1661
ORIA M. MCCANN,
who is assistant principal of the high school at Browns, Illinois, which position he has held for the past year, is still a very young man, being not yet twenty-three years of age. Nevertheless, he has held positions of trust in an educational way for the past four years, and it is a foregone conclusion that he will make most unquestionable progress in his chosen profession if he continues as he has done for the past few years.
Professor McCann was born October 31, 1889, on a farm one mile south of Albion, and is a well known figure in Edwards county. He is the son of Rev, W. H. and Ellen (Bass) McCann. The father was born in St. Clair county, and is a son of John McCann. a native of Louis county, Kentucky, who was one of the early settlers of St. Clair county. Rev. McCann is a minister of the Baptist faith and has preached the gospel since 1876. He was first located near Thompsonsville and in 1881 removed to Edwards county, where he has since given his services in various parts of the county. He is now supplying four churches— Keenes, Barnhill, Pleasant Orove and Unity, and for several years he supplied Wayne City and Mill Shoals. Rev. McCann owns a fine farm of two hundred acres, which he conducts personally, and is as successful in his farming operations as with his ministerial duties. He is a man of excellent character, as is implied by his high calling, and possesses many traits of natural worth, which, combined with the high order of Christian charity that is his, have made him a valuable factor in the life of the communities with whicht he is associated in his work.
Five children were born to Rev, and Mrs. McCann. They are: John, a farmer of Edwards county; Henry R., connected with the insurance business in Benton, Illinois; Jennie B.; Oria M., of this review, and Daisy C.
Professor McCann was reared on the farm home of his father, and as boy and youth attended the public and high schools of Albion. Later he attended Ewing College for two years and pursued a course of study at the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbondale, Illinois. In 1907 be began teaching. For three years he was employed in a school near Albion, and for the last year has been assistant principal of the high school at Browns, Illinois, a position which he has filled in a manner highly creditable to the pedagogic profession.