Charles McNary was born June 12, 1874 on a homestead five miles north of Salem Oregon. Charles was the third son, and the ninth of ten children born to Hugh Linza and Mary Calggett McNary. Charles can be describe as a true son of the Oregon soil with a direct link to the Oregon Trail. Charles received his first name Charles Claggett who had crossed the plains in 1852, and established the homestead where Charles was born. His other grandfather, James McNary is known to have been the captain of an 1845 wagon train that brought 100 families to the Pacific Northwest. It is said that Charles never lost touch with his pioneer roots.

By the time Charles was 9 years old, both of his parents had passed away. Care of the McNary family fell to the able hands of the older children, John, Nina and Martha. Rare for her time, Nina a graduate of Willamette University gave up her teaching career to help raise the family. Martha on the other hand kept her teaching position with the Salem public school system, thus providing income for the large McNary family. John provided income for the family as a journalist, later becoming a lawyer with his own firm in Salem. In addition to providing family income, John assumed the role of leader and mentor to his young brother Charles. During his younger days he was known for his energetic and fun loving personality. He is said to have had a wry sense of humor, loved to sing and dance, and was such a good baseball player that many of his friends believed him capable of a career in professional baseball.

Based on his biography, Charles used his mind energetically as he used his body. During his life Charles never lost his passion for knowledge and reading. In addition to his intellectual curiositites he maintained a strong connection to his agricultural heritage. As a young boy, he earned income for the family milking cows, and as a helper in a tree nursery near the state capital. As an adult he became noted for his poineering efforts in farming and experimental horticulture. One of his experiments resulted in the establishment of a successful filbert industry in the Pacific Northwest where there had never been one. In 1909 Charles formed the Salem Fruit Union, and remained its president for the rest of his life.

Once Charles made the transition from childhood into the adult world, he entered a fast track that would lead to a long successful career in the US Senate. In 1896, Charles enrolled at Stanford University in California where he studied law, history, science and economics. He didn’t stay long. At the request of his brother John, Charles returned to Oregon the following year and completed his studies at Willamette University.

After graduation Charles went to work for his brother’s Salem law firm, first as a law clerk, then as a lawyer after he passed the Oregon Bar exam in 1898. In addition to his duties as a lawyer, Charles also taught law at Willamette University, and eventually became a highly respected dean of the university’s school of law in 1908. A strong work ethic, and a reputation of honest respectability were traits which aided Charles’ rapid advancement in public service.

Charles McNary’s bachelor days ended in 1902 when he married Jessie Breyman, the daughter of a successful Salem businessman. Regrettably Jessie was killed in a car accident in July of 1917, the same year Charles was appointed to the US Senate. In time Charles made the acquaintance of Cornelia Morton who had worked on his senate staff. They married in 1923, and in 1935 the McNary’s adopted a baby girl named Charlotte.

In 1913 the Oregon State Legislature added two seats to the State Supreme Court, and Charles was appointed to one of them. The following year he was required to run for his seat on the court and lost in a hard campaign in which his opponent was accused of vote tampering. During his short time on the court Charles supported, and sponsored reforms in labor laws which reduced hours, improved wages and guaranteed workman’s compensation for work related injuries.

Beginning in 1918, Charles ran for the Senate five times. Only twice did a fellow republican challenge him in the primaries. In 1918 a wealthy Umatilla county rancher and politican named Robert Stanfield tried, but failed to take the republican nomination from him. (The town of Stanfield is named after him). In 1924 the Ku Klux Klan sponsored a republican to run against the Senator. The victory was quite predictable for Charles. Facing little opposition from his own party, Charles contended with even less from the democrats. Only in 1936, with the very popular democrat Franklin Roosevelt in the White House, did Charles come close to losing to a democratic contender. When the count was in Charles had won his seat by a margin of 1% of the vote. This contrasts dramatically to the 77% he received in his last senate campaign of 1942.

In 1940, Charles accepted the offer of republican Wendell Wilkie to run for the White House as his vice president. The Wilkie/McNary ticket made a strong showing in the midwest where McNary was popular for his efforts to aid farmers, but the popular vote favored Roosevelt, including the state of Oregon, giving him his third term in the White House. Shortly before his death, some of his supporters suggested that McNary run for president himself. Another group promoted him for the VP spot on a two party ticket with Roosevelt. For Charles neither of these ideas held any appeal as he was happy in the senate.

During nearly 25 years in the senate Charles McNary pushed through a series of bills which expanded the size of our national forests, and mandated a planting program to protect them from depletion by over logging. Legislation connected to these bills also authorized the creation of experimental forestry stations working on methods for improvement of forest health and protection. Charles also fought hard for farm relief with his McNary-Haugen Bill which he introduced in 1924 and finally passed into law in 1933. This bill mandated price controls on farm products, and offered farmers reasonable credits terms. It was fiercely opposed from the onset, based on grounds that it was “radical” and bad for the business of America! During his time in the senate, McNary served as chairman of the Agriculture, and Irrigation Reclamation committees. He also served as Senate Minority Leader during the Roosevelt years.

Second only to his interest in forestry and farming, was Charles’ commitment to the development of hydro-power in the pacific northwest. With the support of President Roosevelt, Charles McNary inaugurated plans for the building of federal dams on the Columbia river, the first of which was Bonneville Dam. Eventually the US Army Corps of Engineers would build 8 mainstream hydropower dams on the Columbia River, and dozens of dams and reservoirs through-out the pacific northwest.

Prior to Charles McNary’s death in 1944, plans were already underway for a second Columbia river hydro-power dam at Umatilla. This dam was initally titled the Umatilla Rapids Dam. Instead, in honor of the many contributions made throughout Charles McNary’s distinguished career in the US senate, as well as his support of hydro-power development, this dam was named in his honor. In 1954, ten years after his death, the McNary dam was dedicated by President Eisenhower.