WILLIAM MACKEY FROM WELSH RUN, FRANKLIN, PA

WILLIAM MACKEY, from FRANKLIN COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

William was actually born in 1803 in Hagerstown, Maryland, just 10 miles south of Welsh Run, Pennsylvania, where his parents lived. He was baptized at the Presbyterian Church in Welsh Run and so were all of his brothers and sisters.  Most of the residents of Welsh Run were Welsh and Scotch-Irish descendants of the first folks who settled there by the mid-1700s.

William married Katharine Leonard in 1828 and they had two sons and a daughter. Katharine, our 3g great grandmother, died in 1838 of unknown causes. Soon after this sad event, William and others from Welsh Run made the journey to Zanesville, Ohio. So, you could say, that because of William's change of state, our branch of this Mackey family lived in Ohio from this point on.

In October 1839, William married Rosanna Pensinger, who was also from Welsh Run, in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. William was a builder and a contractor and was training his two sons to become good carpenters as well. From newspaper articles I have read, it seems as though Zanesville was having many destructive fires in their downtown area and I also noticed a cholera epidemic in the late 1840s. Perhaps these were strong reasons for the Mackeys to move further west.

So, in the 1850 census, the William Mackey family and his father-in-law's family were living in the same neighborhood in Washington Township, Morrow County, Ohio. But, Rosanna died in 1852, another tragic event in the home life of William and his loved ones.

William decided to make a trip back to Welsh Run to ask his friend, Peter Gingrich, the miller in town, for his daughter's hand in marriage. Peter agreed and Rosannah Gingrich consented to be his wife in June 1854! William and Rosannah had a long and pleasant life together and lived in Galion, Crawford County, Ohio. They had one son named Martin John Mackey born in 1856 in Galion. By the way, Galion is just north of Washington Township. They were bordering towns, you could say.
  
William and his first two sons built and owned the flourishing Galion Lumber Company in Galion. The three of them built many of the homes in this city. Son, David Leonard Mackey, furthered his education and became an architect. He designed, built, and directed the Galion National Bank in the Mackey Block on Market Street.

William died in Aug 1887 at age 83. He was first buried at Green Cemetery but his body was later moved to Fairview Cemetery. He was a member of the Democratic Party and attended the English Lutheran Church.

William Mackey
Born: 23 NOV 1803 Hagerstown, MD
Married:          1828 Hagerstown, MD 
Died: 10 Aug 1887`Galion, Crawford, OH
Buried: Fairview Cemetery, Galion, OH
Sources: Census 1810 to 1880; William's father's bible page with family statistics; Palmer Papers from the Conocheague Institute in Montgomery Twp., Franklin, PA; Obit from Galion Inquirer; Book: "Galion Public Cemetery Records of Crawford County, Ohio"; Galion Public Library photographs of Mackey buildings in Galion and obits; GenealogyBank news items re Zanesville, Ohio history; death records of William's children.; Welsh Run Presbyterian Church's baptismal records.