Joseph W. McCall, M.D., is a native of Henderson County, Tenn., born January 20, 1832, son of Andrew McCall, who was born in South Carolina, September 2, 1790, and is a descendant of some of the immigrants who came to the United States in the Mayflower. He was one of the early schoolmasters of Tennessee, a member of the Old School Presbyterian Church, and was an old line Whig in politics. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and in about 1830 or 1831 came to Tennessee, and located in Henderson County, where he died October 11, 1841. His wife was Jane Todd. She was born in Ireland, March 4, 1795, and was brought to America in 1798. She died in Henderson County, Tenn., in 1875.
Our subject is the ninth of ten children, six of whom are living. He was raised on a farm and attended the early schools of the county. He began the study of medicine at Clarksburg, Tenn., in the office of his brother, Dr. Henry McCall. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Nashville in 1857. In 1862 he became assistant surgeon in the United States Army for the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry. Since 1865 he has been a resident of Huntingdon, and is the oldest physician in the town; in 1869 graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York. June 16, 1858, he married Victoria A. Wilson, who was born in Henderson County, Tenn., October 15, 1841. They have four children: Lenora J., Emma J., Fannie J. and James H. Mrs. McCall died August 24, 1884. Dr. McCall is a Republican, and for the last eighteen years has been local examining surgeon of pensions. His most important case, perhaps, was the first authenticated case in Tennessee of trichinosis. He successfully treated the family of James Espey, seven in number, in 1885.
Transcribed by David Donahue
Source: History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Carroll, Henry and Benton Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1978.