Springfield-Greene
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WILLIAM A. McMEHEN. The student interested in the history of the northwestern part of Greene county does not have to carry his investigations far into the annals of Walnut Grove township before learning that William A. McMehen has long been an active and leading representative of its fine agricultural interests and that his labors have proven a potent force in making this a rich farming region. Through several decades he has carried on diversified farming and stock raising, gradually improving his extensive farm, and while he has prospered in this he has also found ample opportunity to assist in the material development of his locality, and his co-operation has been of value to the general good.
Mr. McMehen is one of the few Canadians in Greene county, and, like all of his fellow countrymen, is energetic and resourceful. His birth occurred in the province of Ontario, Canada, April 30, 1864. He is a son of James and Hannah (McConnell) McMehen. The father was born in same locality as was our subject, April 26, 1826, and the mother was also born in Canada. There these parents grew to maturity, each received fairly good educations in the schools there and were married in that country. Removing from Ontario in 1865 they first located near Champaign, Illinois, where they spent five years on a farm, then came on to Greene county, Missouri, and here James McMehen became owner of a good farm of two hundred and forty acres, to which he later added sixty acres, and was a successful general farmer, and here his death occurred in February, 1908. The mother of our subject is still living, now advanced in years, and makes her home in the town of Walnut Grove, on part of the old homestead. She is a member of the Methodist church, of which Mr. McMehen was also a member. They were the parents of eight children, one of whom is deceased, and named as follows: Mrs. Barbara Rice, Andrew M., Charles A., William A., Mrs. Minnie E. Reger, John A., and James. The other child died in early life.
William A. McMehen was six years old when his parents removed with him from Canada to Illinois and there he spent his early boyhood, being six years old when the family established their future home at Walnut Grove, Missouri, and here he grew to manhood on the farm where he now lives, and attended the public schools. He worked for his father until he was twenty-one years old, then bought a part of the homestead, to which he has added until he now owns one of the finest and best improved farms of Walnut Grove township, comprising three hundred thirty-two and one-half acres, where he has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser, making a specialty of shorthorn cattle and he also deals extensively in live stock especially mules and cattle, being, like his brothers, an excellent judge of both.
Mr. McMehen was married in 1892 to Nattie Waltz, who was born in Polk county, this state, and reared there on a farm. She received a good education and in her girlhood taught school very successfully for some time. She is a daughter of Elias and Helen (Britton) Waltz, the father now deceased but the mother is still living.
The union of our subject and wife has resulted in the birth of one child, Ena Lee McMehen, born on December 20, 1907.
Politically, Mr. McMehen is a strong Democrat, loyal to the party in both victory and defeat. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, including the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Methodist church. He is one of the influential men of this section of the county.
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