Alvin went to Oklahoma Territory with his mother. He married Gertrude Medaris who was a 3rd year medical student in Kansas City. They farmed near Helena, OK, raising wheat and cattle. He also bought and sold cattle and did custom threshing. He went up to Cripple Creek, CO for a short time. They are buried in Good Hope Cemetery at Helena.
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Alvin McCall was born in Nebraska November 23rd, 1875. He married Gertrude Bell Medaris December 3rd, 1901. They lived on eighty acres which her father had given her. It was southeast of Helena, Oklahoma.
To this union three children were born, Helene Altrude, Harold Evens, and Dortha Ada.
Alvin had an idea that if the initials of the children's names spelled a word, they would have money during their lifetime. Helene's spelled ham, Harold's spelled hem, and Dortha's spelled dam.
Alvin was a good provider and farmer. In the summertime he run a threshing machine far and near from home threshing wheat. In the wintertime he bought and sold cattle. He shipped them by carload to Oklahoma City.
One day Alvin drove a new Ford car home. The family was so excited and decided to go to church that night in the new car. Alvin drove the car as fast as it would go. That was twenty-five miles an hour. That seemed awfully fast when all your life you had always gone places with the horse and buggy.
After we came home from church, Alvin tried to drive the car in the garage. He was going so fast and could not make it, so he turned and made a big circle. By that time my mother wanted out of the car, so she and the girls got out of the car. Alvin thought sure he could hit the door this time, but he missed again. So he slowed down and made his circle then drove into the garage.
There were five in the family and before Alvin bought the car the family rode in a one seated buggy. Alvin and Gertrude sat in the seat with Dortha. Alvin made a little board that fit across the buggy in front of the dash board. Harold and Helene sat on that board.
In the summertime when it was so hot the flies would get on old Prince. That was the name of the horse that was pulling the buggy. He would swish his tail back and forth so hard that it would sting Harold and Helene's neck and sometimes their cheeks. That was the only way they had to travel until Alvin bought the Ford.
Alvin was very good hearted. If someone needed a shirt he would give his shirt off of his back. Alvin told his children over and over, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" and I want you to remember that. (Prov. 22-1) He died February 11th, 1959.
by Helen (McCall) Bachman
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The ancestors of the Alfalfa County McCalls came to America from Scotland during the year 1790. They settled in Clarion County, PA., at the time of its opening around 1800.
My (Harold McCall's) paternal grandfather Sylvester McCall, a native Penn., was a soldier in Company "A" 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. He was captured and placed in the Andersonville Prison in Ga., from which he made one escape, but was recaptured and returned to the same prison. Following his release after the war he migrated to Iowa where he married Margaret Daugherty. A few years later they moved, with their young family, to a farm near Red Cloud, Nebraska. As a result of the Andersonville imprisonment my grandfather's health was never good. Soon after his death in April 1897, my grandmother, with her two sons, Roy and Alvin, and a daughter Vina, traveled by covered wagon to make a new home in Oklahoma Territory, where relatives of my grandmother had already settled. A married daughter, Mina McCall Keagle, remained in Nebraska at that time. My grandmother and her family made their first location near Carwile.
My maternal grandfather was Dr. J. H. Medaris, who with his young family migrated from Indiana to Kansas, then to what is now Helena, where he was a practicing physician for many years. His second daughter, Gertrude Medaris, followed her father in the study of medicine. She studied for three years in Medical School in Kansas City. However, on one of her vacation visits to Helena, she met the young bachelor, Alvin McCall. Romance had its way, the young farmer persuaded the young student to forsake her medical career to become his wife and homemaker. Alvin McCall and Gertrude Medaris were married in the year 1901. Alvin had traveled 40 miles on horseback to Alva, O. T. for the marriage license. The young couple started housekeeping on the E1/2 NE1/4 of Sec 14, T23N, R10W. Their first child, Helen, was born on this farm. A few years later they traded this 80 acres NE of Helena.
Soon the excitement of Mining Exploration led the Alvin McCall family to Cripple Creek, Colorado. But after a brief stay they returned to their farm NE of Helena. On this farm, I, Harold McCall, was born. Now there was a need for more land, so Alvin traded for 160 acres S of Helena and built a home there. Their third child, Dortha, was born on this farm. This place became "HOME" to all of us. It was here the A. McCall family lived and associated with neighbors, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents on both the Medaris and McCall sides of the family. My parents lived on this place until 1948 when they moved to Helena.
During A. McCall's active years he engaged in wheat farming, custom threshing, cattle raising, and in the buying and selling of cattle. As he grew older, my father enjoyed recalling times past when hauling wheat by wagon to Enid was a two day trip which required an overnight stay in the wagon yard. He often entertained the family with his store of good Irish "Pat and Mike" stories. My mother was busy as a farmer's wife, but she was also active in the Highland Art Club, the Helena Study Club, and the Garden Club. My parents were members of the Good Hope Church of Christ and in later years of the Helena Church of Christ. Their resting place is in the Good Hope Cemetery.
To recall the pioneering spirit that pervaded their lives and the lives of other Alfalfa Co. pioneers is an inspiring and worthwhile experience.
Harold E. McCall, Son
"Our Alfalfa County Heritage"
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Alvin McCall 
- b.1751 in Ireland d.1790
- b.1785 in Ireland d.1820 in Armstrong, Pennsylvania