I’m presenting a set of portraits of the children of Nathan and Mary McClain taken in 1898. More details about that set is in this previous post. The next child in the line-up is James Nathan “Jim” McClain.

Jim turned 17 years old in March 1898, so was probably 17 in this portrait. He was 20 when Nathan and Mary moved the family to Oregon in 1901. He stayed behind in Paxton, Nebraska.

In 1906 he married Susan Knowles. They had three children in the general vicinity of Paxton between 1907 and 1910: Elmer, Howard and Mary. Sometime in 1911, they seem to have moved to Oregon. While there, daughter Myrtle and son Earl were born. Before July 1916 they returned to Nebraska, near Sutherland (just across the county line from Paxton) where two more sons, Clyde and Raymond, were born. (Raymond’s middle name was “Pershing.” Apparently Jim and Susan were fans of the general?)

Tragedy struck in 1921 when Susan died in childbirth. Apparently the baby was lost, too.

Jim married a widow, Lavina Boyer Davidson, the next year. It appears that she came into the marriage with five children: Flossie, Orville, Ethel, Edwin and Ray. With the seven children Jim had, that made a household with twelve children ranging in age from 15 to 1.

Jim and Lavina went on to have three more children: Esther, Opal and Ruby. Sadly Opal passed away at about age 2.

The 1930 census shows they had moved again, but still not far from Paxton. The big change is that Jim changed from farming to ranching. About 1937 they moved to Grand Coulee, Washington where Jim worked on the dam. I have only that bare fact, not the reason for it. He was 56 years old, so not the ideal age to take up a career as a construction worker. But it was the Depression and this may have seemed like the only way to survive. They seem to have remained in Washington for the rest of their lives. Jim passed away in 1948, age 67. Lavina, who was ten years younger than Jim, passed away in 1968, age 76. Both are buried in Wilbur, Washington, near Grand Coulee.

Jim seems to have moved around a fair amount, though never far from Paxton (except for the moves to Oregon and Washington, of course). It isn’t clear whether he ever owned land. The only census that asked about ownership was 1920 and at that time he was renting the farm he was working. But that may not be representative, since they’d returned from Oregon just a few years before. At least two of his children ended up in the vicinity of Paxton (Elmer and Mary). They probably weren’t on any land Jim owned (if he ever owned any) unless they specifically sought that out. And likewise they probably weren’t on the land Nathan and Mary had in Paxton unless they specifically sought that out (which seems unlikely). The scenario that Jim remained on the farm (that his father left when he moved to Oregon), farmed it until later in life, and passed it on to one of his children is clearly not valid.

Here is the “rest of the story” on Jim’s offspring:

• Elmer married Eva Gifford in 1926, in North Platte, Nebraska (30 miles from Paxton). They seem to have had five or six children and remained in Nebraska the rest of their lives. He passed away in 1986.
• Apparently Howard did not maintain contact with his cousins. He married someone named Freda around 1935. In the 1940 census he is living in the next county over from Paxton, working in the county shops, and they have two daughters.
• Mary married Carl Rundback in April 1933 (just before Mom and Dad). They had three children and remained in Paxton the rest of their lives. She passed away in 2003.
• Myrtle married Hank Prosise in 1934. They ended up in eastern Washington. They had four children, one of which (Gary) was a missionary in Brazil when I was growing up. Myrtle passed away in 2004.
• Earl passed away in 1950, age 37, in Washington. According to Uncle Barney’s records he married someone named Lois and they had two children.
• Clyde married Marjorie Smith in 1939. They ended up in the Seattle area. They had four children. He passed away in 1996.
• Ray married Veida LeBaron in 1938. They ended up in the vicinity of The Dalles. They had four sons. Ray passed away in 2005.
• Esther married John Gigous in 1941. They apparently remained in the Grand Coulee area most of their lives, though they passed away a year apart in Kitsap County, Washington, on Puget Sound (John in 2006, Esther in 2007). They had two daughters.
• Ruby may have married someone with the last name Adams. That’s about all I know. She passed away in 1994 and was living in the Grand Coulee area at the time.
• I don’t have any information on the four children Lavina had with her first husband.

In summary, it seems that Jim contributed more than his share to the number of cousins Mom had. ;–)