JONES COUNTY, GA - BIOS  G.W.F. McKay

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: Carla Miles captbluegrass@mchsi.com


Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/jones.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm


Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga., Pages 446-
447 Published by The Southern Historical Association in
1895



G.W.F. McKay, planter and mechanic, Plenitude, Jones
Co., Ga., son of Hugh and Sarah (Dixon) McKay, was born
in Jones County, July 4, 1828.  His father was a native
of the Hebrides Islands (off the west coast of
Scotland), where this branch of the McKay family had
lived for generations, and came to America, a nine-
year-old orphan boy, in 1773.  He had relatives in
Wilmington, N.C., who raised him to manhood.  In 1811
he married Isabella McQueen, by whom he had six
children.  In 1823, having lost his wife, he came with
his family to Georgia and settled in Bibb County.
There he married Miss Sarah Dixon, by whom he had three
children: Hugh Dixon (deceased); G.W.F., the subject of
this sketch, and an infant, unnamed.  About 1826 he
settled the place where G.W.F. now lives and where he
died, May 21, 1839.  He was a whig in politics, and a
man of great energy and perseverance.  Mr. McKay, the
only surviving member of the family, has passed his
life at the old homestead where he was born.  On Oct.
16, 1849, he was married to Susan A., daughter of Henry
and Nancy Finney - a native of Jones County, by whom he
has had eight children: Alexander H.S., Clinton, Ga.;
Henry A., (Jones County); Hugh D. (deceased); Annie L.
(deceased), wife of C.L. McCarty, Jones County; William
Lee, Macon Ga.; Jeff Davis, Henrietta D., died in
infancy; Sarah J., died in infancy.  Mr. McKay’s mother
died in 1863.  He has never sought office, but such is
his popularity that the people elected him twice to
represent Jones County in the generally assembly -
1882-1883, and 1892-1893.  He was the author of the act
requiring the signatures of three-fifths of the voters
to a petition for holding an election on the sale of
intoxicants in a county.  Mr. McKay is unusually well
informed, is enterprising and progressive, and
possesses great versatility intellectually.  He takes
great pride in his children and took the deepest in
their education.  The intelligent and wise foresight of
this is demonstrated by the estimation in which they
are held, and their positions in professional and
business circles.  One son, Alexander H.S., is county
school commissioner, one of the most efficient in the
state; and another, Hugh D., after graduating in
medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1883,
returned to his native county and practiced five years
- until 1888 - when he died; in the meantime building a
reputation for ability and skill not surpassed by any
equally young practitioner in the state, giving great
promise of future professional distinction; and
establishing a large and lucrative practice.  Mr. McKay
owns a fine 2,700 acre plantation; is a democrat; is a
Knight Templar Mason - for years presiding over the
master’s lodge, and himself and wife are ardent and
zealous working Methodists.