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DANIEL MCCALL was born September 21, 1861, in Mississippi, and is a son of Robert R. and Mary E. (Dawson) McCall. Thomas McCall, the grandfather of Daniel, was a native of North Carolina and was of Scotch-Huguenot descent, and it is said that the founder of the family in this country served in a Pennsylvania regiment during the war of the Revolution. Robert R. McCall, son of Thomas and father of Daniel, was born near Nashville, Tennessee in 1825, and there became a farmer and minister of the Christian church. Later moving to Mississippi, he became a plantation owner and slave holder, but at the outbreak of the war was a Union sympathizer and counseled his kinsmen to leave Mississippi until that struggle should be ended. He followed them in 1863, when all Union families were compelled to leave the state. In January, 1865, he came to Illinois with his family and settled on a partly-improved farm of forty-eight acres five miles northwest of Vienna, on-which had been erected an old log house. At first the hardships and privations of the little family were many, but with sturdy pluck and perseverance Mr. McCall continued to labor in cultivating his land, and success eventually came to him in a small way and well-merited manner, and when he died, in June, 1883, he was a highly-respected citizen of his community. His wife, Mary (Dawson) McCall, was a daughter of John M. Dawson, a native of Tennessee who migrated to Mississippi, and a granddaughter of John Dawson, of English descent. She died in 1900, at the age of seventy-one years. The children born to Robert R. and Mary (Dawson) McCall were as follows: Dr. Robert M.; Frances, who died in infancy; Victoria and
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Rebecca, who died when about thirteen years of age; Thomas and James, who died in infancy; William, who died while studying medicine at Indianapolis, Indiana; and Daniel.
Daniel McCall received only a slight common-school education, in the old Smith schoolhouse, as when he was a youth he was very industrious and preferred hard work in the open air to studying in the close schoolroom. He is practically self-educated, and is very well read, having been a close student all of his life. He worked for his father until the latter's death, and after that always made his home with his mother, a woman of great intelligence and good judgment, whose advice and teachings were greatly prized by her children. Before he was of age Mr. McCall had purchased sixty acres of land adjoining the old homestead, and later added a twenty-acre tract to this, and subsequently eighty acres more. In 1889 his health became impaired, and on the advice of his physician he gave up farming, sold his property and moved to Vienna, where in 1890 he established himself in the livery business. This he successfully carried on until 1896, when he sold out and again took up faming, but his health again failed and he was compelled to once more sell his land and move to the city, where for some time he was engaged in the grocery business. He could not resist the temptation, however, to return to the tilling of the soil, and in March, 1903, he bought his present property, a fine tract of one hundred and fifty acres located near Vienna, where he has since been engaged in farming and stock breeding. His buildings are in fine condition, and include a handsome residence, good substantial barns, necessary outbuildings and a modern silo. There is no doubt that Mr. McCall could have succeeded in any line to which he cared to turn his attention, as whatever has claimed his activities has prospered. Farming, however, is the vocation that he prefers to follow, and his standing among Johnson county's agriculturists is exceptionally high. He has not cared to enter the political field, nor is he connected with any secret societies, his only interest outside of his farm being his membership in the Christian church, in the work of which he and his family have been active.
Mr. McCall was married (first) in 1884, to Miss Mary Winchester, who died in 1885, without issue. His second marriage was to Miss Josephine Stout, daughter of William and Anna (Boomer) Stout, and seven children have been born to this union: Mary; Anna and William, who died in infancy; and Ruth, Robert Lee, Lillie and George Edward.