| Charles Linza McNary, jurist, statesman,
and orchardist from Salem, was Oregon’s U.S. Senator for
27 years. Dean of the Law Department of Willamette University
from 1908-1913, he was Oregon Supreme Court Justice from 1913-1915
and US Senator 1917 to 1944. As a Senator he was largely instrumental
in promoting farm and reclamation legislation, and became famous
as co-author of the McNary-Haugen farm bill of 1927. As Senate
Minority leader 1933-1934, he played a major role in obtaining
government funding for Bonneville Dam in 1933. He briefly campaigned
for president in 1940, and only reluctantly accepted the vice
presidential nomination with republican presidential candidate
Wendell Willkie that same year. McNary developed pneumonia and
died in 1944, shortly after the campaign ended.
Charles McNary, Oregon's senator for 27 years, was a true
"native son" born on a farm near Salem June 12,
1874. He attended Salem public schools, studied law, graduated
from Stanford University and Willamette University college
of law. He became deputy county recorder, a deputy district
attorney in 1906 and in 1908 became dean of Willamette University
Law School, where he served until he was appointed by Governor
Oswald West to the Oregon Supreme Court in 1913. In 1914 his
bid to be elected to the Supreme Court fell one vote short
in statewide balloting. The loss made McNary available to
be appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1917 when Sen. Harry Lane
died.
McNary served in the Senate until his death in 1944. In 1940,
he was drafted to run as the Republican vice presidential
candidate on the Wendell Wilkie ticket, which lost to Franklin
D. Roosevelt and Henry Wallace. As Minority Leader for the
Republicans in the Senate during the New Deal years, he was
frequently consulted by President Roosevelt and was credited
with preserving the influence of his party. A progressive
Republican, he supported many New Deal measures such as Social
Security and TVA. He played a major role in obtaining government
funding for Bonneville Dam and won a fight for federal forest
programs. A well known conservationist, it was said that "McNary
loved trees more than anything else". He also maintained
a successful 300 acre filbert orchard on his his ranch, "Fircone",
north of Salem.
In 1902, McNary married Jessie Breyman of Salem, the daughter
of a pioneer family. She died in an automobile accident near
Salem in 1918. In 1923 he married Cornelia Morton and they
adopted a daughter Charlotte. During the war years he was
a tireless worker, but in February, 1944 he contracted pneumonia
following surgery and died in Florida. Regardless of his prolonged
absences from Oregon and his renown as a national leader,
he was always "Charley" in his home town, Salem.
Researched and written by Suzanee B. Morrison.
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