Search Surnames

1890 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Story County, Iowa

Story Co. Home Page
Page 375 of 460

held office in the district nearly ever since. He is one of the most extensive stockmen in the county, and raises and sells from eighty to 100 hogs each year, making a specialty of the Poland China breed, and this year shipped a carload of the heaviest cattle in the county. He raises Percheron horses. ?

Hon. Thomas Clifton McCall. In the career of this gentleman there is a valuable lesson to be learned by the young men of the present day, who wish to rise to prominent and influential positions in life, for in his youth he received no advantages that any young man in the land may not have, but such as he did receive he improved to the utmost. He was born in Ross County, Ohio, on September 4, 1827, being the younger of two surviving children born to the marriage of Samuel W. McCall and Ann Clifton, who were born in Kentucky and Ross County, Ohio, in 1792 and 1795, and died in Polk County, Iowa, and Ross County, Ohio, in 1864 and 1833, respectively. The father was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was wounded in the battle of McQuaggy, at about the time of Hull's surrender. His grandfather, Samuel McCall, was born in Maryland about 1750, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was drowned in Licking River, Ky., in 1795. The mother's father, Thomas Clifton, was a South Carolinian, born about 1740, his death occurring in Ross County, Ohio, in 1830. He also fought for American independence, being under Gen. Nathaniel Greene. In 1836 the subject of this sketch was taken by his father to Fulton County, and there he continued to make his home, being engaged in following the plow until 1846, when he came to Iowa and settled in Polk County, where he taught the first school ever taught in that county east of the Des Moines River. In 1851 he opened a mercantile establishment at La Fayette in partnership with A. Y. Hull, and three years later became the pioneer merchant of Rising Sun, in the same county. In 1855 he began dealing in real estate in Des Moines, but in 1858 came to Nevada, and has here followed that occupation with success up to the present date. He is a clear-headed man of business, an excellent manager of all affairs of which he has control, and enjoys an unsullied reputation. He is now the owner of 2,400 acres of land in Story County, and in his declining years feels that lie can rest from his labors if he so desires. His intelligence on all matters of public interest has always been recognized, and in 1861 he was chosen by the Republicans of Story County as a fitting man to represent them in the General Assembly of the State,and served in the Lower House during the regular and extra session of 1862. In October of this year he volunteered his services in defense of the old flag, and was sent to the front as quartermaster of the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry, with the commission of lieutenant, and on March 22, 1864, received, from President Lincoln, the appointment of assistant quartermaster of volunteers, with the rank of captain, and in that capacity served until November 27, 1865. In discharging the duties of his position he proved himself competent and unquestionably honest, and his war record is one of which he may well be proud. In, 1881 he was again chosen by his many friends to represent Story County in the State Legislature, and this position he filled by re-election in 1883, and discharged his duties in a highly satisfactory manner. He has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for thirty-five years, an elder in the same for twenty-five years, and since 1853 has been connected with the I. O. O. F., having joined that organization at Des Moines. He has since represented it a number of times in the Grand Lodge of the State, and is also a member of the G. A. R. His

Page 375 of 460

© 2012–2024 Mark Christian
[Search Surnames] [Introduction] [Story Co. Home Page ] [Table of Contents]