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From History of North Washington, published 1903, now in public domain. 
Submitted by Candy L. Grubb March 20, 1997. Both above notices must remain 
when copied or downloaded.

candyg@ieway.com

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ROBERT LEWIS MCCOY

	It brings one face to face with the fact that Stevens county has 
long been the abode of those pioneers who opened the country and now 
deserves to be classed as one of the old sections, when we realize that such 
men as the subject of this article was born at Fort Colville on December 7, 
1841, and that many others now living in Washington were born as early and 
even earlier there.  The father of Robert Lewis was John McCoy, a native of
Scotland who came to the United States when very young and entered
the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company and had charge of their
western farm.  He laid out the farm at Vancouver and also at Fort
Colville, and continued in the employ of the company until 1845.  He
married Susette Bouchet, a descendant of Captain Lewis of the Lewis
and Clarke expedition.  In 1845 our subject went with his parents to
Marion county, Oregon.  The father was among the very first settlers
there and remained in that vicinity until his death in 1872; the mother
died in 1868.  At one time a large emigrant train was coming to the
Williamette valley but was stopped at The Dalles by the Indians.  Mr.
McCoy's assistance was called in and he succeeded in arranging matters
so that they were allowed to resume their journey.  Our subject was
educated in the Williamette valley and in 1862 was in the great mining
rush to Orofino and Florence.  The next year he passed through where
Spokane now stands en route to Fort Colville.  Then he mined in the
Cariboo country and after this returned to Fort Colville again and 
took up stock raising.  For five years he served the government as
interpreter and in 1882 he came to Hunter's creek and abode for a
decade.  Then he settled upon his present estate, about eighty miles
south of Fruitland.  He came here in the employ of the government as
foreman on the Indian farm under Indian Agent Hal Cole.
	On June 14, 1864, Mr. McCoy married Miss Josette, daughter of
James Finley, a native of the Red River country, of Scotch descent
and who married a Colville woman.  Mr. Finley was a hunter and
trapper all his life.  To Mr. and Mrs. McCoy the following children
have been born: Mrs. Isabel Desautel, Mrs. Adeline Gobor, deceased;
Esther, deceased; Christina, deceased; Robert; Bazil, deceased; Virgil,
Frederick, and Albert.
	Mr. McCoy has taken great pains to educate his children in a
first class manner and in addition to other attainments the last two
are very skilled portrait artists.  Mr. McCoy has improved his farm in 
a good manner and is considered one of the substantial residents of his
section.  The thrilling accounts of Lewis and Clarke and the Hudson's
Bay Company's activity in these sections will be fully detailed in the
historical portion of this work.