Kern County
Biographies
THADDEUS M. McNAMARA, LL. B.
THADDEUS M. McNAMARA, LL. B. - The first representative of the McNamara family in America was William Murro McNamara, who after having served as an officer in the British Navy, resigned his commission and sought the opportunities afforded by the vast agricultural areas of the new world. The son of a hemp merchant in London, he was born in that city at No. 9 Gloucester place, and entered the navy immediately after graduation from Sedgely Park College. Upon crossing the ocean in 1848 he proceeded direct to Illinois and located on one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Cook County, where he transformed a tract of virgin soil into a productive and profitable dairy farm. At Fayville, Kane county, February 6, 1854, occurred the birth of his only son, Thaddeus M., and on the old preemption claim he spent many useful, profitable years, but eventually sold the tract in order to remove to California. Close to Visalia he bought a tract of land and established a country home. On that place he died March 6, 1887, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Bridget Mary Keating, was born in Tipperary, Ireland, where her father, Patrick Keating, engaged in mercantile pursuits prior to his emigration to the United States and his settlement among the pioneer farmers of Kane County in the vicinity of Elgin.
A temperament inclining him toward the acquisition of knowledge was fostered by the encouragement of devoted parents, so that Thaddeus M. McNamara had every opportunity to gain a thorough education. After he had completed the studies of the Elgin Academy and the University of Notre Dame, he matriculated in the Union College of Law (affiliated with the Northwestern University as the law department of that famous institution) and in 1874 he was granted the degree of L. L. B., upon the completion of the regular course of study. Believing the west to offer favorable opportunities for the practice of his profession, he came immediately to California and opened an office at Visalia, where he continued for fifteen years. Since 1875 he has practiced law in Tulare and Kern Counties, with the exception of several years' practice spent in Seattle, San Francisco and the Imperial Valley. Besides conducting a general practice in Bakersfield, he has affiliated himself with movements for the material upbuilding of the city and also has been prominent in local fraternities, including the Woodmen of America, the Fraternal Brotherhood, the Yeomen of America, and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
The first marriage of Mr. McNamara took place in Visalia in 1887. During the Civil War her father, J. L. Asay, M. D. had served as a surgeon in the Union Army. A graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, he was well qualified for such responsibilities through education and natural endowments. Upon removing from Pennsylvania to the western coast he settled in Visalia and later he became an instructor in surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at San Francisco. In each place he built up a large practice and attained professional distinction. There are three children of the first marriage of Mr. McNamara, the eldest of these bearing the name of the father and being well-known among the physicians of Bakersfield; the second, Loretta, lives in Oakland, and the youngest, Agnes, is the wife of Edward C. Crabbe, of Honolulu. The second marriage of Mr. McNamara occurred in Visalia and united him with Miss Christine E. Gilmore, a native of San Francisco and a daughter of Samuel Gilmore, a native of New Brunswick and reared in Maine. In 1847 he came around Cape Horn to San Francisco, where he was very prominent in building up the city and also in the banking business as a director of the San Francisco Savings and Loan Bank, commonly known as the Clay Street Bank. He was married in San Francisco to Eva Pelty, who was a native of the Bahama Islands and came as a child to California with her parents. Mrs. McNamara was a graduate of the Girl's High School in San Francisco. Born to Mr. McNamara's second union were three children, namely: William E., now with the New York Cloak and Suit House in Los Angeles; Genevieve, wife of Carl Beck, also of Los Angeles; and Arthur, of Bakersfield.
Transcribed
by Sally Kaleta.
Source:
"History of Kern County with Biographical Sketches," Wallace M.
Morgan, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914, Pages 221-222.
© 2014 Sally Kaleta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S KERN COUNTY
BIOGRAPHIES