, from where one can look down upon the city of Walla Walla in the plain, or up at the pine-clad hights of the Blue mountain range. A view of his residence accompanies this work, looking towards the mountains, which fails to show the more level and majority of his land, the productiveness of which has no superior, we think, in this part of the country. In 1869, January 28, he was married to Miss Sementha C. Roberts of Walla Walla. Mrs. McGwire is the daughter of John Roberts, who now resides in Spokane county, W.T., and was born in Linn county, Oregon, October 4, 1853. They have but one child, George A., who was born March 14, 1871. In conclusion, we would say, that in this country, where so many have achieved success, none have gained it with less to look back upon with regret at the means employed, than has the subject of this sketch, W.H. McGwire.

Gilbert's Historic Sketches
Biographical Supplements
1882
Page 25

ANGUS McKAY.

Angus McKay, a well known and enterprising farmer of Walla Walla county, was born in Canada on the 13th of January, 1836, and is a son of Angus and Margaret (Campbell) McKay, both of Highland Scotch birth. In 1832 they crossed the Atlantic and settled in Canada, where they continued to make their home until called from this life. To them were born eight children but Angus is the only one of the number now living.

Mr. McKay grew to manhood in Canada with the usual advantages of a boy of that period, attending school as he found opportunity. He subsequently served three years apprenticeship in a general merchandise store and remained in the Dominion in various capacities until in 1861 he left Canada and came to Walla Walla, Washington, where he engaged in the confectionery and tobacco business for five years. His former experience stood him in good stead and that he was successful along business lines is evident from the fact that at the end of that period he was enabled to secure a homestead of three hundred and twenty acres on Russell creek and he has since given his time and attention to farming with good results, becoming one of the well-to-do men of his community.

In 1866 Mr. McKay married Mrs. Mary A. Winship, a native of Ohio, who crossed the plains with her parents in 1852 in a covered wagon drawn by ox teams and settled in Oregon. To this union have been born seven children, of whom three are living, namely: March, residing and assisting on the ranch; Angus, living in Prossor; and Bessie, the wife of Oscar M. Shelton.

Mr. and Mrs. McKay are living on the ranch which has been their home for over half a century and besides this property they own a residence in the city of Walla Walla. Fraternally Mr. McKay is a member of the Masonic order and being a strong temperance man he organized the first Good Templars lodge in this region in 1866. In politics he is a republican and for fifty years he has efficiently served as justice of the peace, his rulings being fair and impartial. He has also filled the office of the assessor for several years and no trust reposed in him has ever been betrayed in the slightest degree. His honorable principles have won him many friends and all who know him hold him in the highest esteem.

Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 370, 371

LEWIS McMORRIS, of Walla Walla, was born in Coshocton county, near Zanesville, Ohio, August 12, 1831. About eight years after this his parents moved to Shelby county, Illinois, where his father now lives. In March, 1852, Lewis left the home of his parents and crossed the plains to Oregon. The first year and a half on the Coast were spent in the mines of Southern Oregon, and the residue of time until 1855 at Yreka, California. In the latter part of 1855, B.F. Dowell was passing from Yreka with a pack train on his way to Colville with a stock of goods to sell miners in the newly discovered gold regions. When they reached Oregon City the war with Indians had broken out and the Oregon volunteer quartermaster hired Dowell's animals and McMorris as an assistant in the quartermaster department. He served in that capacity until the Indians captured the train that he was employed with on Wild Horse creek, in February, 1856. He concluded to try it again, and accordingly made a successful application for a position in the quartermaster department at the Dalles, and after going with Colonel Wright through the Yakima campaign in 1856, he went to Walla Walla with Colonel Steptoe the same year. He remained in the employ of the quartermaster at Walla Walla until 1857, in October, when he went to the Willamette and purchased a team and agricultural implements with the purpose of farming for the Government in Walla Walla, and returned to that place in the fall. The Indians objected to the appropriation of any more of their land for agricultural purposes, and McMorris was shut out. He had brought from the Dalles, on his return for agricultural purposes, one ton of merchandise to Walla Walla for Captain J. Freedman and Neil McGlinchey, for which they paid him $100, and finding himself without a definite plan for action, took charge of the goods for that firm, and conducted their business for a time and then freighting for something over a year. Freights from Wallula to Walla Walla, thirty miles by road, were $20 per ton, ship measurement (or 42 square feet), a ton often not weighing over 800 pounds. In the fall of 1858 he pre-empted the land claim that is now occupied by Thomas Page; and commenced farming and stock raising. Since then he has continued in that business, Government contracting and staging.

Gilbert's Historic Sketches
Biographical Supplements
1882
Page 26.
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LEWIS McMORRIS

Among the honored early settlers of Washington was Lewis McMorris, who in 1852 came to the Pacific coast and throughout the remainder of his life was identified with the interests of this section of the country. He was here before the city of Walla Walla was founded and he saw its development and assisted in its making. With his brother Joseph and his sisters, Mrs. Sarah Funk and Mrs. Emma Craig, he lived for years in the evening of his days on First street in Walla Walla. He was born in Coshocton, Ohio, August 12, 1831, and came of Scotch ancestry, the family having been founded in America in 1774 by a representative of the name who served in the Revolutionary war and who settled near Winchester, Virginia. After the establishment of American independence the family was founded in Ohio and in later generations representatives of the name went to Shelby county, Illinois, and there engaged in farming.

Lewis McMorris was one of the family who went to Illinois and on attaining his majority he was fitted out by his father to accompany a bachelor neighbor and a party to California. It was in the month of March, 1852, that they started west with ox teams, crossing the plains and meeting with many of the hardships and privations which fell to the lot of the pioneers. It was in that year that the cholera proved so terrible a scourge and all the way from the Missouri river graves dotted the trail. With only a sheet for a shroud and without a casket the bodies were lowered into their graves and the traveler, starting out full of hope, was laid to his last sleep. Often five newly made graves were to be seen in a day. The party with which Mr. McMorris traveled consisted of a train of three wagons at the start but they were afterward joined by six wagons en route at St. Joseph, Missouri, and on the 15th of September, 1852, they reached Fosters, near Oregon City. There the oxen and wagons were sold and horses were purchased by those who desired to go on to the mines. They made pack saddles, loaded the horses and pressed on to southern Oregon, where a year and a half was spent at Sutter Creek, at Crescent City and at other mines. They were not successful there, however, and pressed on to Yreka, California, where Mr. McMorris again engaged in mining. The Rogue River Indian war, however, broke out in southern Oregon, causing him to change his location and he made his way to the northern part of the state. He became a packer, rushing goods from Portland to the mines at Colville. After one of these trips he hired the team of mules to the quartermaster of the Oregon Volunteers to haul supplies to their headquarters at The Dalles. On the second trip the Indians stole both mules and supplies. On the 7th of December, 1855, the battle of the Walla Walla with the Indians was begun on Walla Walla river west of the present site of the city, a battle that lasted for four days and in which several thousand Indians were lined up against a few hundred white volunteers. The white men, however, were victorious and it was a memorable battle because it was a victory of a few over many and also because it marked the beginning of a lasting peace between the Indians and the white settlers in that vicinity. Mr. McMorris was one of the active participants in that battle. In 1856, when the troops camped at what became old Fort Walla Walla they moved about four miles up Mill creek but decided that the first stopping place was best and returned. It was this that decided the location of Walla Walla. Mr. McMorris assisted in building the canton, as the old fort was called, which was made from the various trees which grew along the banks of Mill creek. Years later when this land was sold for building purposes in order to extend the present city, it was desired to save intact some of the old fort buildings, to pace them in the city park as historic relics, but it was found that the timber had rotted so that they crumbled away. In 1857 Mr. McMorris made the trip to the Willamette valley to buy teams for the government. On his return he began freighting for McClinchey & Freedman, who were proprietors of the first mercantile house in this city, located at the corner of Third and Main streets. In1859 he began buying cattle and to secure a watering place for his herd he purchased land which included the present site of Wallula. The winter of 1861-62 was an exceedingly hard one and by spring his herd of two hundred and seventy head had decreased to forty. He next turned his attention to the mercantile business, in which he engaged with his brother, but this enterprise did not prove profitable and he sold his interest in the business. When land was thrown open to settlement he secured a preemption claim at a dollar and a quarter per acre, his pace being located two miles south of the town now known as the Hammond Farm. It was there that he conducted his stock-raising venture for several years and at the same time operated a pack train to Boise, Idaho. After closing out his mercantile interests with his brother he was for four years the owner of a stage line operating between Dayton, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho. He laid out the town of Wallula and donated to the railroad company the land which they used for depot purposes there.

His long and useful life was ended in 1915. He passed away at his home in Walla Walla at the ripe old age of eighty-four years. He had never married but he left a brother and two sisters. The brother, however, died in the spring of 1917. There are also four nephews and one neice: The Funk brothers, who are engaged in merchandising in Walla Walla; the Craig brothers, of Illinois; and Agnes Lillian Purdy, of Portland, Oregon. Mr. McMorris was a member of the Oregon Pioneer Society, the Inland Empire Pioneers Association and the Indian War Veterans. Throughout the long years of his residence in this locality he became very widely and favorably known and he left many friends as well as relatives to mourn his loss. He performed an important part in promoting the early development and upbuilding of this section of the country and with many events which have left their impress upon the history of the northwest his name is inseparably associated.

Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 36, 39, 40

NELSON McSHERRY

Nelson McSherry made for himself a creditable position in the business and political circles of Prescott, so that his death was the occasion of deep and widespread regret when on the 27th of July, 1916, he passed away. He was then but sixty-one years of age, his birth having occurred on the 31st of July, 1855. He was a native of Pennsylvania and a son of J.J. and Margaret (Mitchner) McSherry, both of whom were natives of the Keystone state. At an early day they removed with their family to Missouri, settling near Warrensburg, where they spent their remaining days, and there Nelson McSherry was reared and educated. He was a young man of twenty-five years when in 1880 he was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Harvey, of Warrensburg, and to them were born five children: Lulu, who is the wife of J.D. Walter; Robert, who is living in Nevada; Joseph C., whose home is in Prescott; Urie D.; and Hester.

Mr. and Mrs. McSherry began their domestic life inMissouri and there resided until 1888, when they came with their family to the northwest, establishing their home in Prescott, where Mr. McSherry embarked in business as proprietor of a small mercantile establishment. He adapted himself and his affairs to this part of the country and the conditions here existing and in the course of years he built up a growing and gratifying business. He closely studied the needs of the people in relation to the line of goods which he carried and by reason of his carefully selected stock, his reasonable prices and his straightforward dealing he won a very liberal and well deserved patronage, so that his business became one of the profitable enterprises of the town.

In public affairs Mr. McSherry also took a deep and helpful interest. His fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, elected him the first mayor of Prescott. He was always ready to advance the interests of the town in every possible way and stood at all times for progress and improvement. Fraternally he was connected with the Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was reared a Methodist, but Mrs. McSherry is a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1913, because of failing health, he retired from active business and turned the management of his store over to his sons. Death called him in 1916 and at his passing deep regret was felt for he was a progressive business man, a loyal and patriotic citizen, a faithful friend and a devoted husband and father. He counted it his greatest happiness to provide for the welfare and comfort of his wife and children and in every relation of life he manifested those sterling qualities which command respect, confidence and honor in every land and clime.

Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 130, 131