Harry W. McTeer

Harry McTeer was the youngest of four children born to Robert McTeer and Sarah Jane Odell McTeer. He was born and spent his early life on the family’s homestead near Hopewell, Oregon, just south of the Webfoot area.

In 1877, Harry’s father was appointed miller at the Klamath Indian Agency, and the family relocated to Linkville, Oregon—now known as Klamath Falls (Oregonian, 1877). Two years later, tragedy struck when Robert and a friend went out on a scouting trip to look at a farm that the McTeer family was considering purchasing near Butte Creek. On their way back, they stayed overnight in the barn of an acquaintance. While the friend was watering the horses, Robert went up to the hayloft to set up their beds for the night. While doing so, he fell from the hayloft and died from his injuries (Ashland Tidings, 1879). Harry was only 14 years old at the time.

Following Robert’s death, Harry and his mother returned to Dayton and moved into the home of his only surviving sibling, Sarah McTeer Baker, and her family. The 1880 U.S. Census lists Harry as ill with asthma. Since the census only noted illness on the specific day of enumeration, it’s unclear whether he had chronic asthma or was simply experiencing an episode at that time.

Unfortunately, Harry contracted tuberculosis, then commonly known as “consumption” or the “wasting disease,” due to the extreme weight loss and fatigue it caused. Although the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis—Mycobacterium tuberculosis—was identified in 1882, effective treatment wouldn’t become available until the mid-20th century. At the time of Harry’s illness, tuberculosis was one of the leading causes of death in the United States and Europe. According to the CDC, one in seven people who died during this era succumbed to TB (CDC, n.d.).

Harry died on April 20, 1888, at just 23 years old. He, along with his mother and two of his sisters, are buried in the Odell Pioneer Cemetery. Sadly, his headstone was recently broken into several pieces.

Tombstone inscription:

HARRY W. McTEER

BORN
Dec 10 1864

DIED
Apr 20 1888

Just True and Faithful