"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 716.
 
R. W. McCALL

     On the old farm in Montgomery county, Tenn., around which clustered
memories of his father and grandfather, R. W. McCall was born February 21, 1851,
his father having been born on the same old landmark December 11, 1825. His
mother, Martha A. McCall, was also a native of Montgomery county, her natal day
being January 22, 1825. She was the mother of nine children, four daughters and
five sons, R. W. being the second oldest.
     Although fairly successful in Tennessee, D. W. McCall realized the larger
opportunities which awaited the sojourner to the west, and in 1851 emigrated
with his family to Hancock county, Ill., where he bought a farm and continued to
improve the same until 1865. Gathering together, the needful possessions he then
joined a caravan of one hundred and twenty wagons bound for the Pacific coast,
his own wagons being drawn with horse rather than ox teams. Dr. Goodwin, the
amiable and helpful captain of the train, proved equal to his large
responsibility, and safely piloted his numerous charges over the plains,
arriving in eastern Oregon September 17, having started out April 25.  Mr.
McCall located in Union county for a year, and engaged in ferrying on the Grand
Ronde river.  In 1866 he came to Yamhill county, locating on a farm of two
hundred acres three miles southwest of McMinnville, where he farmed and raised
stock until 1870. During that year he became the possessor of a farm upon which
his son is now living. A few years before his death, which occurred September
11, 1899, he moved into McMinnville, and thereafter lived in comparative
retirement, his life rendered lonely and purposeless because of the death of his
wife on the home farm in November, 1886.
     Notwithstanding the excellent training which R. W. McCall received under
his father, he attended the agricultural college at Corvallis for a couple of
years, and there learned of the progress attained in this most useful of
sciences. That this knowledge has been well applied is evidenced to all who are
privileged to visit his well appointed farm, which consists of three hundred and
fifty acres, and which he inherited from his father in 1899. Following close
upon his marriage, in December, 1875, with Melissa J Michael, born in Linn
county, Ore., June 14, 1858, Mr. McCall remained on the home place four years,
and in 1881 bought one hundred and sixty acres of land near his present home,
where he lived until 1889. For the following six years he rented land from his
father, and then moved onto a farm near by, where he worked and prospered until
coming into his present inheritance. Mr. McCall is especially interested in
stock-raising, and during the many years of his agricultural independence has
bought and sold many head of valuable cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep. Although
not interested in politics aside from the formality of casting his vote, he is a
stanch supporter of Democracy. Mr. McCall has for many years been an active
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, is steward and trustee, and is
at present doing excellent work as superintendent of the Sunday school. The
utmost respect and goodwill is evidenced towards Mr. McCall by all his
associates and his worthwhile career is worthy of emulation from many
standpoints.
     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.