Ancestor Archives: William Stephen Macy (1862-1938)

by Rocky Macy

(Note:  I am starting a project this year to recognize and write about a group of my ancestors, and will try to cover one ancestor per week over the course of at least a year.  Those profiles will initially be published in this blog, and with the intention of eventually collecting them into a historical volume for my children and grandchildren.   I am going to begin this effort with profiles of my eight great-grandparents.   Three of them were alive when I was born in the spring of 1948, and I have memories of two of them.  Today’s initial entry is focused on my direct-line paternal great-grandfather, William Stephen MACY of Newton County, Missouri.  All eight of my great-grandparents were, in fact, residents of Newton County, Missouri.  Form note:  All surnames – family names – will be reported in all capital letters.)
 
William Stephen MACY was born on January 17^th, 1862, on the Solomon River near Emporia, Kansas.   He married Louella PRITCHARD on April 3rd, 1887, in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri.  William died on September 30^th, 1938, in Newton County, Missouri .   William is buried at Belfast Cemetery in rural Newton County, Missouri.  That cemetery is located on land that was part of the parcel that formed his parents' home place in Newton County.
 
(William’s middle name is sometimes listed as “Steven” on historical documents.   I have chosen to go with “Stephen” because that was spelling used on his death certificate, and the informant on that document was William’s oldest son, William Arnold Macy – a man who likely knew how his father spelled his name.  It was also the spelling in his obituary.)
 
William’s parents were Charles MACY  (1831-1876) and Mary Jane (MEADOR) MACY (1834-1876), both of whom were born in Kentucky and died in Missouri.   From information contained n census records regarding the years and locations of the births of their children, it would appear that Charles and Mary Jane MACY moved their family to Neosho, Newton County Missouri, in 1866 or 1867, shortly after the close of the Civil War.  

Every census for William from 1870 until his final entry in 1930 had him as being a resident of Newton County, and each entry listed William in the Neosho area except for 1910 in which he was enumerated in Seneca and 1930 which had him in Dayton Township which is located between Neosho and Seneca.  

A "moving sale" notice which ran in the "Neosho Daily News" on October 3rd,  1919, provided information on one of his moves:

"W.S. Macy has sold his farm 2-and-a-half miles south and 2 miles west of Neosho, near the Jay Bird school house, and is preparing to move onto the J.R. McElhany property in the west part of town, which belongs to him.  In order to get rid of surplus stuff he does not care to move he has decided to hold a public sale of livestock, farming implements, household goods, etc., on Monday, October 13th."

 
William and Louella had seven children:  William Arnold (1889-1963), Claude E. (Edgar or Everett) (1891-1930), John Orville (1893-1978), Amia Bell (1895-1977), Walter Jack (1898-1974), Charles Eugene (1900-1972), and Ina Pearl  (1903-1989).
 
William Arnold MACY married Annie L. Gay WILLARD;  Claude E. MACY married Byrl Lelia WALKER;   John Orville MACY married Ida Belle CRABTREE;  Amia Bell MACY married Harry BUZZARD;   Walter Jack MACY married Ethel B. NUTT;  Charles Eugene MACY (my paternal grandfather) married Hazel Josephine NUTT;   and, Ina Pearl MACY married Cloyce Otis (Jack) L0WE.   William, John, and Walter were all commonly known by their middle names. Ethel B. NUTT and Hazel Josephine NUTT were sisters.   Ina Pearl and Jack LOWE ran a taxi company in Neosho during World War II and afterward.
 
My father, Garland Eugene MACY, often referred to his grandfather, William S. MACY, as being a man of property who “owned half of Newton County until he lost it all.”   A search of the property books in the Newton County Recorder of Deeds Office at the courthouse in Neosho, as well as an examination of many land transfer notices in various Neosho area newspapers over the years, revealed that William was a participant in over seventy land transactions between November of 1889 when he purchased land in Newton County from Matthew ROEDING and August of 1934 when he received or purchased land from his son, William Arnold MACY.   
 
Also in August of 1934 William and Louella underwent a “foreclosure sale” which seemed to end their 45-year string of property transactions.   1934 was the height of the Great Depression, and my father would have been almost ten-years-old when his grandfather suffered the indignity of being foreclosed upon, an event that undoubtedly remained vivid to him (my dad) over the years.
 
During the time that William was buying and selling property, he and Louella transferred land to three of their sons.  The couple sold or gave land to William Arnold Macy in August of 1911, to John Orville Macy in 1919, and they gave land and a small house and twenty acres to Charles Eugene MACY in December of 1931.  Charles and his wife, Hazel, were my grandparents.   According to a hand-written personal history written by my father, the small house that they were given by William and Louella was improved upon by Hazel’s father, Thomas Franklin NUTT, who added a couple of rooms to accommodate their growing family.

In that same set of handwritten notes my father described his grandfather, William S. MACY, this way:

"My granddad Macy died when I was fourteen.  He was a big man with a Model T coupe.  He was a trader in later life, good guy."

 Politically, William S. MACY was likely a Republican.  A notice in the October 19, 1926, edition of the “Neosho Daily News” reported that William had been appointed as a Republican Judge for Dayton Township in the upcoming general election scheduled for November 2^nd.

There was a documented history of marital turmoil between William and Louella.  On at least three occasions he ran notices in local newspapers indicating that Louella had left him and he would no longer be responsible for her expenditures or her debts.   Those notices were in the "Neosho Daily Democrat"  on June 25th, 1918 (page 1),  the "Neosho Daily Democrat" on December 15th, 1925, (page 1), and the "Neosho Daily News" on January 7th, 1928 (page 4).  The notice in 1928 read as follows:

"My wife having left my bed and board, I will not stand good for any debts made by her or cash any checks issued by her." 

(Louella was a bit of a character, and she will be covered more fully in her own profile.) 

William MACY lost property, and likely social status as well, with his foreclosure sale in 1934, and by 1938 his overall health had started to become fragile.     Mrs. W. H. BLAIR reported following item in the “Westview and Route 4” portion of the column “County Briefs” in the February 24th, 1938 edition of “The Neosho Times:”

 

“Uncle Will MACY had a bad heart attack Saturday night but was feeling some better Sunday.”

 

He passed away later that year on  September 30^th.

The obituary of William Stephen MACY ran on page four of "The Neosho Times" on October 13th, 1938.  (Note:  There is a one-day difference in William's date of birth as listed on his death certificate and the date as reported in his obituary.)    The obituary reads:

Death of Will Macy 

William Stephen Macy was born at Emporia, Kan., Jan. 16, 1862.  He moved with his parents in early life to Newton County where he spent the remainder of his life.  He was strong and vigorous until a few years ago when his health failed.  He fought hard in his declining years to regain his health but it was in vain and for weeks he stood on the threshold of death.  On Sept. 30th, 1938, as relatives and friends stood helplessly by, he closed his eyes to pass from the bank of death's river into an unknown land. 

Mr. Macy was united in marriage to Louella Pritchard in 1887.  To this union were born five sons and two daughters.  Arnold, Orville, Jack, Charley, and Mrs. Pearl Lowe of Neosho, and Mrs. Amy Buzzard of Carterville.  Two sisters and one brother survive, all of whom very tenderly cared for him during his sickness.  Also surviving are a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  One son, Claude, died several years ago.  Mr. Macy confessed in Christ 40 years ago, taking membership in the Christian Church. 

A host of relatives, friends and neighbors gathered at the Belfast Church of Christ Oct. 2 to pay tribute at the last rites, and the body was laid to rest in the Belfast cemetery, which is part of the old home place of his parents.  Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Foster Ramsey of Neosho.

A well respected local figure had gone to his final rest after an active and very productive life.