Nathan McClain & Brothers, c. 1910

This is a portrait of Nathan McClain and his two brothers. I am guessing it was taken somewhere around 1910 because all three brothers lived in the Albany area by about that time.

(From left) Nathan, Bill and Ed McClain

Nathan was the oldest of the brothers. Ed was seven years younger than Nathan; Bill was ten years younger. (They had three sisters, too, but that’s a story for another time.)

The brothers all ended up in Oregon, and all are buried in Riverside Cemetery in Albany. But the path to Oregon was different for each.

They all started out in Adams County, Illinois. There Nathan married his second cousin Mary Elizabeth McClain in 1873, Ed married Catherine Winner in 1875, and Bill married Martha Alice Winner (who went by Alice) in 1879. Although Catherine and Alice were only two years apart in age, Catherine was Alice’s aunt. (Catherine’s brother James—Alice’s father—and his wife Tyressee came to Albany at some point also, and are also buried in Riverside Cemetery.)

Nathan moved to Cass County, Nebraska about 1880, evidently to wait for a homestead. They moved to the homestead near Paxton in 1885. They moved to Oregon about 1901, ultimately landing in Tallman, between Albany and Lebanon, about a year later. They moved to North Albany about 1910 and Nathan passed away in 1919. His wife Mary passed away in 1923.

You may recall that Ed had a homestead neighboring Nathan’s near Paxton, Nebraska. He did not move to Oregon when Nathan did, but remained in Nebraska (around Sidney, west of Paxton). It was not until his wife Catherine passed away that he moved to Oregon, possibly around 1910. In 1918 when he passed away, he was living in Albany with his daughter Lucy, who was married to Olof Swanson.

Bill moved to Nebraska also, to Wallace, not that far from Paxton, about 1888. From there he moved Lebanon, Oregon, in the early 1900s. (Possibly they moved west with the Nathan McClain family.) His daughter Effie graduated from Lebanon High School in 1910 (the only one of the children I have specific information about). Aunt Betty McClain Scott remembered that Effie and her sister Leila had a millinery shop in Lebanon at one point. Bill had a son Asa McClain (who apparently went by “Acie”) who was a doctor in McMinnville. By 1930 Bill and his wife were living in the Salem area. Bill passed away in 1932 and his wife Alice in 1940.

There is probably much more that could be said about the brothers (and there is much more about Nathan in particular elsewhere in this blog). But this synopsis will have to do for now.

2 thoughts on “Nathan McClain & Brothers, c. 1910”

  1. Fantastic info, Lloyd! Who would have known that Tallman was FAR MORE than Gpa and Gma McClain’s location!! And so many burials in Albany! We are probably bumping into relatives all the time and don’t know it!!!

    1. Yes, very likely true. And this isn’t even all the McClains that came to Albany. On Mary’s side, her brother John McClain (Deo McClain’s father) also settled in Albany. So, yeah, lots of McClains came to Albany 100+ years ago, so one would expect that at least some of their offspring might still be in the area (besides us ;–)

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