Biography - Daniel McCall
DANIEL McCALL, was born September 21, 1861, in Mississippi, and is a son
of Robert R. and Mary E. (Dawson) McCall. Thomas McCall, the grandfather of
Daniel, was a native of North Carolina and was of Scotch-Huguenot descent,
and it is said that the founder of the family in this country served in a
Pennsylvania regiment during the war of the Revolution. Robert R. McCall,
son of Thomas and father of Daniel, was born near Nashville, Tennessee in
1825, and there became a farmer and minister of the Christian church. Later
moving to Mississippi, he became a plantation owner and slave holder, but at
the outbreak of the war was a Union sympathizer and counseled his kinsmen to
leave Mississippi until that struggle should be ended. He followed them in
1863. when all Union families were compelled to leave the state. In January,
1865, he came to Illinois with his family and settled on a partly-improved
farm of forty-eight acres five miles northwest of Vienna, on which had been
erected an old log house. At first the hardships and privations of the
little family were many, but with sturdy pluck and perseverance Mr. McCall
continued to labor in cultivating his land, and success eventually came to
him in a small way and well-merited manner, and when he died, in June. 1883.
he was a highly-respected citizen of his community. His wife, Mary (Dawson)
McCall, was a daughter of John M. Dawson, a native of Tennessee, who
migrated to Mississippi, and a granddaughter of John Dawson, of English
descent. She died in 1900. at the age of seventy-one years. The children
born to Robert R. and Mary (Dawson) McCall were as follows: Dr. Robert M.;
Frances, who died in infancy; Victoria and Rebecca, who died when about
thirteen years of age; Thomas and James, who died in infancy; William, who
died while studying medicine at Indianapolis, Indiana; and Daniel.
Daniel McCall received only a slight common-school education, in the old
Smith schoolhouse, as when he was a youth he was very industrious and
preferred hard work in the open air to studying in the close schoolroom. He
is practically self-educated, and is very well read, having been a close
student all of his life. He worked for his father until the latter 's death,
and after that always made his home with his mother, a woman of great
intelligence and good judgment, whose advice and teachings were greatly
prized by her children. Before he was of age Mr. McCall had purchased sixty
acres of land adjoining the old homestead, and later added a twenty-acre
tract to this, and subsequently eighty acres more. In 1889 his health became
impaired, and on the advice of his physician he gave up farming, sold his
property and moved to Vienna, where in 1890 he established himself in the
livery business. This he successfully carried on until 1896, when he sold
out and again took up farming, but his health again failed and he was
compelled to once more sell his land and move to the city, where for some
time he was engaged in the grocery business. He could not resist the
temptation, however, to return to the tilling of the soil, and in March,
1903, he bought his present property, a fine tract of one hundred and fifty
acres located near Vienna, where he has since been engaged in farming and
stock breeding. His buildings are in fine condition, and include a handsome
residence, good substantial barns, necessary outbuildings and a modern silo.
There is no doubt that Mr. McCall could have succeeded in any line to which
he cared to turn his attention, as whatever has claimed his activities has
prospered. Farming, however, is the vocation that he prefers to follow, and
his standing among Johnson county's agriculturists is exceptionally high. He
has not cared to enter the political field, nor is he connected with any
secret societies, his only interest outside of his farm being his membership
in the Christian church, in the work of which he and his family have been
active.
Mr. McCall was married (first) in 1884, to Miss Mary Winchester, who died in
1885, without issue. His second marriage was to Miss Josephine Stout,
daughter of William and Anna (Boomer) Stout, and seven children have been
born to this union: Mary; Anna and William, who died in infancy; and Ruth,
Robert Lee, Lillie and George Edward.
Extracted 14 Jan 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 730-731.
