JAMES S. McCALL

MCCALL

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 19:47:38

JAMES S. McCALL, section 11, Carl township, is one of the pioneers of Adams county, he having located here in 1866. Occupying, as he does, a position among the early settlers, lie is justly entitled to appropriate mention in the history of his county.

James S. McCall was born in Fulton county, Illinois, March 24,1840. His father, James McCall, was born in Tennessee, May 20, 1811, sou of James, Sr., who was a native of the South and of Irish extraction, and Martha Shaw McCall, of Tennessee. The father of our subject was thirteen years old when he went to Park county, Indiana. He subsequently went to Fulton county, Illinois,
where, at the age of twenty-four, he was united in marriage with Mary D. Beadles, a native of Kentucky. He and his wife moved to Iowa in 1858. In 1857 they located in Adair county, this State, and there, in 1879’ the wife died, aged fifty-seven years. Thirteen children were born to them, seven sons and six daughters. Of these ten are yet living: James S., Hattie I., W. R., Mary E., Joseph Gr., Elijah T., Lindsey F., Viah Iola, Walter A. and Eva L. John settled in Missouri and is supposed to have died in the array. Sarah and Martha are the names of the other deceased. W. R. was a member of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Regiment and served eighteen months. He now lives in Adair county. James McCall now lives with his son, James S. In his youth he received only a limited education, enough, however, to enable him to teach school in those days. He served as Justice of the Peace for some time in Fulton county, Illinois, and for a number of years was an Elder in the Christian church. He has passed an active and useful life and is now numbered among the octogenarians.

The subject of our sketch was reared on a farm in his native county, and at the age of seventeen came to Iowa. August 15, 1862, he enlisted in Company D, Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He served with bravery all through the war and was honorably discharged at New Orleans, being mustered out at Davenport, Iowa. He then returned to Adair county, and in the spring of 1866 came to Adams county and settled on his present farm, which was then wild
land. At this writing he has a well cultivated farm, with a story and a half cottage a grove and orchard and other substantial improvements. Mr. McCall’s father is the pioneer sorghum maker in this vicinity, he having made the first sorghum here in 1858, and in this business the son has been engaged every season since. On one occasion James S. manufactured 1,500 gallons.

Mr. McCall was married in 1861 to Miss E. A. Brewer, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Wilson and Parmelia (Mapes) Brewer. Her parents now reside in the State of Washington. Mr. and Mrs. McCall have seven children, namely: Charles W., Thomas A., Fred, James W., Hattie M., Effie May and Franklin H.

Mr. McCall cast his first vote for President Lincoln, and has ever since given his support to the Republican party. He is a member of the G. H. Waggner Post, No. 535, G. A. R., of Prescott; is also a member of the Farmers’ Alliance.