The 1872 Diary of the Mooresville Macy Farmstead

Book excerpt: A Farmsteadin Morgan County, IN has stood as a sentinel on the South West corner of Mooresville since 1859 whenWilliam 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 1870s 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 todays 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 MacyFarmstead.... 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 1600s. 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.