My Genealogy Hound

JAMES E. McNAIR, postmaster, Webb City. The subject of this sketch was born near Elizabethtown, Bladen county, N. C., Dec. 12, 1833, and is, as his name indicates, of Scotch descent, being the son of Daniel and Ann McNair, both natives of Glasgow, Scotland. The father of Daniel McNair, Hugh, came to this country prior to the Revolutionary War, in which he took part, espousing the side that he, by birth and training considered just, enlisting in the Colonial army and serving throughout the entire seven years’ war with honor and distinction. At the close of the war he returned to Scotland, and in a few years brought his family to this country, to find a home on the soil which he had so bravely assisted to make free, and settled in North Carolina, where he lived until 1812. He was the first man to run a “horse-boat” on the Cape Fear River, and the pleasant old Scotchman was kindly remembered years after his death by the numerous ones he had befriended. In 1835 Daniel McNair emigrated with his family to Mississippi, and located in what is now Tallahatchie county, near Charleston, remaining there until the spring of 1852, when he settled in Gibson county, west Tennessee. In the fall of that year, the California emigration being at its height, Mr. McNair immediately started overland for the land of gold, allured by the inviting prospect then offered those who braved the dangers of the route. When the party started from west Tennessee they took an almost direct course west, arriving in Bates county, Mo., in December the same year, where on account of bad health he remained until the spring of 1854, when he hired to Henry Childs Riggs to help drive cattle across the plains, arriving at Sacramento in September, the same year. After reaching California he remained until 1859, when he returned to Tennessee, and began the study of medicine under Dr. J. W. Smith, and remained with him until the war. In July, 1862, in response to the call for troops to defend the government, he enlisted in the First West Tennessee Infantry, United States Army, which was afterwards consolidated with the First West Tennessee Cavalry, and known as the Sixth Tennessee Cavalry, and under which name it was mustered out in the year 1865. On account of sickness Mr. McNair was discharged from service in 1864. In 1865 he was elected to the legislature of Tennessee from Gibson county, which office he filled until 1869. In 1865 he was a delegate to the Southern Loyalists’ Convention held at Philadelphia. At this time the question of reconstruction of the Confederate states was being agitated and Mr. M. took an active part in the interests of the measure, exerting his influence for the reorganization of his state and its recognizance as the first Confederate State to come back into the Union. In these measures he advanced what he saw was to the interest of his native section, and the history of the past few years has clearly demonstrated that the stand which his contemporaries and himself took was the best, wisest, and most advisable that could have been adopted. In 1869 be moved to Missouri, and was with the carpenter corps of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. He settled at Oronogo, Jasper county in 1874, and in 1875 moved to Webb City, and in 1877 was appointed postmaster of this place, which office he still holds. He was the first mayor of the city, being appointed when the town was incorporated in 1876. On January 15, 1862, he was married to Miss Patience E. Flippen of Gibson county, Tenn. This union has been blessed with seven children, five of whom are now living: viz., Annie, Minnie, Jessie, Callie, Myrtie. Mr. M. is a member of the Masonic order. He was raised an Andrew Jackson Democrat, but when Ft. Sumpter was fired upon he left the party and has ever since worked and voted with the Republican party. He is a social and a pleasant conversationalist, takes an active interest in public enterprise and whatever tends to the advancement of the city and her people.