Biography - ORIA M. McCANN
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 Grove 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 MeCann 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 he 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.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, page 1661.
