My Genealogy Hound

James McNair, circuit clerk of Morgan County, Mo., and recorder enfactio, has been a resident of Morgan County since November, 1862, and is a native of Bucks County, Penn. His parents, Samuel and Elizabeth (Davis) McNair, were both natives of Pennsylvania, and the ancestors of the McNair family, who were of Scotch-Irish descent, were early settlers of Bucks County. The father was a successful tiller of the soil, and moved to Missouri in 1860, settling in Moniteau County, and there died in March, 1863, at the age of fifty-three years. The mother is living in Moniteau County, and is seventy-nine years of age. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, as was also her husband, who took an active part in church work, and was a liberal contributor to church and school work. He was conservative in his political views, yet was strong in his convictions. They reared a family of nine children: Mary, wife of A. D. Snyder, of High Point, Mo.; Elizabeth (deceased), wife of Benjamin Ratcliff; Catherine (deceased), wife of J. F. Hume, of Moniteau County; James, Charles, now in Pettis County, Mo.; Daniel, a farmer in Pettis County, Mo.; Anna, wife of W. B. Talman, of Grand Rapids, Mich.; William, in the State of California, and John, in Halstead, Kas., a banker. James McNair assisted his father on the farm until twenty-two years of age, and received his education in a boarding school at Hartsville, Penn. He came to Missouri with his parents, occupied as clerk in a general store, and came to Versailles in 1862, where he was again engaged in clerking, and continued at this until 1863, when he embarked in the business for himself. In December, 1863, he sold out, but in 1864 he again engaged in the business at High Point, Mo., which he continued until 1867, when he moved to a farm and followed agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1873. He then entered as a clerk in a store in Versailles, where he continued until July, 1874, when in the fall of that year he was elected circuit clerk of Morgan County by the Democratic party, and has filled this position for fourteen years. He was married September 13, 1865, to Miss Thruston, a native of Missouri, and the daughter of Dr. Thruston, of Versailles. They are the parents of seven children: Walter D., Samuel B., John S. and William H. (twins), James J., and Delia H. and Della H. (twins). Mr. McNair and wife and twin sons are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is steward of the same and superintendent of the Sunday-school.