George Washington Mackey – Disappointed Homesteader

 Ella Reynolds Mackey, Bud, Ivy (also spelled Ivey), G.W. Mackey, Earl

George Washington Mackey was my great grandfather. He married Ella F. Reynolds, daughter of Samuel and Louisa Reynolds in 1888.married George Washington Mackey.   They had three children.  They oldest was Ivy - my grandmother.  Then there was Bud – B. Thomas Mackey.

I saw Uncle Bud only two or three times in my life. I remember that he lived somewhere in eastern Oklahoma.  The third was Earl.  I remember seeing a picture of Uncle Earl in a Navy Uniform.  Apparently, he served in World War I.  He died in the twenties and his buried next to his father in the Clyde cemetery. 

In 1889 Congress authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open up two million acres for homesteading in what is now known as Oklahoma.  At 12 noon on April 22, 50,000 people were lined to make a run for the land.  It was a mad rush to stake out the first claim.  Some people left earlier than the prior to the legal date and time, and came to be known as “Sooners.”  There is not truth in the rumor that they went there to name the University of Oklahoma football team

George Mackey was among those who planned to make that race.  He was married to Ella F. Reynolds, daughter of Samuel Isham Reynolds, and she gave birth to my paternal grandmother on that day. So he had to forego making the run for land.  After that this, part of the family tree get complicated, and I’ll try to explain it in my next post.