Colusa County Biographies

Thomas C. McVay

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

            Thomas C. McVay is a native of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.  His 
father dying in 1838, placed the responsibility of providing for his mother and 
seven children upon young Thomas.  In 1849 he was residing in Dallas County, 
Missouri, when he set out for California across the plains by way of Sublett�s 
Cut-off.  The journey occupied five months.  He engaged in mining on his arrival 
in this State, meeting with moderate success in the camps around Nevada City and 
Grass Valley, until the year 1853, when he returned to Missouri.  There he 
purchased six hundred head of cattle and drove them across the plains, disposing 
of them in Colusa County.  In 1856 he went East on a similar errand, and bought 
and sold another band of cattle in Colusa County.  These journeys were attended 
with great difficulties on account of Indian depredations.
            In 1863 Mr. McVay was married to Mrs. A. M. Nelson, by whom he has 
four children.  Mr. McVay�s farm is located on the east side of the river 
opposite Princeton and embraces some three hundred acres.
 
�Colusa County� � by Justus H. Rogers � Orland, CA � 1891 � pp 440