Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland,
OR: Print & Lithographing House of A.  G.  Walling, 1882.  p. a25.

WILLIAM H.  McGWIRE

	was born in Jefferson county, Iowa, April 14, 1843.  Three generations back
his great grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Virginia, where his grandsire
was born.  His father, John G.  McGwire, is a native of Floyd county, Kentucky,
where he was born August 4, 1817.  The early years of the subject of this
sketch, were passed upon a farm in Iowa, years as uneventful, as unchangeably
even and alike, as those which have marked the youthful lives of thousands of
the rising yeomanry of our land.  It was an existence parallel to that of the
mass of American youth whose parents are tillers of the soil, such as are often
looked back to, when recalled through all the after years, with a feeling of
warmth at the heart and a pang of regret at their loss.  With William this was
not destined to last always, for in 1862, with his parents, he crossed the
plains to Washington Territory, where a new life opened up to him, as stirring
and varied as the old had been quiet and devoid of change.  He left home upon
the arrival of his parents in Walla Walla, and went into the mines, where he
worked for wages. Later, he purchased a team and freighted from Walla Walla to
Boise.  Then he sold the team and tools notes for pay, and lost the avails of
all his labor.  Again he went to work for wages until sufficient had been laid
aside to purchase, with some credit, another team for freighting, when he
started on the highway to success.  In 1869 he purchased eighty acres of the
land that has since been added to until it includes 450 acres, which constitute
his farm.  It is situated seven and a half miles southeast of Walla Walla, in
the foot hills of the Blue mountains.  There his picturesque, unpretentious
little home is located at the mouth of a ravine, with a creek rambling by the
house, from where one can look down upon the city of Walla Walla in the plain,
or up at the pine-clad hights of the Blue mountain range.  A view of his
residence accompanies this work, looking towards the mountains, which fails to
show the more level and majority of his land, the productiveness of which has no
superior, we think, in this part of the country.  In 1869, January 28, he was
married to Miss Semantha C.  Roberts, of Walla Walla Mrs. McGwire is the
daughter of John Roberts, who now resides in Spokane county, W.  T., and was
born in Linn county, Oregon, October 4, 1853. They have but one child, George
A., who was born March 14, 1871.  In conclusion, we would say, that in this
country, where so many have achieved success, none have gained it with less to
look back upon with regret at the means employed, than has the subject of this
sketch, W.  H.  McGwire.


* * * *

Submitted to the WA.  Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.