JOHN
McKENZlE, son of Culquahoun McKenzie and Janet (Grant) McKenzie born
Crathie,
Scotland in 1817 and died 23 April 1886, Constable, New York
and
married ANN
McQUEEN, daughter of William McQueen, 9 October 1845 in Scotland.
She was born 24 February 1823, Castleton of Braemar, Scotland
and
died 28 August 1883, Constable,
New York and both are buried in the Burke Center Cemetery, Burke, New
York.
The
family Bible record start out - "John McKenzie, Mill of Inver,
Crathie and Ann MacQueen (sometimes McQueen) Castleton, Braemar were
lawfully married 9 October
1845.
John
McKenzie and his family sailed July 23,
1856
from the village of Tain,
County
of Rosshire, Scotland on the Bark “Emigrant of Montrose”. They
were at sea between four and five weeks. The ship landed at Quebec.
The
family first settled at Athelstan, Canada, where John had a position
of running a grist mill for a salary of $350.00 per year.
John
McKenzie and Alexander Anderson bought a mill August 2, 1860, Burke,
New
York. The family did not move to Burke, New York in time to be
included in the 1860 census as the census was completed by 25 July
1860. On February 15th. 1862,
John bought Alexander Anderson out on the mill. (In 1979, the place
is known as the Green
Bowl.)
John
and his family moved to Burke, New York in 1860. He applied for
citizenship
on 31 December 1861 and he was admitted as a citizen of the United
States on 22 August 1865 according to the Alien List, County Clerk
Office, Franklin County, Malone,
New York.
In
1877, the family left Burke and moved to Constable and bought the
mill
run
by their son, William, and in turn William bought the mill at Burke,
New York.
In
a ledger kept by John McKenzie, he shows the operation of a hop yard
in Burke in 1880. Later he shows the financial operation of a
hop
yard in Constable.
According
to "Historical Sketches of Franklin County" by Frederick
J. Seaver (Page 224) the only grist mill was built in 1832 by Jehial
Barnum Jr. and Joseph Goodspeed and then owned and operated by Eli
Goodnow, Samuel Starks, T. L. & Harry Douglass, Albert Stebbins,
and John McKenzie. Quote from the book "The last named (as
good a man and a miller as the county ever had) bought the property
in 1860 and operated it until 1877." Just below the mill there
was a building which had been used for a stave mill, later a
furniture factory and John McKenzie converted it into a mill for
making pearl barley. (Page 225)
A
saw mill on the extreme southeastern section of Burke (Page 223) was
built by John McKenzie of Burke and James Jordan of Chateaugay about
1864-l865. They operated this mill until it burned.
According
to "History of Clinton &
Franklin
Counties, New York" by Duane Hamilton Hurd, John McKenzie
served as Supervisor of Burke in 1871 (Page 453). He also served as
Deacon of the Presbyterian Church from 1867-1879 and as Elder from
1875-79 (Page 454).
-
Helen Langford
