Bill McClain (Nathan’s son), Tucson, AZ

This post is about William Marion McClain, Nathan McClain’s son (and Arthur McClain’s older brother). It is not about Nathan McClain’s brother William Oliver McClain (mentioned in yesterday’s post). I hope this dispels any confusion.

Some aspects of Bill’s life were covered in this previous post. As mentioned in that post, his only appearance in public records after 1900 is his World War I draft registration in 1918. He does not seem to be recorded in any census after 1900 (when he is still living with his parents on the homestead near Paxton).

Family folklore holds that Bill was a wanderer who traveled from place to place, never holding a job for very long. He passed through Albany sometime in the early 1920s to visit his siblings, and may have done so at other times as well, but he wasn’t one to maintain close contact with them.

There are a few bits of evidence that may argue against that characterization. One of them is this: his draft registration in 1918 indicates he was living in Lingle, Wyoming at the time, working for the US Reclamation Service. Eighteen years later when Bill passed away in 1936, his place of death is recorded as the neighboring town of Torrington, Wyoming. This certainly isn’t proof that he lived in that area of Wyoming the entire period between 1918 and 1936, but it does suggest that his life may have been at least a little more “tied down” than family folklore would suggest. Also interesting is the fact that this area is just over the state line from Nebraska, and as such is only about 200 miles from Paxton.

I wonder whether the family folklore is wrong and Bill was working in this area for the US Reclamation Service (renamed “Bureau of Reclamation” in 1923) this entire period. There certainly were plenty of reclamation projects going on in Wyoming then.

The main function of the Reclamation Service/Bureau of Reclamation was to make unproductive land productive through irrigation. I have to wonder whether Bill wasn’t attracted to this work by his own experience with the failure of the homestead near Paxton due to lack of irrigation.

Admittedly this is reading a lot into just two data points (his location in 1918 and his location in 1936).

Regardless of what Bill was doing during this period, whether moving from town to town and job to job, or working for the USRS/USBR in Wyoming the entire time, the idea that he liked to travel is borne out by today’s photo.

This is Bill McClain visiting Tucson, Arizona. I imagine the photo was taken by some roadside photographer selling tourists souvenir photos of themselves standing next to this gigantic saguaro cactus. I have no way even to guess when this was taken. Regardless, Bill was in Tucson at some point, and if Torrington, Wyoming was home, he was over 1000 miles from it here (on today’s roads).

Bill is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Albany. That his siblings were willing to have his body shipped from Wyoming to Oregon for burial suggests that he was still considered part of the family—not some wandering outcast that they felt no connection with. A service was held for him in September 1936.

As it happens, the “memorial record” booklet from the funeral home for Bill’s service is in the archives. The list of local relatives who sent flowers is illustrative of how the various branches of the McClain family in the area remained in close contact at this time. Among them were:

  • Nathan’s brother Ed’s daughter, Lucy Swanson
  • Nathan’s brother Bill’s widow, Alice, and their daughter Effie and her husband Arch Arehart
  • Mary’s brother John’s son Leonard McClain and family (John himself had passed away the previous year, 1935)
  • Mary’s brother John’s son Deo McClain and family

There were also flowers from members of the immediate Nathan McClain family, of course: Charlie and Kate McClain, and “McClain Families, First Baptist Church, Lebanon” (I imagine that included Arthur, Ellery and Clyde). There was also a floral spray for the casket that was from “the family.” That may have included Warrens, Lakes and Willises (Nellie, Mae and Clara). But this is not germane to my point about the extended family in the area that felt enough of a connection to send flowers for the service (if not a connection to Bill himself, then at least a connection to the Nathan McClain family). It is this that stands out to me, because these are relatives I had almost no awareness of.

But all that is more of a side observation. To make a final comment about Bill himself: those of us who trace our descent from the McClains and who like to travel may have inherited a bit of the same genetic make-up that contributed to Bill’s wanderlust. If so, those genes have apparently been sloshing around the McClain family for quite a few generations.

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