C. B. McVay is secretary and treasurer of the Western States Portland Cement Company of Independence. He has been identified with the manufacture and sale of cement for over fifteen years, that having been the chief work of his life.
He was born in Yankton, South Dakota, in 1878. His ancestors, the McVays, were Scotch people who settled in Pennsylvania more than a century ago. The father, William H. McVay, was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1839, was reared and married near Warren County, Ohio, his wife, Rebecca Rutan, being a native of Trumbull County, Ohio. In 1876 he moved out to Yankton, South Dakota, and was a well known banker of that city until his death in 1907. His widow now resides in Portland, Oregon. Politically he was a republican and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. The five children were: Mary, wife of George Wilson, a farmer living at Portland, Oregon; William H., connected with a wholesale hardware house at Portland, Oregon; C. B. McVay; H. G. McVay, a mechanical engineer at Portland; and Catherine B., living with her mother.
Mr. McVay attended public school in Yankton and for two years was a student in Yankton College. Leaving school in 1900, he came east to Union City, Michigan, and was assistant chemist of the cement plant there for three years. Returning to Yankton, he spent seven years as chemist and sales manager in the cement plant of that city, and in 1910 identified himself with the Marquette Cement Plant in La Salle, Illinois, remaining with that concern a year as a salesman. He was next sales manager for one year with a cement concern at Dallas, Texas, and from there came to the Western States Portland Cement Company of Independence, and on January 1, 1916, became its secretary and treasurer.
Mr. McVay and family reside at 300 East Locust Street in Independence. Politically he takes an independent stand in local matters, but generally is a republican. He is a member of the Country and Rotary clubs of Independence, belongs to the United Commercial Travelers, and is affiliated with St. John’s Lodge No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Yankton, with Mirzah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Pittsburg, Kansas, with Oriental Consistory No. 1 of the Thirty-Second Degree Scottish Rite at Yankton, and also with Elks Lodge No. 994 at Yankton. In his native city in South Dakota in 1908 he married Jennie Gamble, daughter of H. S. and Eva Gamble, Her father, now deceased, conducted a loan and insurance business at Yankton. The mother still resides in that city. To their union have been born three children: Chester B., born August 1, 1911; Jennie A., born July 15, 1914; and Hugh G., born January 14, 1916.