Umatilla County OR Archives Biographies.....Wynn, John M. February 6, 1857 - 
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Carlene Still crstill@oregontrail.net July 31, 2006, 3:28 pm

Author: Colonel William Parsons 

Page 346, 347

JOHN M. WYNN 
	There are few men one will be privileged to meet in a lifetime who are 
favored with indefatigable purpose and unremitting effort such as has been 
displayed and is possessed by the subject of this brief sketch, who, in the 
face of seemingly insurmountable barriers and opposed both by fate and forces 
entirely overwhelming to humanity in general, has achieved a success that is 
brilliant in every respect; and we regret that it is impossible for us to 
outline his career in minute detail for the encouragement and benefit of the 
rising generations. However, let it be stated that with great pleasure we give 
as wide publicity as we are able to do to these worthy facts that we will now 
mention.
	Mr. Wynn was born in Grayson county, Virginia, on February 6, 1857, 
where his father, Josiah Wynn, was a tanner and leather worker. At an early 
age his father died and left the manipulation of the business to his widow, 
but when our subject became fourteen years of age he took up the work with the 
ability of a man and carried it on for four years. During this time he had so 
taught his brother, younger than himself, that he was competent to take up the 
work, and accordingly he was installed. He was now eighteen years of age, worn 
by his years of overtasking labor, grown in body to man’s stature, but he had 
never read a word nor written his name. We repeat it, that rarely, even during 
a lifetime, will one find a youth that will act as did the subject of this 
sketch, at such a crises. Obliged to earn every dollar for his tuition, books, 
board and clothes, he took up tasks to acquire an education. What unbounded 
success he achieved is manifest by the fact that before 1883 he had finished 
an academic course and had four years’ experience in teaching others in the 
public schools and higher grades.  At this time he came west to Oregon and 
spent one year in teaching in Linn and Umatilla counties. After this he 
decided to take up the sheep business, and as he saw to make a good success he 
should have a practical experience, he commenced at the bottom as a herder. 
From here he has steadily worked his way up in this industry until now he 
markets annually twenty-seven thousand pounds of wool. It was in 1892, that he 
sought one hundred and sixty acres on the south fork of McKay creek, and in 
addition to the sheep raising he also did a general farming business. He has 
added three hundred and twenty acres more to his realty holdings, cultivating 
the whole except what is needed for pasturing his three thousand sheep.
	His marriage occurred in Pendleton, on June 27, 1897, when Miss 
Cliffie E. Chambers, daughter of Robert Chambers, a mechanic of Sidney, Ohio, 
became his wife. They have three children: Corena Ruth, born March 13, 1898; 
Clara Helen, born September 8, 1899; and Ladona Marie, born August 31, 1900. 
Mr. Wynn affiliates with the I. O. O. F., No., 32, of Pendleton. In political 
matters he has always been to the front in attending to them as he would his 
own business affairs, deeming it important that the interests of the county be 
operated with the same wisdom and enterprise that brings success in the 
commercial world. His ability has been  recognized and called into use, for he 
has been stock inspector of Umatilla county, a very important position, 
considering the large stock interests of the county. Just in the prime of 
life, enjoying the reward of brilliant victories in his earlier career, with 
his powers augmented by this vast experience, we may expect in Mr. Wynn’s 
future a showing commensurate with what has gone before.


Additional Comments:
 An Illustrated History of Umatilla County by Colonel William Parsons and of 
Morrow County by W. S. Shiach with a brief outline of the early history of the 
State of Oregon.  W. H. Lever, Publisher  1902.


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