My Genealogy Hound

Charles M. McCrae, member of the firm of Herbert & McCrae, editors and publishers of the Rolla Herald, is a native of the Isle of Cape Breton, born in 1853. His parents, Frank and Isabella (Campbell) McCrae, were born in Scotland, and went to Nova Scotia when single, and were there married. In 1856 they moved to Canada West, and in 1870 moved to Fort Scott, Kas. Frank McCrae was a sea captain, and had charge of a merchant ship up to the time he moved to the United States. His ship plied between Halifax and British India. He was accidentally killed in 1878, by being struck on the head while assisting in moving a large rock. His wife, Isabella (Campbell) McCrae, died from the effects of a fall on the ice in 1888. She was twice married, her first husband being John McKenzie, by whom she had four children. She was also the mother of four children by her second husband, Charles M. being the youngest. He was seventeen years of age when his parents moved to the United States, and never attended school after he was eleven years of age. When twelve years of age he entered the printing office and worked on the Woodstock (Canada) Sentinel, then under the management of John McWhinnie & Son; served an apprenticeship of four years, and his casemate was W. S. Barnes, the famous fast type-setter, now of Philadelphia. Mr. McCrae then worked two weeks on the Detroit Free Press, and in 1870 went to Fort Scott, Kas., where he became employed on the Fort Scott Monitor, remaining seven months, and then went to St. Louis, and was in a job office. In the fall of 1871 he came to Rolla, Mo., and began working on the Rolla Express, and soon took the foremanship of the Rolla Herald, under Van Deren & Herbert. In 1879 he became one-half owner of that paper, and since then the firm has been Herbert & McCrae. The Herald has the largest circulation of any paper in Phelps County, and is very ably edited. Its politics are purely Democratic, and it is a newsy local paper. September 27, 1882, Mr. McCrae married Miss Edwarda Rogers, who was born in Lynchburg, Va., in 1862. They have two children: Charles Edward and Rowe Francis. Mr. McCrae is a member of the A. O. U. W., Select Knights, K. of H., and Mrs. McCrae is a member of the Baptist Church.