Local History Website of the SMSU Department of History

William M’Kerrall was born in North Carolina in 1824. He went to West Point Military Academy. This is a big military school. During the Mexican War he was a captain in the U.S. Army. He was a great leader. His troops did very well.

After the war he studied law. He moved to Texas. He was there for a while. He was a lawyer and a judge. He was a farmer. He had a cattle ranch.

Then in 1868 he moved to Greene County Missouri. Here he met and married Mary Danforth Campbell.

He and Mary had 4 children. They had 2 boys and 2 girls. All attended Springfield schools.

Mary was from a wealthy family. She and her husband got land from her father. It was near Springfield. Also William M’Kerrall bought more land. He had one of the largest places in southwest Missouri. He had 700 acres of land. He raised cattle. He also started a steam-powered sawmill and threshing machine. He was important in early Springfield and Greene County.

Author: Shawna Fugate
Sources: R. I. Holcombe, History of Greene County, Missouri, 1883, and Jonathan Fairbanks and Clyde Edwin Tuck, Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri, 1915