Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
I recently received a package of info from a distant cousin in Ohio.She is not online.In it is the following story that another cousin compiled after gathering various stories and family documents, as well as Beer's History of Clark Co., OH.
HISTORY OF THE McCONKEY FAMILY
Prepared From Information Supplied By Many Members of the Family)
Our first known ancestor was Thomas McConkey born in Scotland in 1722 and went to Ireland as a young man.His wife's name and nationality are unknown.They had five sons born in Ireland, Alexander born in Belfast in 1743, William 1750, James 1752, John 1754, Hugh 1757.The Daughters names are unknown.
Alexander, our branch of the family, fell in love with Margaret McDonald on whose father's farm he was a tenant.Margaret's father, Archibald McDonald was born in Scotland the second son of the family.It was the law of Scotland that the eldest son should inherit his father's estate.Not wishing to show any distinction between his sons, the father purchased a large estate near Belfast in Antrim County, Ireland.Here the second son Archibald and his wife Jane raised their family of three daughters Margaret, Jane and Elizabeth (Ellen and Mary).
Now Lord Archibald McDonald and his wife who were of the gentry or landowners were very much displeased that Margaret should fall in love with Alexander McConkey who was just a commoner and forbade her to keep company with him.She and her lover carried on their love affair in secret and finally in spite of her parents’ opposition they were secretly married.
When her father learned of her marriage he refused to sanction it or acknowledge his new son-in-law in any way.He refused to let her come home and informed her he would disinherit her if she persisted in living with him.Though her heart ached at the thought of never returning home where she had been so happy and gay with her sisters and parents she decided she must stay with her lover even though life would be hard compared to what she had been used to.How could Margaret so young and lovely know of the homesickness and hardship that was to be the lot of her and her husband?
Three children came to bless the humble home of Margaret and Alexander McConkey, and in spite of poverty and privation they were happy.Not so with the grandfather, Archibald McDonald.How he yearned to have his beautiful daughter home again.Though there were no means of fast communication he had heard about those little grandchildren.How he would like to see them, to hold them and feel their chubby little arms around his neck.
Relent and let them come home, whispered a still small voice.No.Never must that Scotch Highlander cross his threshold.He must think of a plan to be rid of him once and for all time.A man of financial means and political power such as Archibald McDonald certainly could work out some plan.Why not have McConkey drafted into the army and sent to some foreign field and kept there?After that it was only a matter of time until Alexander was shouldering a gun and drilling in the army.Then without as much as a day's furlough, or a last good bye the orders were to break camp and prepare to embark.Everything seemed to be going as McDonald had planned.The army was on board ship and everything was ready to weigh anchor.But Alexander McConkey could think and plan too.During the confusion and noise he lowered himself over the side of the ship on a rope at night and swam ashore in the shadow of the ship.
Poor Margaret, lonely and sometimes without enough for the three children and herself to eat, prayed day and night that some miracle might be wrought to bring back her husband.One night the youngest child had been very restless.She had just placed it in its bed and was wondering if she should give up and go back to her father's home as he wanted her to do, when she heard a light rapping at the door.Fear seized her as she thought it might be someone trying to break in.Then she imagined she heard someone call her name.Gathering courage and asking Divine protection she went closer to the door.Hearing the voice again she recognized it as her husband's.She answered and after making sure it was her husband she opened the door and let him in.He told her how he had made his escape and by traveling at night and hiding in the daytime he had reached his parents' home and had so far escaped capture.
He told her he planned to go to America.Together they planned that he should go as soon as possible taking the oldest child with him.She and the two younger children would remain in Ireland until he could get established and send for them.She afterwards walked nine miles carrying one little child to see him.Bidding his wife and children good-bye he took the eldest child Robert and sailed from Liverpool, England and landed at Baltimore, Maryland in 1779.Alexander was one of two brothers to come to America.His brother William came to New Jersey and owned and operated a ferryboat on the Delaware River near Trenton.He helped ferry Washington's army across the Delaware at the time of the battle of Trenton.There is an old McConkey Tavern in this vicinity in which George Washington spent the night before the crossing.This is now a state park and historic spot which was visited by Homer N. and Hazel MCConkey in 1945 and they have pictures taken of the old tavern.This was owned and operated by William McConkey who was buried at York, PA.
Alexander worked two years in Baltimore and then sent for Margaret and the children.After waiting through two years of hardship and lonesomeness was it with joy or sorrow that she started her voyage?Of course she was anxious to join her husband and son in America, but she was leaving her homeland and kin never to see them again.With her two children Archibald and Jane she set sail on a ship in command of Captain Usher.Near midocean the little girl was taken ill and died.She was buried at sea.When Margaret and her little boy landed there was a happy reunion, but tears of joy mixed with tears of sorrow at the news of the little girl’s death.
For a time there was success and happiness.Another little girl was born and named Jane after the other little girl.While Jane was a baby the death angel visited the home taking the father and mother and ten days later the oldest son Robert.With the baby sister Jane, Archibald was an orphan at the age of twelve.Margaret and Alexander had lived barely a third of a century when their romance and lives were ended.They are buried in Baltimore in unmarked graves.
For a time Archibald and Jane were separated, very little is known about his life from the age of twelve until he was eighteen.It is known that he learned to be a shoemaker.It is possible he served as an apprentice and learned his trade that way.At the age of eighteen he hunted up his sister.She had been living with a German family and could not speak English.He then established a home for her.In his early twenties Archibald and Jane came west and settled in Kentucky.Jane married Samuel Hillis and to them were born seven children, Margaret, Archibald, John, William, Robert, Jane and Mary.
On December 21st, 1797, when about thirty years of age Archibald married Nancy Mickey in Campbell County, KY.Nancy's father was Daniel Mickey of Irish parentage a soldier in the Revolutionary War with a rank of Captain in the 8th Continental Regiment.
{NOTE: Information from here on was supplied by my Grandfather Enos N. McConkey written in August 1897 at my request.Above information was taken from other records.Homer N. McConkey}
In April 1805 Archibald and Nancy McConkey came to Ohio and settled in Pleasant Township, Clark County on a farm now owned by the Neer Family and known as The Old McConkey Homestead.One half of the original McConkey Cemetery was given by Archibald McConkey and the other half by a neighbor Wm. Metsgar.To this union 8 children were born, Elizabeth, Alexander, Daniel, Robert, Jane, Margaret, Nancy and Mary.Their son Robert died in infancy and was the first burial in The McConkey Cemetery, January 3, 1807.Jane passed on in March 1815 and buried close to her brother.Historians tell us the family traveled from their Kentucky home to their new homestead in Ohio and carried their children and family possessions on horseback.
Daniel McConkey, my branch of this family, was born in Mason County, Kentucky, in the year of 1804 and came to Ohio with the family in 1805.He married Matilda Neer on April 27th 1831.To them were born 10 children, Nathan, Archibald, Enos, Alexander, Hiram, Mary A., Sarah J., Nancy, Catherine, and Margaret.
My grandfather was Enos McConkey, born February 2, 1831, near Catawba, Pleasant Township and lived on a farm adjoining the old McConkey Homestead then owned the Neer family.He married Miss Mary Young, June 13, 1852 and to them were born seven children, Oliver, Edwin, Flora, Daniel, Nettie, Anna and Frank.Both grandparents are buried in the McConkey Cemetery.
My father was Oliver Y. McConkey, born September 1st, 1853.He married Effie C. Nicklin October 10, 1883 and to them were born three children, Ethel F., Homer N. and Amy C.They were residents of Clark County their entire lives.Oliver McConkey passed on in October 1925 and buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Springfield.
(Interesting Events Related in Connection with Above History)
Old papers indicate the original land purchase price was two dollars and twenty-five cents per acre.Former owner Elias Langham, apparently living at Chillicothe, Ohio, who signed contracts, agreements and receipts for the 212 1/2 acres.
In payment for the land purchased of Elias Langham there are three receipts.One dated October 18th, 1804 for two horses for $150, October 28, 1804 for Cattle $138 and Feb. 19, 1805 $190 in property.The items making up this last amount are 1 black mare $70, 1 cow and calf, two steers and 1 bull at $26, 2 sows and pigs and a shoat hogshead $1.25, meat barrel and tub, $1, 180 bushels corn at 33 1/3 cents per bu., $60 and 1 year old grey mare colt $20.These three receipts total $478.Two hundred twelve and 1/2 acres of land at $2.25 per acre amounts to $478.125.Now how do you suppose they settled up the 12 1/@ cents?
From 1722, when Thomas McConkey was born in Scotland till 1950 there have been nine consecutive generations of the McConkey family in which boy babies have come to bless the homes.
When the McConkey family first came to Ohio, Indians were plentiful but friendly.The Indians had a camping ground just north of the farm that they used on their journeys.There were no Indian towns closer than fifteen or twenty miles.One day an Indian came to the door of the McConkey home.When the door was opened he walked right in.He made signs which the mother thought meant he wanted a drink of water.She offered him a drink from the gourd drinking cup but he shook his head.He then pointed to a cupboard by the fireplace and his mouth and she knew he wanted food.She gave him food which he ate in silence, then grunted a time or two and walked away into the woods.Another time a cornpone had been baked in a 'Dutch Oven' and placed in a window to cool.An Indian passing by saw it and took it with him.The next day a piece of venison was left in the window supposedly by the same Indian.
When the Indians came to their camping ground they often visited the McConkey home.They often gave the children small presents.Mary the youngest child seemed to be their favorite and they always gave her presents.
The McConkey children sometime visited the Indian camp.On one of these visits an Indian boy shot an arrow high in the air.It lodged in a tree so he climbed up after it.In climbing down he fell, but caught a tree limb and broke his fall before he got to the ground.He was not hurt but the other little Indians laughed when he lost his hold and fell.This incident happened just west of the old well.The Indians had come to the well for water. The tree was an apple tree which stood just west of the well.Scott Everhart can remember of hearing his grandmother Nancy McConkey Neer tell him of this when he was just a boy and she was in her wheel chair.(As a boy I can remember several apple trees standing west of this well.Could these old trees have been the work of Johnnie Chapman Appleseed?As I remember these trees had a limb spread of fifteen feet or more.)
In later years someone asked Nancy Mickey McConkey if she was afraid of the Indians.She replied that if you treated them just as friendly as you would any other person they would not harm you and she always tried to treat them kindly.When asked if she wasn't afraid the Indians would kidnap or steal her daughter Mary, Grandmother McConkey replied, "No, I have faith in my God that no harm shall befall her."(This incident was told by Scott Everhart.)An old churn and a rocking chair are still on the farm where they lived and are still in fair condition.The churn is supposed to have been made by Daniel Mickey, father of Nancy McConkey.There are two stories as to where the churn came from.One was that the churn was carried from Kentucky on horseback.The other was that it was carried on horseback from Dublin, Ohio, where her father moved from Kentucky soon after 1800.
Soon after moving to Ohio the McConkey family had the misfortune of having the fire go out in the fireplace.The mother Nancy McConkey rode a horse to a home of another settler two miles north of where Catawba now is located to get live coals to rekindle her fire.Now why do you suppose she didn't go to the Coffey home which was so much closer?Possibly their fire had gone out, too.
Of the two sons who grew to maturity, Alexander moved to Illinois.Daniel who was the baby when they came from Kentucky stayed with his father and helped with the farm.At the death of Archibald in 1851 most of the farm was under cultivation.Two of the daughters married and lived near Mechanicsburg.The other two daughters married and lived in the home community.One of them, Nancy, married Mahlon Neer on August 2, 1832.They went to housekeeping in the north half of the double log cabin and her father and mother lived in the south cabin.
The story is told that in their later years while living in this cabin there was a place where the mortar had fallen from between the logs.Instead of replacing it they filled the space with old rags so that they might remove them to see out.Archibald died Sept. 18, 1851 in the 85th year of life.Nancy his wife lived almost four years after.She died April 12, 1855 in the 76th year of life.They are buried in McConkey Cemetery.Their graves are marked by thin slabs of stone and should not be confused with that of a grandson Archibald who is buried nearby.Their graves are close to a large pine tree in the east part of the cemetery.They had lived the life of the pioneer.Their lives had included much hardship and work with few conveniences.
The main facts in the romantic story of Alexander and Margaret McConkey were found to be true about 1895.At this time, some of the family conceived the idea that since Margaret McDonald McConkey had never received any share of her father's estate, a fair sized fortune should be awaiting them in Ireland.On Nov. 29, 1895, notices were mailed out from Mechanicsburg, Ohio, requesting the McDonald heirs to meet at the residence of Mrs. C. K. Clark on Dec 18, 1895, at one o'clock P.M.The object of the meeting was to decide on a plan of action to recover the McDonald estate.
At this time, Milton M. McConkey,a great, great grandson of Margaret McDonald was chosen to make a trip to Ireland to see what could be learned about the estate.He was well qualified as he had previously been auditor of Clark County.He made the trip and visited the castle home of the McDonalds and was very cordially received by the people living there.True enough they were descendants ofthe McDonalds and the estate had been in the family all the time.They gave him all the information they could regarding the family history.He learned that the main facts of the romance and marriage of Margaret and Alexander were true and they also told of the high standing of the McDonalds in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.He didn't succeed in looking up the court records, as the government would not cooperate with him and he had to give that up.Soon after his return a reunion of the McConkey family was held at the Old McConkey Homestead at the home of Nathan O. Neer on October 6th, 1896.Since then the McConkey reunion has been held each year with the exception of the years of Work War II.No reunion was held then as many people didn't have gasoline and tires to make the trip due to rationing.There is no record of the first two reunion other than the notices sent out.The date of the third reunion on the record book is not clear.The fourth reunion was held Aug. 10th, 1899.The records show that there were more than two hundred in attendance at this reunion.Notices were sent out each year reminding the members of the time and place.Miss Vaughn Murray, the secretary sends out about 125 of these notices each year.Some of these go to Michigan, Illinois. Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, California, and Alabama.
Most of the foregoing stories and facts were (three illegible words) various grandchildren and great grandchildren of Archibald and Nancy Mickey McConkey and were finally written down by members of the various branches of the family.The stories from various sources are very much similar so there can not be much doubt but what they are authentic.Among those who have had part in recording the stories and facts and dates are Dr. A. E. McConkey, Mrs. Laura Baldwin Neer, Mrs. Ella B. Shearer, all now deceased, Warren Everhart of Urban, Chester A. Skillman of Mechanicsburg, R #1, Miss Vaughn Murray, Homer N. McConkey of Springfield and many others.
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of all of the above information, but I would imagine most of it to be true and as accurate as possible.It appears to have been written in about 1950, but the author, Homer McConkey, had enough interest to get his grandfather to write down what he knew more than 50 years before that.The grandfather, Enos McConkey, died in 1902 at the age of 71.I don't have Homer's birth and death dates at this time, so I don't know how old he was when he wrote this history.I'm only now beginning to research my McConkey line, but I did want to share this story.I descend from Archibald & Nancy's daughter Mary, the one the Indians used to like to come and play with.(Archibald > Mary McConkey Neer (and then possibly Lafferty) Allen > Edward Allen > Joseph Allen > Robert Allen > me.For years, my father had a pair of very old gold cuff links with a family crest on them, over which had been stamped the initials McC.(Sadly, they were stolen from us) and he had always been told they were from one of our ancestors who owned a castle in Ireland.So our family lore ties into this family, too.
Cindi
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
Terri Gerken 9/23/08
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
Cindi Schmerber 9/24/08
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
Terri Gerken 9/24/08
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
m reed 8/21/08
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history
Cindi Schmerber 8/22/08
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Re: Archibald & Nancy McDonald McConkey history