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MAK Project: Joseph McCoy Family

Information this month comes from the MAK Personal Ancestry files for the
family of Joseph McCoy. Most of the information on this family was found in the notes of the various family members.

Joseph McCoy was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky on January 6, 1794 and died on November 26, 1870 at the age of 76 years, 9 months, 20 days. His wife Mary Ann Lewis was born in Fayette County, Kentucky on January 30, 1795. Joseph and Mary were married in the year 1816 and that same year moved to the state of Missouri settling at St. Louis. In the year 1831 the family moved to Franklin County and in the spring of 1836 settled in what is now Clark County. Both Joseph and Mary Ann Lewis McCoy are believed to be buried in Wolfe Cemetery, St. Francisville.

The only known child of Joseph and Mary was Joseph McCoy Jr. Joseph Jr was born near St. Louis, Missouri on March 24, 1823. He married Jane McKean of Brown County, Illinois. From this union were born six sons and one daughter. Jane died on September 2, 1871, in their home in Missouri, at the age of 47 years, 2 months, 17 days and is buried at Wolfe Cemetery, St. Francisville. At the same time, Joseph McCoy passed through a severe sickness and was advised to spend the winter in California. He did go to California until the spring of 1872 and because of health issues and the severity of the winters remained in the South and West, being continuously in California for a number of years prior to his death; he was always proud of his native state and always claimed Missouri as his home.

Joseph passed away at the home of his son Galen Clark McCoy in Red Bluff California on January 1, 1900 at the age of 77 years. The funeral occurred from the home of his son on Wednesday, January 3, 1900.

Written in the Red Bluff News was the following: “Mr. McCoy always owned and lived upon a farm, and his home place was one of the choicest in the Mississippi bottoms. He did not do any of the farming as his principle business was dealing in stock. He handled a great many cattle, disposing of them largely to feeders in the State of Illinois. He often fed a choice lot of steers himself and sold them in St. Louis or Chicago markets.

Mr. McCoy was exceptionally moral and upright in his charter and life and he was held in the very highest estimation by all who knew him. It falls to the lot but of few men to have the reputation in which he enjoyed in his Missouri home. He was successful in his business affairs and accumulated a goodly share of the world’s goods. This he devoted to comfort of his family and to the education and advancement of his children. In his death he leaves a heritage to his children in honor and good name which is greatly prized by them.”

The first born of Joseph and Jane McKean McCoy, Galen Clark McCoy, was born on October 6, 1846 in Missouri. Galen married Zora Vickers and together had one daughter, Georgia Dell McCoy who was in her senior year at the University of California at the time of Galen’s death in April 1911.

The following was found in the Clark County Courier, Kahoka, MO May 4, 1911: “Funeral of G. C. McCoy,Red Bluff (Tehama County) California.

April 20 – One of the largest Masonic funerals held in Red Bluff since 1873, having come here from Missouri, the state of his birth. He was 65 years old. He leaves a wife, who before her marriage was Miss Zora Vickers, and a daughter, Miss Georgia Dell McCoy.

McCoy owned many thousand acres of land and large bands of sheep, having been one of the best known stockmen in this part of the state. He was named for Galen Clark, the Yosemite explorer, who was his uncle.”

Second child of Joseph and Jane was Rosemary Young McCoy, born on July 18, 1848. Rosemary married Wile H. Baxter on November 9, 1875, and died on January 29, 1926. Nothing else is known of Rosemary.

Third child was Lee Lewis McCoy, born on August 1, 1850, and died on May 9, 1935. The only thing known about Lee was that in 1911 he was a stock raiser.

Fourth child was Alexander McKean McCoy, born on June 9, 1852 and died after the year 1935. He was a prominent attorney in Red Bluff, California.

Fifth child was Solon McCoy, born August 4, 1854, and died on June 21, 1926.
Sixth child was Adrian Hill McCoy, born February 24, 1857.

Seventh and last child was Mortimer Wilson McCoy, born on February 19, 1859. All that is known about Solon, Adrian and Mortimer was they were residing in the East in 1911, as was their sister Rosemary, at the time of Galen’s death.

We hope you have enjoyed this month’s entry. If you are related or have any additional information, please contact the Genealogy Department at the Donnellson Library. ~ Researched and submitted by Brenda Anderson
 

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