From "A History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties"
Provided by The Grant County Museum
DAVID MAGILL - There is no class of citizens of our prosperous county that have
done more toward the development of its boundless resources and for the advancement
of its interests than the stockmen, of which there are not a few domiciled within its
borders, and among this number the gentleman whose name initiates this paragraph demands
especial mention in this volume of the abiding chronicles of Grant county and the
biographing records of its leading citizens, since his sagacity and enterprise have made
him prominent in the affairs of the county, besides giving him good success in the private
operations of his business.
Brown county, Kansas, is the native place of David, and there he passed the initial four
years of his existence after his birth, which occurred in 1860. Then he was taken by his
parents to Polk county across the plains with ox teams - thus did the hardy pioneers of the last
century brave the dangers and endure the hardships and deprivations of a new country, far from
civilization and peopled with savages. His parents were Caleb W. and Nancy Magill, the father
living now in California, and the mother having passed to the rewards of another
world, her remains being buried in the Willamette valley. At the age of twenty, our subject
came to this county, and soon thereafter took a homestead where he still resides, one mile northwest
of Izee. He has added to the original holdings until his estate is now over five hundred acres.
This is well improved and he raises the ordinary products of the soil in this region, but his
attention is largely devoted to raising cattle. He has some fine herds and prosperity has attended
his faithful endeavors.
The marriage of Mr. Magill and Miss Lona, daughter of R.V. Office, was solemnized in 1884, and they
have become the parents of two children, Zella and Arthur. Mr. Magill is a member of John Day Lodge,
No. 105, A.O.U.W. He is quite prominent in politics, being a potent factor at the conventions. He
allies himself with the Democrats, firmly holding the stanch old principles of Jefferson.
