John M.
Macy
John Macy
is a native of Guilford County, N. C., born Dec. 28, 1806, a son of Stephen
and Rebecca (Barnard) Macy. His grandparents, Enoch
and Anna (Macy) Macy, natives of Nantucket Island, and Francis
and Catharine (Osbern) Barnard, natives of Nantucket Island and New
Jersey respectively. They were early settlers of North Carolina. In
the spring of 1808 Stephen Macy moved to Montgomery County,
Ohio, and in 1828 to Richmond, Ind. He was the first manufacturer of
cast-iron mold-board plows in Montgomery County, and also of Richmond. In
1836 he moved to Henry County, and settled near Raysville, where his wife died
in 1844. He subsequently moved to Greensboro Township, where he
married Mrs. Rebecca (Lamb) Ratliff. A few years later he
moved to Franklin Township, and died at the house of our subject. John M.
Macy in early life received only the rudiments of a common-school education, but
after he was twenty-one years old, by dint of hard study and many sacrifices, he
acquired a fair education and successfully taught school twenty-five
years. He first taught in Miami County, Ohio, three months for $25 and his
board. In 1856 he came to Franklin Township and bought the farm where he
has since resided. Mr. Macy was married in 1832 to Beulah, daughter
of Isam and Margaret Hunt. His wife died in March,
1835, and in 1840 he married Betsey Ann, daughter of Thomas
and Jemima White. To them were born three children -- Margaret
M., William A., and Henrietta M. (deceased). Mrs.
Macy died, and in 1854 Mr. Macy married Lydia, daughter of John
and Lydia Bell. They have one daughter -- Maria Josephine.
Mr. Macy and his family are members of the Society of Friends.
History of Henry County, Indiana, Chicago: Inter-State
Publishing Co., 1884, page 627.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
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