Thomas F. McCue came to Carrington from Emmetsburg, Iowa in October 1897 to establish a law practice. Besides his practice he was also land agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad and the D.S.B. Johnston Land Mortgage Company of St. Paul. The latter firm had purchased large tracts of the railroad land in the northern part of the county and was promoting the sale to settlers. Lawyer McCue also became active immediately in civic, political and financial affairs of the city and county. Together with C.E. Leslie, another attorney, they compiled a set of "abstract books" listing the ownership of all the land in the county.
On January 1, 1903 he was appointed secretary of C.H. Davidson's Farm Mortgage Loan and Trust Company. He held this position for less than a year and, in November 1903 bought a controlling interest in the Foster County State Bank shortly after E. Delafield Smith had relinquished control. At the same time he also purchased F.N. Chaffee's insurance business. Being the president of the bank gave him backing for the American Land Securities Company which he formed with his brother‑in‑law A.E. Swanson, president of the Security State Bank of Barlow.
The real estate and banking business were eminently prosperous undertakings but did not fully occupy his time. In 1906 he ran for and was elected Attorney General for the State of North Dakota. During his term of office he represented Professor Ladd of the Agricultural College in Fargo in his crusade for Pure Food Laws. In one of the cases the milling interests sued to enjoin the enforcement of the law which mandated the labeling of flour if it contained bleached flour made from inferior quality of wheat. The millers gained a partial victory in this action but Ladd continued his crusade in behalf of the Pure Food Laws. It has been stated that the North Dakota legislation was the model for some of the laws later enacted by the United States Congress.
T.F. McCue served only the one term (1907‑1908) as Attorney General. He ran for a second term in 1908 but was defeated by his former deputy Andrew Miller. He returned to Carrington to continue his varied activities. In 1910 he relinquished the presidency of the bank but retained his seat on the board of directors and the insurance department. Besides his law practice and his real estate and insurance interests he still had time to pursue his literary ambitions. His first efforts, "Vicky", ran serially in the Foster County Independent in four installments. His second, "The Conquest of Inez Ripley", was published by a Boston, Massachusetts firm in 1912. No further mention of the work appeared in the press and no copies are known to exist locally. As far as can be ascertained these two pieces of fiction were the extent of his published efforts.
In 1909 T.F. McCue started the construction of a two-story dwelling, a mansion in the eyes of the Carrington residents, at the far eastern edge of town and situated on Lots 3 and 4 of Block 4 of Soliday's Addition. It was not quite as large as the C.H. Davidson house built a few years earlier a block west on Main Street. At the time it was built, the house was, and still is, one of the best-appointed residences in the city. It is now (1980) owned by Eldo Lee.
The McCue family left Carrington in 1918 and McCue joined a law firm in Great Falls, Montana. His Carrington residence was sold to Chris Albus, a Pleasant Valley Township pioneer. As well as his law practice he had an interest in the oil boom in the northeastern corner of the state. In 1925 he was accused of mishandling some of his clients' money and a disbarment action was initiated against him. The complicated case continued for several years before the Montana Supreme Court before he was finally vindicated and retained his right to practice law.
In his later years he moved to California where on January 22, 1937 he was killed as he was getting off a suburban train in Beverly Hills. He was 72 years old at the time of his death and still practicing law as counsel for the Mexican Consul at Los Angeles.
His wife, the former Miss Morris died during their stay in Montana. He was survived by two sons, Leo and Harold who grew up in Carrington.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 219