Shaver, F. A., Arthur P. Rose, R. F. Steele, and A. E. Adams, compilers. "An Illustrated History of Central Oregon." ("Embracing Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, Wheeler, Crook, Lake, & Klamath Counties") Spokane, WA: Western Historical Publishing Co., 1905. p. 479. ALEXANDER NISH one of the leading farmers of Sherman county, resides one-half mile east of Monkland. He was born in Scotland, February 15, 1847, the son of William and Grace (McKean) Nish, both natives of Scotland. The family came to the United States in 1852, and located in New York, removing to McHenry county, Illinois, where the mother died in 1890. The father passed from earth in 1898. During the Civil war our subject enlisted in Company I, Ninety-fifth Illinois Infantry, Captain James Nish, brother of our subject's father. The regiment was commanded by Colonel Humphrey. He saw two years and one month of active service, was in the Red River campaign, the battle of Gunntown, Nashville, siege of Mobile, and many skirmishes. At the close of the war he went to Iowa where he purchased a farm. He is a member of Sherman Post, of the G. A. R. of Wasco. The name of our subject was, originally, McNish or MacNish, an old Highland family, but the uncle of our subject, who was a captain, enlisted under the name of Nish, which name was taken by Alexander and a brother, as their discharge from the army and our subject's naturalization papers were made out in the name of Nish. The father of Alexander took a deep interest in the war and was throughout a stanch union man, although he never took out naturalization papers. He contributed one brother and two sons to the war. December 19, 1885, Alexander Nish was married, at Salem, Oregon, to Harriet Thompson, born May 28, 1859. She is the daughter of Charles W. Thompson, a native of Greene county, Illinois; his parents of Ohio. One of his brothers died during the Civil war from a fever contracted in the service. Charles W. could not enlist on account of deafness. Her mother was Delilah (Baxter) Thompson, a native of Pennsylvania; her mother and father of New York, descendants of an old American family. The parents removed to Iowa when she was about two years of age, and when she Was seventeen they came to Oregon. For twelve years they resided in the Willamette valley, thence coming to Sherman county. Here the father secured land on which the town of Monkland now stands. He was a pioneer merchant and postmaster, and is now living in Los Angeles county, California, near Pasadena, a retired merchant. In 1883 Mrs. Nish came with her parents to Sherman county. Our subject, Alexander Nish, purchased the farm of his wife's father, in Willamette valley. In December, 1895, she went back to Salem, where she married our subject. There they remained until April, 1891, when they came to Sherman county and subject filed on a homestead adjoining her father's land, and subsequently acquired a section of government and railroad land. Alexander Nish has three brothers and four sisters ; Nathan, and John, Iowa farmers; David, in the fire department of Elgin, Illinois; Charlotte, single; Jane, wife of Robert Johnson, of Lake county, Illinois; Mary, wife of William Mullis, an Iowa farmer; and May, widow of Dr. Charles Cook, of Huntly, Illinois. Mrs. Nish has six brothers and three sisters; Andrew C., of Portland, who owns about one thousand two hundred acres of land near Monkland; James O., a farmer near Grass Valley; Nelson W., a farmer four and one-half miles from Moro; Ezra J., of Corvallis, Oregon; Owen, of Monkland; Burton, a carpenter and photographer at Corvallis; Emma, wife of Joshua H. Elliott, Monkland postoffice; Addie, wife of James Leslie, an Iowa farmer; Myra, widow of Milton Brown, of Monkland. Two children have blessed the union of. Mr. and Mrs. Nish; Charles, aged seventeen, and Delilah, aged fourteen. The parents are both members of the Presbyterian church, as are the children. Mr. Nish is an elder and his estimable wife a teacher in the Sunday school. The family is highly esteemed in the community, and Mr. Nish is a popular, energetic man of sound business judgment, genial and courteous to all. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in November 2010 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.