We saw a couple of photos of Arthur McClain’s youngest sister Clara earlier. Here are photos of her with two of their siblings. Unfortunately both of these photos were faded and quite dirty. I did the best I could with them.

Both photos appear to have been taken at the same location on the same day. It would be interesting to know what the location was. Unfortunately the condition of the photos is such that there is little hope of making out the background. The location seems to be up on a hill, with maybe a river or some other body of water below. But I’m not terribly certain even of that.

This is Uncle Bill (William Marion McClain) with Aunt Clara.

Uncle Bill was next in line after Uncle Charlie among Arthur McClain’s siblings. He appears rarely in census and similar records (or at least he is difficult to find in them because there are so few reference points to confirm you have the right person, and “William McClain” is a surprisingly common name). So even a broad outline of his life is difficult to construct. He seems to have worked in large-scale construction, from the few hints that exist. The only sure record of him is his World War I draft registration in 1918. At that time he was working as a “camp foreman” for the US Reclamation Service in Wyoming. I imagine he was working on some aspect of the Shoshone Project there, which was a huge dam and irrigation construction project. There is a 1910 census record that may be him (it is difficult to be certain) living in a boarding house and working as a teamster in a grading camp in East Ogallala, Nebraska. (I don’t know what a “grading camp” is.)

This photo is evidence that Uncle Bill came through Oregon in the mid-1920s to visit family. Perhaps his visit was related to his mother’s passing in 1923 (just guessing).

Uncle Bill never married (as far as is known, anyway). He passed away in 1936 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Albany. I’m not sure whether he died in Albany or his body was transported here for burial.

This next photo is a cute one of the two youngest girls in the McClain family.

This is Aunt Clara and “Aunt May” (as Mom wrote it in her caption—her name was usually spelled “Mae” from what I have seen). Mae is Mary Elizabeth McClain, Arthur McClain’s sister and the daughter of Mary Elizabeth McClain. I assume she was called Mae to distinguish her from her mother. At the time this photo was taken she was Mary Lake and had several children. At least among her nieces and nephews, though, she was always “Aunt Mae.”

I wrote some about Aunt Mae/Mary earlier in the post about her children Elmer and Cheslah.