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Note: N36 1881 Carleton College school Catalog - William McCray of Prescott, WI in the third class
1886 St Paul, Minnesota city directory: Wm C McCray; rooms 328 11th; clerk Ryan Drug Co
1887 St. Paul, Minnesota city directory: William C McCray clerk Noyes Bros & Cutler, room 320 Spruce
1888 - June 1 - St Paul daily globe pg 3 - "Marriage licenses were issued yesterday to …William C. McCray and H. Adele Rose…."
1889 - Apr 20 - St. Paul Daily Globe - PRESCOTT - Miss Alice McCray came down from St. Paul Tuesday to spend her vacation….William McCray of St. Paul spent Sunday with his parents.
(note: William and Alice's mother, Rebecca Amy McKeen McCray, died JUne 4 1889, and may have been ill at the time of this visit)
1889 St Paul Minnesota city directory: Wm C McCray; res 445 Ellen; trav agt Noyes Bros & Cutler
1890, 1891 St Paul Minnesota city directory: Wm C McCray 664 Ravine; clerk Noyes Bros & Cutler
1891 St Paul Minnesota city directory: William C McCray 466 Wheeler av; clerk Noyes Bros & Cutler
1893 St Paul Minnesota city directory: William C McCray 466 Wheelerav; clerk Noyes Bros & Cutler
1894 St. Paul, Minnesota city directory: William C McCray 466 Wheeler Ave; travel agent
1895 St Paul Minnesota city directory: William C McCray; 466 Wheeler Ave; trav agt Noyes Bros & Cutler
1894 - 26 April- St. Paul Daily Globe - page 8
FRANKLIN CASE ON
Eleven of the Jurymen now in the Jury box
Harry Franklin, the ex-alderman, was placed on trial yesterday in Judge Kelly's court on a charge of receiving a bribe for his influence relative to an ordinance pending before the common council.
…Eleven men were secured…Those secured thus far…William C. McCray, clerk for Noues Brothers & Cutler...
1895 - Minnesota Territorial and State Census for Ramsey Co, St. Paul Ward 11 - Wm C McCray (30), Adell (26), Alice R. (6), Florence (4), Josephine (2), Rebecca W Rose (49), Anna Boardman (28), Myrtice Boardman (5), all living at 466 Wheeler ave, Ramsey County, Part 6, St. Paul, Minnesota. William C McCray was a clerk in a drug store. No others reported employment. Rebecca W Rose was born in Ohio. Myrtice was born in Oregon. Alice and Florence were born in MInnesota. William, Adelle, and Anna were born in Wisconsin.
1899 St. Paul Minnesota city directory - William C McCray travel agent Noyes Bros & Cutlerr 488 Collins
1900 Census -Living in St. Paul Minnesout at 488 Collins St with Adele (31), Florence (8), Alice (11), Josephine (7) and Adele’s mother Rebecca W. Rose (55). William’s occupation is recorded as “commercial trader-drugs”. Rebecca W. Rose is listed as a professional nurse.
1905 Minnesota, Territorial and State Census - William McCray (40), Adele McCray (36), Alice (16), Florence (14), and Rebecca Rose (60) are living in St. Paul, Ramsey, MN. William is a clerk. Rebecca Rose is not employed, her father is reported to have been born in PA.
1907 St. Paul Minnesota city directory - William C McCray a dept mngr Noyes Bros & Cutlerr r 346 Pleasant av
1908 - 1909 William and family moved to Minneapolis, MN.
1910 Census - William C McCray (45), Adell R McCray (41), Alice (21), and Florence (18) are living at 327 6th Ave in Minneapolis, MN. William is a salesman for wholesale varnish. They rent their home. No others are employed outside the home.
1913 - McCray & Co. (Carlos and Wm C McCray), drugs and furniture.
(From Polk’s Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory; Vol 33-34; R. L. Polk & Company; 1913)
1915 Minneapolis MN City Directory - William C McCray, salesman, is living at 411 12th av SE
1920 Minneapolis Minnesota City Directory - Wm C Mcray clk Barnard-Cope Mnfg Co r apt 3, 314 Univ av S E
1920 Census-Living in St. Paul with Adele, Rebecca W. Rose (74). Florence is listed as there, but was visiting while her husband William E Brewster made arrangments to move them from Staten Island to Niagra Falls, NY. Florence was pregnant with Nancy at the time of the census (January 1920). Nancy was born July of the same year. Florence’s first baby was still born.
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William Calvin McCray was the youngest of six children of Carlos McCray and Rebecca Amy McKeen. When he was born his brother, Henry, age 16, doubtless ignored him, and his sisters, Clara, 8, Ellen, 5, and Alice, 3 spoiled him throughout his youth. He was born just as the terrible ordeal of the Civil War was coming to an end. Gen. Sherman was leading his army across Georgia and the Carolinas and it was evident that the end was near.
William's parents lived in the frontier Wisconsin town of Prescott. His uncle, Dr. Orrin T. Maxson had been one of the first settlers of Prescott, having bought part of the town site from Philander Prescott in the early 1850s. He encouraged Carlos McCray and his parents, William and Candace McCray to move there from their home in Richmond, Wisconsin, where they had settled after leaving New York. When they arrived in Pierce County, both William the elder, and his son, Carlos, were farmers. Shortly before young William Calvin was born in 1865, Uncle Orrin purchased the town drug store from another physician, Dr. Young. Soon afterward, Carlos McCray assumed proprietorship of the drug store, an occupation at which he worked for nearly 50 years until his death in 1912. While they were growing up, each of Carlos' children learned something of the trade clerking for McCray & Co.
Although the McCray family were members of the Congregational Church, William's mother, Rebecca, never left her affiliation with the Baptist Church. William spent many hours of his youth waiting behind the choir loft of this church, and it was there he learned to play poker with the sons of some of the other choir members.
On Sept 8, 1880, when William was 15 years old, he registered in Carleton Academy in Northfield, MN. He was there only one year during which he studied German grammar, Chemistry, and Rhetoric, at which he left a creditable grade record. He suffered from "home-sickness" during that year and did not return in 1881. This seems to be the end of his formal education.
In 1885, at the age of 20, we find William in St. Paul where he was working for Noyes Brothers. & Cutler, importers and wholesale druggists. They advertised:
"Dealers at wholesale in :Paints, Oils, Dyes and Glass. Patent medicines, chemical dyes, pinters', brewers', soda water manufacturers' and railroad supplies. Naval stores, Druggists' groceries and Homeopathic remedies; Paints, oils, glass and glassware, Druggists' sundrymen, surgical instruments and medical books; anglers' and smokers' goods. Buyers and exporters f Ginseng, Seneca and Beeswax."
William was familiar with this firm through the McCray Drug Store. For the first few years he was a clerk in the store on the corner of 16th and Sibley in St. Paul, later being assigned to the job of traveling agent. He worked for this firm until about 1907, at which time he transferred to a similar job with the Minneapolis Drug Company.
Adele Rose was living with her mother, Rebecca Rose, in Minneapolis in 1885. She was a frequent visitor to Prescott to see her sister, Anna, who was working there in the millinery department of Mrs. Abbott's store. In the course of these visits, Adele met William McCray who was making similar trips to visit his parents. After they became acquinted, William courted Adele, a courtship which led to marriage on May 31, 1888 at the Rose home in Minneapolis.
Adele (born Harriet Adell Rose) was four years younger than William. She was born in 1869 i Eau Clair, Wisconsin, the third of four daughters to Rebecca, the second wife of John C. Rose. The second of these daughters died in 1870 and in 1871 the last of the four was born. Della, as her mother chose to all her, grew up with two sisters near her own age as well as a step-sister and step-brother from her father's first marriage. The step- children were 10 and 7 years older than Della. John Rose was a lumberman during Della's early years. The family also derived income by taking in as boarders some of the lumber mill hands. When Rebecca's father died, her mother, Harriet Johnson, came to live with the Roses and to help with the chores of the boarding house. Even with her help and that of two immigrant servant girls there were many household chores assigned to the children.
In her free time, Della taught herself to play the piano. She had a natural aptitude for music and the piano, and later in life was able to augment the family income through teaching.
Just before Della's seventh birthday her father left home and went to Dakota Territory. It was March of 1876 and gold had just been discovered in the Black Hills. John Rose went there chasing a dream which he never found. He never returned. Rebecca assumed financial support of the family, chiefly as dressmaker while her mother was able to help with the family duties. In August , 1881, the youngest child, Katie May, died. Rebecca's step-son had left the family by then, so there remained only her step-daughter, Nellie, and daughters Anna, and Della. To this emotional upheaval, which certainly bore heavily on young Della, was added the divorce of her parents in 1882. Rebecca took this step to assure that John could not get custody of the children. After that time the only knowledge Della had was through meager correspondence between him and sister Anna.
The remnant of the Rose family moved from Eau Clair to Minneapolis after the divorce. Rebecca continued dressmaking and also earned income as a practical nurse, applying skills she had learned during the Civil War. The three daughters helped as they could, but it was not long before all three were married. Nellie married Everett Lawrence, an employee of Pillsbury Mills in 1886 and shortly afterward Anna married Edgar Boardman, who later was a publisher. In 1888 it was Della's turn.
William and Adele started their married life in rented rooms on Martin St. in St. Paul. The first of their three daughters, Alice Rebecca, was born there in 1889, and Adele's mother, then 44 years old and without husband or children, moved in with them. Rebecca continued to live with this family most of the time for the next 35 years. Following the birth of Alice, Florence Louise was born in 1891 and Josephine in 1892. During this period, William's sister, Alice McCray, a teacher in St. Paul kindergarten school, lived briefly with the family.
Apparently Josephine was a sickly child and may have suffered much of her short life. On Oct 31, 1897, Alice wrote a note to her Aunt Alice McCray, "school goes nicely but it seems lonely without Josephine." Diabetes finally took the young life of this darling of the family in 1904. William was very deeply affected b the loss as were the rest of the family. Alice and Florence remembered this loss with sadness the rest of their lives.
It was 1907 when William left Noyes Bros. & Cuttler and started with the Minneapolis Drug Co. Here he was again selling, frequently as a traveling agent. He held this job until sometime during World War I when both Alice and Florence had graduated form the University and married. Through the time when the girls were in school, Adele took music students and her mother contributed to the family income through practical nursing. After the girls left home, both of these women became Christian Science practitioners. Adele is said to have been unusually accomplished at this practice.
After the War, William's employment was irregular. He spent at least one summer (1921) selling souvenirs at a hotel in Yellowstone Park. He seems to have lived apart from Adele frequently after the girls left, although there is no evidence of a break in their marriage. When William died in 1924 they were living in the house which Alice and her family had just left when they moved to Ohio. The McCrays were apparently left with the responsibility of disposing of the house. William died just six days after Alice and the children boarded the train.
Adele was then 55 years old. She lived another 35 years, sometimes alone in her rooms in Eau Claire or later in Boston, much of the time she lived with the families of her daughters. She lived almost to her 90th birthday, maintaining her abilities into her old age. She spent much of her time in the later years reading and knitting, her knitted garments showing a considerable talent with the needles. Her great grandchildren, numbering over 14,received sweaters, caps, and mittens for birthdays and Christmas. Her seven grandchildren and their spouses also received her handiwork.
(note: The divorce papers of Rebecca Rose vs John C. Rose show that Adlel was originally named Harriet Adell Rose. Rebecca was fond of nicknames, so Helen was called Nellie, Christiana was called Anna, Harriet was called Della, and Katie May was Kate. Adele apparently never cared to use the name Harriet, and when in later life, when she decided to use her middle name, she altered the spelling slightly. Perhaps she considered Adele more 'genteel')
by John McCray Merriell, son of Alice McCray and Elmer Merriell and grandson of Adele Rose McCray
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Minneapolis City Directory 1908
McCray Wm C salsn Mpls Drug Co r St Paul
Minneapolis City Directory 1910 & 1911
McCray Alice R student b flat 2 327 6th av S E
McCray Florence L student b flat 2 327 6th av S E
McCray WmC trav agt r flat 2 327 6th ave S E
Minneapolis City Directory 1912
no listing for Wm C McCray or daughters
Minneapolis City Directory 1913
McCray Alice clk The Beard Art Galleries b 600 Essex
Minneapolis City Directory 1914
McCray Alice clk The Beard Art Galleries b 600 Essex
McCray Wm C r 600 Essex
Minneapolis City Directory 1915
McCray Wm C salsn r 411 12th av S E
Minneapolis City Directory 1916
McCray Mrs Adele R Christian Scientist 539 Plymouth bldg r 411 12th av S E
McCray Wm C salsn r 411 12th av S E
Minneapolis CIty Directory 1917
McCray Mrs Adele R Christian Science practitioner 539 Plymouth bldg r 411 12th av SE
McCray Wm C r 411 12th av S E
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1905 Minnesota, Territorial and State Census - St Paul Ward 7
Wm C Mcray(40), Adele McCray(36), Alice McCray(16), Florence McCray(14), and Rebecca Rose(60) are living on Portland ave in St Paul. William is a clerk
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Noyes Brothers and Cutler Building
By City of Saint Paul and the Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Commission, 1988
(Park Square Court)
- 400 Sibley Street (at Sixth) -
- 1886, 1889, 1906, J. Walter Stevens -
Noyes Brothers and Cutler, importers and wholesale druggists, moved into their new five story building at Sixth and Sibley in 1886. Pharmacists mixed medicines in the laboratories on their upper floors while clerks on the ground floor filled orders from new drug stores as far away as Montana. Noyes Brothers and Cutler grew into the largest wholesale drug firm in the Northwest and found it necessary to add three additional bays to the building in 1906. In the 1970s Minnesota Public Radio broadcast the Prairie Home Companion from a tiny theater on the second floor until the show's popularity called for larger quarters.
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