William J. McCune, the efficient secretary of Lodge No. 531, B.P.O.E., at Council Bluffs, was born in Solon, Iowa, April 11, 1855, was one of the eleven children of John P. and Electra R. (Sutliff) McCune. His paternal grandfather, William McCune, was a native of Jefferson County, New York, and was the son of William McCune, Sr., who was of Scotch-Irish lineage and became the founder of the family in the new world, emigrating from Scotland to the United States in the eighteenth century. He settled in New York and there spent his remaining days. The father was born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1819, and seeking to better his financial condition by removal to the middle west, he came to Iowa in 1840. He was a farmer by occupation and thus provided for his family. In 1843 he was married in Johnson County, this state, to Miss Electa R. Sutliff, and his death occurred in the year 1885. Unto Mr. and Mrs. McCune were born eleven children, of whom seven yet survive, namely: Harriet E., the wife of Loren Clark; Tully S.; Dora M., the wife of Lewis LeGrand; William J., of this review; Belle E., the wife of Mathias Umbdenstock; Helen E., the wife of Hon. O. D. Wheeler; and Nannie M., the wife of Charles D. Maybauer.

William J. McCune was reared on a farm in Johnson County, Iowa, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist and there he remained to the age of thirty-two years. He acquired his primary education in the country schools and afterward attended the academy at Iowa City, being graduated therefrom in 1871. He next prepared for a business career as a student in a commercial college, from which he was graduated in 1872. His education completed, he returned to the farm. It had been his intention, however, to enter Yale College but trouble with his eyes prevented him from carrying out this plan.

For some years his time and energies were devoted to general agricultural pursuits and in 1887 he went to Geneseo, Kansas. The following year he located in Festus, Missouri, where he remained for about three years, and in 1894 he removed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he entered upon arrangements to travel for a wholesale grocery house. He was then upon the road for about twelve years, or until 1906, when he retired from that life. He had become a resident of Council Bluffs in 1897, and in 1906 he was made secretary of Lodge No. 531, B. P. O. E. in which capacity he has since served.

Mr. McCune was married in 1886, in Manchester, Iowa, to Miss Anna Kent, and they have one son, Ford E., born February 19, 1891.

Mr. McCune is quite prominent in Masonic circles and at the time he served as Worshipful Master of Wayfaring Lodge, No. 33, A. F. & A. M., at Solon, Iowa, he was the youngest incumbent in such a position in the United States. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is demitted from the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees and the American Yeomen. He is very popular in the order to which he now devotes his time and attention as secretary and he is well qualified for the work by reason of his social qualities as well as his good business capacity.