A native of Kentucky, he helped found cities in Iowa, Oregon, and Washington while also involved in the early government of California.

[1][3] He had established a ferry across the Mississippi River in 1833, but his settlement was twice burned out as a trespasser on land then owned by Native Americans.

[5] In 1845, he was again elected to the Provisional Legislature of Oregon from Tuality District and was selected as the speaker of the then renamed House of Representatives, the first to hold that position.

[1] Due to flooding and fires, McCarver decided to return to Oregon aboard the Ocean Bird,[4] bringing with him a house that had been cut in Boston.

[1] During the Rogue River Wars of 1855 to 1856 McCarver served as commissary general and set up his base at Roseburg in Southern Oregon.

[2] He first went to Olympia, capital of the then Washington Territory, and procured a map to study the area and consider the most likely terminus of the then planned transcontinental railroad.

[11] On April 1, 1868,[12] McCarver arrived at Commencement Bay, a likely railroad terminus on Puget Sound due to its proximity to Snoqualmie Pass, and then purchased the land of Job Carr.

[3] McCarver also convinced Hanson, Ackerson & Company to build a sawmill in the area while he platted a town site and sold-off lots.

[4] His former home in Oregon City was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and a Liberty Ship built during World War II was also named in his honor.