The 1872 Diary of the Mooresville Macy Farmstead
.....footsteps from the Mayflower to California
by
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This story was compiled as part of an effort to protect an Italianate home, built in 1859, from major damage by a government entity. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) sports a miniscule history compared to this farmstead built prior to the Civil War by William Monroe Macy (Mayflower descendant) near Mooresville, IN. The data fragments accumulated by the current owners while pursuing Historical Landmark registration became bulbous. Yet the information is so reflective of the American Evolution, it is worthy of consolidation for local family and history buffs. The Macy Farmstead has been owned by the Macy, Johnson, Richardson and Robinson families over the past 150 years. William Monroe Macy was born in Tennessee in 1820. He migrated to and owned farms in (Economy) Randolph County,IN 1849 to 1856, (Mooresville) Morgan County IN 1856 to 1882, (Dayton) Yamhill County, OR 1882-1907,and (Greenleaf) Canyon County, ID 1907 to 1911. He passed away in Denair, CA in 1911 at 91 years of age. His family’s story is a classic story of the true pioneers who traversed this nation from east to west. They left in their wake cleared land, churches, schools, and homesteads which they constructed with great hope and promise for the future. Apparently, the pioneering spirit was fueled by the diminishing timber, expired soil fertility, and the lure of a profitable sale before attaining near-free land further west. The Alonzo Johnson family purchased this 342 acre property in 1883. Tough economic times diminished the Johnson's holdings until the death of Alonzo’s last unmarried daughter culminated in the remaining 31 acres being subjected to foreclosure proceedings in 1931. Willis and Clara Sellars Richardson purchased these 31 acres in 1931. Donovan Lee and Joyce Ann Burke Robinson purchased the farmstead from Clara Sellars Richardson in 1981. This story traces the lives and genealogy revealed for the Macy family and features the diary of Alva Perry Macy during the full year of 1872. His eyewitness account of people and industry within the Mooresville community provides the reader with a glimpse of how 'Farm Folk' worked to survive and heal in the years following the Civil War.
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About the Book
A Farmstead in Morgan County, IN has stood as a sentinel on the South West corner of Mooresville since 1859 when William Monroe Macy (WMM), 1820-1911, built the home. It stands in 2010 as the residence of Donovan and Joyce Robinson. WMM was prosperous by local community standards of the period, however, that did not afford him much leisure. He managed many diverse businesses which kept him and his entire family hard at work every season of the year. This book focuses primarily on the “personal journal” Alva Perry Macy wrote during 1872 while living on this Farmstead. The activities he records are through the eyes of a 14 year old who seems fascinated with the industry around him. The farm life of the 1870’s would not be considered “the good old days” by most young adults of today. His focus on local people and their names will hopefully provide today’s history buffs a chance to put a bit of life on the stark printed pages of genealogy records. To put the "journal" in perspective, the family history has been explored to properly position the Mooresville Macys of 1872. The Robinsons gathered many facts about the Macys in libraries and from surviving descendants. Many stories have been told numerous times by other authors. The Robinsons have compiled what they believe to be an accurate account of the Macy Farmstead.... and offer it to the interest of others. Alva is a ninth generation derivative of Mayflower passengers (John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley) of 1620. His ancestors also include the early Nantucket settlers (Thomas Macy) who challenged the raw wilderness of the 1600’s. The Macys were somehow driven for 300 years to continue in that vein as they moved inland and westward “from the Atlantic to the Pacific”.
About the Author
Donovan and Joyce Robinson feel too little has been written of the generation which created a comfortable world for our 21st century life. Politicians and warriors have dominated the history taught in school, however, our culture was equally developed by people who converted the American wilderness into cities and production centers. The Macy story began with the Robinsons' effort to thwart an 'eminent domain powered condemnation' of the front lawn of the Farmstead. A basis for declaring the Farmstead an Historical Landmark was needed. The Macys (who built the home in 1859) lived long, left a trail of Quaker records, descended from Mayflower passengers, and were major players at each settlement they joined, while 8 generations of Macy genes proceeded from Plymouth Rock to California. As retirees, Donovan and Joyce had a reasonable excuse for going to California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts,Nantucket, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Long afternoons in historical libraries passed easily as they gathered bits and pieces of the Macy record. A lifetime of team effort was normal for the Robinsons. In pursuit of Macy ancestors, the evolution of Macy/Massie/Massey sparked a further study which concluded Joyce shared a Massie ancestor with the man who built the Farmstead where she lives. This is discussed in THE AFTERGLOW. Donovan's career was in product development which included 6 patents, 2 technical papers published by the Society of Automotive Engineers and other industrial reports. Compiling the Macy story and organizing the data was not far from engineering methodology. The shared authorship included severe editing by both parties. Joyce's book I Was a Waif and Child Servant was published in 2008. "THE 1872 DIARY of the MOORESVILLE MACY FARMSTEAD" is the culmination of nearly 5 years of effort by 'Team Robinson'.