1896 Portrait  The old portrait above of John Montgomery Gallaher's family probably dates to 1896 (Roy is the baby in this photo, and he was born in 1896). Back row: Homer, Minnie Belle, Lennis. Front row: Macy Mack, John Montgomery Gallaher, baby Roy, Parallee Doughty Gallaher. John Montgomery was about 45 years of age, Parallee was about 38 at this time. Family Reunions at John and Parallee Gallaher's Home This Knox home of Macy's father sat for many years at the corner of Hardin Valley and Steele Roads until about 1935.   While Parallee was alive, there were many family gatherings at her home. This home (both photos above) sat at the corner of Steele Road and Hardin Valley Road, and became Roy Gallaher's farm after Parallee died. It contained the original log cabin underneath that was later sided over; the entire structure burned about 1935. In the lower photo (l-r): Myrtle Harvey Gallaher, with son John Gallaher in front; Johnnie Mae Kollock and Hazel Reagan, Roy Gallaher sitting in front, Parallee at the back behind Roy, Allie Steele, little Margaret Mack Gallaher in front with Billy, Ruth Reagan behind her and then Macy, Betsy to the right with Teddy Reagan in front of them. The photo above was taken about 1924. Betsy and Macy, 1921  Copyright 2009. Suzanne Haley. For information, email clinchrivergallahers@gmail.com |
Macy Mack Gallaher was the son of John Montgomery Gallaher (1851-1905, born in Knox County) and Parallee Swan Doughty Gallaher (1858-1950), who were married in 1880 in Knox County. John Montgomery was the son of David Gallaher (1813-1894, born in Knox County) and Jane Montgomery Gallaher. David was the son of Joseph Gallaher (1774-1824, born in Cumberland Co, PA) and Margaret Gillespie Gallaher. And Joseph was the son of James H. Gallaher (1730-1792, born in Northern Ireland) and Sarah Miller. All of these Gallahers except the last two are buried either in the Marietta Cumberland Presbyterian churchyard (off Hardin Valley Road) or in Hickory Creek Cemetery. James H. and Sarah Gallaher were buried in Old Salem Cemetery at Washington College, Washington Co, TN. John Montgomery's wife Parallee was quite a distinguished and accomplished woman in her own right. More details of her life can be found on the Doughty Genealogy website. John Montgomery Gallaher died of pneumonia on Christmas Day of 1905 when Macy was 16 years old; Macy dropped out of school at that time to support Parallee and the family. As a widow, his mother Parallee was left to support Lennis (age 19), Macy (age 16), and Roy (age 9). Their sister Minnie Belle(age 23) had married Frank Kollock in 1902 and already left home--although the couple still lived nearby. The eldest Gallaher son would have been Homer, born in 1884; however, as a teenager Homer had gone hunting one day with Cousin Sabre Jones' boys, and in climbing over a fence one of their guns fell and killed Homer. Macy always carried the remembrance of this tragedy, never wanting anything to do with guns. At his father's death, there were actually two family farms for Macy to manage. The 'over the river' farm was located in Anderson County and encompassed 400 acres; tenant farmers lived and worked on that property. That farm was the old Taylor-Keith land, inherited from Macy's grandmother Betsy Keith Taylor Doughty. The 100 acres in Hardin Valley comprised the other farm, 4 miles away and and originally Hardin land. (George Washington gave the land as a Revolutionary War grant to Col. Hardin, who married a Gallaher.) Just prior to WW I, Macy worked for awhile in Oregon and Washington. I have a story from Macy detailing his work there. He drove a team of 6 horses (riding another horse behind, not a cart, he said) to prepare the fields of Gordon Hensley to sow wheat. He also participated in cattle drives, but returned home in May of 1918, joining the Army in August of that year. Roy and Macy were farming partners for awhile, but ultimately they paid their sisters for their shares of the two Gallaher farms. Then Roy took the Hardin Valley farm and Macy took the Anderson County farm. Parallee lived with Roy and his wife Myrtle until her death in 1950. Roy not only farmed, but was also involved with the Atomic Energy Commission's Agricultural Research farm, working with cattle. After the war, Macy and Betsy lived on the Anderson County farm, although, as he recounted, it began to seem too isolated to him. Once when he was sick, wife Betsy had to ride a horse to the home of their neighbor Ben Ross in order to phone for a doctor. So this sense of isolation contributed to Macy's decision to move across Clinch River to Hardin Valley, nearer his brother Roy and sister Minnie. When Cousin Sabra K. Jones(1859-1938)died, Macy bought her home and property (next door to brother Roy). That Hardin Valley property became home for more than 50 years for Macy Mack and his family. Macy was sharp and very enterprising--and he studied and took delight in learning and applying new farming techniques. Interviews by Vic Weals with Macy were published in the Knoxville Journal in November of 1979. Macy explained how, as a young farmer, he improved the Gallaher Ferry to bring materials from Anderson County to Knox County, bought a corn hopper and a hay lift to modernize and increase his farms' efficiency. These modernizations had been unheard of in that part of the county. In addition to farming in the 1930's, Macy worked in Tekoa (Tecoy) at the old County Workhouse, where he was a guard, taking prisoners out for their work; he was also deputized to be able to arrest people. (Sapper Morris was his boss there.) At another time he worked for Knox County driving a rock truck as the narrow mountain roads were widened and improved. Macy also helped build the first streets of Knoxville when the city hired farmers to bring their equipment into town to level out the streets before the first paving. Original Anderson County Home Below is a very old photo of the "house over the river", the original Gallaher home, which had come down through Parallee's mother, Elizabeth Keith Taylor. It was flooded when the Oak Ridge nuclear facility was built. (Photo below is estimated to be pre-1900.)  |
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