1925 Biography - Robert McCall
Dr. Robert Marion McCall was a son of Robert and Mary (Dawson) McCall, and was born in the state of Mississippi. His father was a native of Tennessee. A farmer and Christian minister of this county for many years, coming about 1860. R. M. was the oldest son and can remember some of the vicissitudes of Union sympathisers, living within the borders of the Confederacy. Many families were compelled to leave their home and property, which was confiscated or destroyed by guerrillas of both Union and Confederates. R. M. and his father succeeded in saving two thousand pounds of cotton, which they marketed at Memphis, Tenn., at one dollar per pound, and this was all they saved out of a large plantation, a number of slaves and a large amount of other personal property. Early in the year 1865 the father came with his family to Illinois and settled five miles northwest of Vienna. R. M. was partly educated in his native state. After coming to this state, he attended the public school and later taught in Williamson County. He married Josephine Glassford, 1868, and began the life of a farmer, cultivating his farm in the summer and teaching in the winter, until 1871. He had always had a strong desire to be a physician and at this time began to fit himself for the profession, attending first a course of lectures at Ohio Medical College, in Cincinnati. He practiced for a while in Union County, but returned for further study at the University of Louisville, where he graduated in medicine. He began his practice in Marion, Williamson County, but later moved to Buncombe, this county, where he lived fourteen years, afterward moving to Vienna where he continued with a large and lucrative practice for several years. Deciding he would like the west he moved to Oklahoma, where he remained a short time. He came back to Vienna, practiced here a short time, and moved to Metropolis, where he and his wife still reside. They reared a family in Johnson County, Samuel (3) the oldest, married Martha, daughter of Oliver and Sarah Ragsdale, they had Oliver (4), Marian (4), Thomas (4), Samuel (4). He died when quite a young man, at West Vienna. Dr. T. E. (3) followed his father as a physician, and resides in the west. Elizabeth (3) is the wife of Jackson Brown a druggist, of Phoenix, Arizona. Ada (3) was a teacher for several years and is now the wife of Charles Bill, who served the state of Kansas as Auditor and now resides at Garden City, that state. Eugean (3) is a druggist and Dr. Robert (3) a dentist, both of Phoenix, Ariz. William (3) is a dentist of Metropolis, Gertrude (3) married Verdie Cox and died 1920. James (3) the youngest is a successful farmer and the very efficient farm adviser of this county. He married Luella Harris of Oklahoma, and they have Helen (4), Robert (4), Mary (4), Josephine and Luella (4).
Other children of Robert (1) and Mary were William (2), who died in Young manhood and D. M. who married first Mary Winchester, she died soon after and he married Mary Stout, their children are Mary (3), Ruth (3), Robert (3), Lily (3), George (3). Mary (3) married Newton Murrie and had two sons; she married second J. C. Grinnel of Buncombe community. Ruth married Frank (see Marberry).
Extracted 08 Feb 2017 by Norma Hass from 1925 A History of Johnson County, Illinois, by Mrs. P. T. Chapman, pages 410-411.
