Pine Castle Historical Markers - part 3

MACY HOTEL

William H. Macy (1819-1903) came to this area as a government surveyor in the years immediately following the Civil War, and was elected to the Orlando city council in 1878. An engineer by training, he followed the rail lines south to the Pine Castle area and opened a blacksmith shop west of the tracks. This shop served as the town’s first Sunday School meeting place until it burned in 1884.

His wife Martha J. Macy (1835-1906) acquired 10 acres of Will Wallace Harney’s original homestead lands, which later encompassed the site of the modern First Baptist Church of Pine Castle. Here, Mrs. Macy operated the town’s first hotel, with many of her guests brought from Orlando by “Macy Wagons” built by her stepson George Macy. After the railroad arrived in 1881, visitors also arrived by train at the nearby South Florida Railroad depot.

In 1894, Mrs. Macy deeded a half-acre of the hotel land at what is now the northeast corner of Randolph Avenue and Hoffner Road to the local Baptist congregation. Though now paved over, it is believed that she and other family members were buried there.

Scanning old photos

While yours truly may not be completely helpless around a computer, he must admit a lack of ability when it comes to scanning old photos.

Over the years, several friends and family members have offered their encouragement in overcoming this deficit.

All to no avail, I'm afraid.

Fortunately, from time to time, one of them will offer to do it for me!

This go-round, it was a n0t-so-distant cousin who kindly volunteered to digitize a stack of photos from my personal collection--including this one of my great-great grandfather Paul Macy standing in fron of his old home on Joyce Street in Pine Castle, Florida.

Thanks, Lauren!

1910 Census

OK, getting off the political soapbox I've been on lately . . .

Today, yours truly is contemplating the census, instead.

I saw on TV today, that we should be receiving our 2010 census forms in the mail in March.

It got me wondering how this year's stats will stack up to the data collected a hundred years ago.

I pulled out the file of 1910 Census data I've collected on my forebears.

I found my Morgan ancestors were living over in Crystal River, while my Cox family was already living here in Orlando. Within a couple of years they would become next door neighbors in the latter place.

My Macy great-grandfather was still living with his folks in Pine Castle, a little town south of Orlando. His wife was still living on her father's farm up in Chambers County, Alabama.

My mother's people were still clustered in the crowded neighborhoods of Jersey City, New Jersey; though her Jackson forebears were working in the not-too-distant beach resort town of Long Branch. Every one of the households included at least one person who was born in a foreign country (Ireland).

The average household included six people. Nearly half were engaged in some form of agriculture. And, one was still working as a blacksmith, a line of work that has definitely tapered-off over the last century.

As peculiar as these enumerations may seem to those of us living in 2010, I wonder how much more peculiar they will seem to some as-yet-unborn descendants in 2110. Probably only slightly moreso than the data we'll be submitting on our own households this year . . .

Obama's not his only distant cousin . . .

The New England Historic Genealogical Society has let it be known that our illustrious commander-in-chief is a distant cousin of the recently elected Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

That "kinnection" was made thru a fellow named Richard Singletary, who died at Haverhill, Massachusetts, back in 1687. The way the genealogists figure it, this common ancestor makes the current occupant of the White House and the latest Republican sensation no less than tenth cousins.

Well, ye socks, after doing some sleuthing of my own, I have discovered a slightly more recent "kinnection" to Brown. Like yours truly, he is descended from a woman named Sarah Starbuck--albeit his line springs from her second marriage whilst my own comes from her first marriage to a fellow named Joseph Austin of Dover, New Hampshire.

My descent from Sarah and Joseph's daughter Deborah Austin is spelled-out in detail on my oft-cited ahnentafel page:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oldpinecastle/ahnentafel.html

Senator Brown's descent goes like this:

1. Sarah Starbuck married secondly 2 March 1664 to Humphrey Varney; and died at Dover on 6 June 1719. Their son:

2. Ebenezer Varney (1670-1753) married Mary Otis, and had

3. Samuel Varney (born 2 April 1712), who had by his wife Mary

4. Timothy Varney (1 Sept 1742 - 30 Sept 1808) married 4 January 1764 at Dover to Abigail Hussey, and had

5. Mercy Varney (8 March 1771 - 31 Oct 1840) married 30 Dec 1790 to Amos Hill of Berwick, Maine, and had

6. Timothy Varney Hill (28 Dec 1808 - 22 Jan 1883) of Wells, Maine, who married Rosamond Blaisdell and had

7. Mercy O. Hill of Wells, married Frelinghuysen Moody of Lynn, Massachusetts, and had

8. Charlotte W. Moody (23 Aug 1881 - 2 May 1964) married Charles W. Coleman, and had

9. Bertha Louise Coleman (2 July 1905 - 26 June 2001) married Phillip Newton Rugg, and had

10. Judith Ann Rugg (born 9 May 1938) married 23 November 1937 at Pease Air Force Base to Claude Bruce Brown, and had

11. Scott Philip Brown (born 12 Sept 1959 at Kittery, Maine), the senator-elect in question.

This common descent makes us ninth cousins, one generation removed.

Anyone else out there got a closer "kinnection?"

Updated ahnentafel

Ye socks who were not completely bored by the genealogical nature of yesterday's post in the dryer, may also appreciate the fact that I have finally sifted thru all the new material I recently uncovered and have updated my ahnentafel at:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oldpinecastle/ahnentafel.html

New surnames include Besserer, Buffler, Cox, Depew, Dorge, Dorman, Golzborn, Hagin, Hamerin, Hickman, Hopkins, Jones, Kappel, Leibfried, Mayr, Metz, Necker, Oedacker, Ott, Outten, Partridge, Purnell, Raffensburg, Rottner, Slemp/Schlemp, Shepherd, Smith, Steiger, Twyford, and Zangmeister.

And the walls came tumbling down . . . well, maybe!

Anyone who has attempted to research their family tree for any length of time has encountered what are known as "brick walls." This term applies to those ancestors who seem to take great delight in thwarting all efforts to trace their roots. When you've been pursuing genealogy as long as I have, you start collecting quite a few of these nuisances.

One of my most frustrating forebears has been my third-great-grandmother Mrs. Martha J. Macy of Pine Castle, Florida. According to family tradition, her maiden name was DEAN. But, while compiling documentation for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants several years ago, I uncovered something of a scandalous discrepancy in the marriage records of Orange County, Florida. They revealed that Martha did not marry my assumed ancestor William H. Macy until 1874--some six years after their son Paul Macy was born. Further, the marriage certificate listed her as MRS. Martha Jane Dean, which left me questioning Paul's paternity. Was he really a Dean by birth, who assumed the Macy surname of his stepfather?!

Over the years, I have undertaken an exhaustive search of the local records, and those of surrounding counties in an effort to solve this mystery. While those efforts proved mostly fruitless, I did discover that Martha and William Macy were living together as a married couple for several years before making it a legal arrangement. They signed deeds together, and were listed as man and wife in the 1870 census of nearby Volusia County (page 739a) . . . though their surname was recorded as MASON instead of Macy!

Recently, that census record and subsequent enumerations encouraged me to pursue a different tactic in the ongoing effort to break down the brick wall. All of these records agreed that Martha, whatever her maiden name was or whoever her first husband may have been, was born in Tennessee about the year 1835. I had already found her second husband William H. Macy living in Tennessee before he came to Florida. So, I began wondering if perhaps the two had known each other up in the Volunteer State, and if records there might reveal not only information about Martha's first marriage but also give some clues about her parentage.

Long story longer, the 1860 enumeration of Germantown (near Memphis) in Shelby County, Tennessee, includes not only the household of William H. Macy and his first wife (nee Mary J. Brandow, Hudson, New York) on page 351. A few pages earlier (331) it also included this family:

* Dean, Galston B., age 32, farmer, born in Tennessee.
* Dean, Martha, age 25[?], born in Tennessee.
* Dean, William, age 5, born in Tennessee.
* Dean, Amanda, age 4, born in Tennessee.
* Dean, Desalma, age 2, born in Tennessee.

Obviously, further research is needed to firmly establish that Galston B. Dean's wife Martha is the same woman who later married his neighbor William H. Macy in Florida some 14 years later. But, this is the first good lead I've had in quite some time!

I did find that G.B. Dean served in Compay I of the 38th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (CSA) during the Civil War. So, it is entirely possible that he left Martha a war widow . . . (See www.itd.nps.gov/cwss .)

If all this bears out, I also see that another researcher named Angela Wilhite has identified Dean's wife as the former Martha Twyford, and carried her ancestry back to the 15th Century at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~angelasattic

I'll keep ye socks posted on the progress of this ongoing search!

A break in the case of the missing Macys

Thanks go out today to Sharon Wilson for forwarding this old deed record, dated 1906.

It reserved a half-acre piece of land in the Pine Castle area for my great great grandfather Paul Macy, part of a larger tract that Deacon J.W. Matchett (his brother-in-law) had acquired for the local Baptist church.

So, why is this so interesting?

Well, for many years, yours truly has been trying to figure out where the patriarch and matriarch of the extended Macy clan are buried.

William H. Macy purchased 8 spaces at Greenwood Cemetery in downtown Orlando in the late 1800s. But, the sexton records clearly show that neither he nor his wife were buried there.

On the other hand, I have the original receipt from undertaker E.A. Richards for the funeral of Mrs. Martha Dean Macy that proves at least she died locally and should have been buried near the funeral home in Orlando.

Said receipt was dated 1906, just like the deed.

I'm beginning to think that Mrs. Macy was buried on the land detailed in this 1/2 acre deed. Maybe, her husband was, too . . . .

Any thoughts or suggestions are, as always, appreciated.

Got any roots in Memphis, Tennessee?

If you do, you will be interested in knowing that the Shelby County Registrar of Deeds has indexed some of the oldest records in the area, dating back to 1820.

Look under the "Archives" section of this website:

http://register.shelby.tn.us/

I found my great-aunt Ellen Macy's marriage record there!

Was it Everett or Everest?!

If you're not in to genealogy, this will probably go right over your head. But, I am really excited by the possibility of breaking down one of the proverbial "brick walls" we poor researchers generally encounter when we attempt to track down our ancestors.

In my case, the ancestor in question was a lady named Hannah. According to the 1850 Census of Shelby County, Tennessee, she was born in Connecticut about 1785. She was living in the household of her son William H. Macy.

From Sylvanus J. Macy's compiled genealogy dated 1869, I found William H. Macy listed as the son of a Thomas Macy. But, old Sylvanus failed to specify which of Thomas's two wives was the mother of his eight children. His first wife was a lady named Phebe Bunker, and the second wife was the Hannah in question. I had always assumed that Hannah was at least the mother of the youngest, William, as she moved all the way out to Tennessee to live with him by 1850. But, you know what happens when you assume anything, especially in genealogical situations.

Anyway, the one thing that Sylvanus did state was that Hannah's maiden named was EVERETT and that she had been previously married to a fellow whose last name was CHAPIN.

Well, this week I was contacted by a lady named Elizabeth Olsen, who is trying to track down the parents of her ancestors Luther CHAPIN and Hannah EVEREST. According to her, this couple divorced in the early 1800's. She has found documentation on Luther's remarriage and move to Indiana. But, she hasn't found anything on his ex-wife Hannah.

Could her Hannah and my Hannah be the same person?! Seems highly likely!

And, all these years I've been looking for Everett connections when I apparently should have been looking for Everest records instead . . .

Anyway, it's always fun to collaborate with other genealogical researchers, and I'm looking forward to solving this little mystery by working with Elizabeth. The added bonus in this case is that she is currently working as a missionary at the LDS Genealogical Library out in Salt Lake City, so she has the finest collection of family history material at her disposal to help us in our quest!

OK, you non-genealogists can wake up now.