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| Our Family History | McClintock Origins | Data and Sources |
James McClintock was the son of Irish immigrants, born in Wheeling, Virginia, in 1819. He learned the ship's carpenter trade (i.e., he built boats), and eventually made his way down the Ohio River from Wheeling to western Kentucky. He married Ann Wilkins, a native of Union County, probably in about 1857. They settled in Kentucky coal country, in nearby Crittenden and Hopkins counties, and raised their 6 sons there. James' oldest son, Gyp Martin (aka J.G. or George) was born in about 1849, and may have been from a prior marriage. (Family records say he was born in the Oklahoma Indian Territories, census records say Kentucky, but we may have found James and a prior wife still back in Wheeling in 1850.) The other children were Albert Byron (b. 1859), Jefferson D. (b. 1861), William Henry (b. 1865), Robert Lee (b. 1867), and John (b. 1869). All but the youngest were working in the mines near Earlington, Kentucky by 1880. Albert died in Earlington in about 1880. James died there in 1882.
A note about names:
The McClintock boys were obviously named after some famous people of that time. Here's a little information about their famous namesakes.
Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky to a family of military and civil leaders. He was appointed by President Monroe to West Point at the age of 16. He fought in many battles against Native American tribes, and later against the Mexicans in Texas and California, to annex these territories to the United States. He was prominent in politics, and served many positions in government, including Senator and Secretary of War. He argued vehemently for preservation of the Union, but became the South's spokesman for States' rights. After the seccession of the Southern States, Davis was elected the first President of the Confederate States of America, though this did not happen until the year after the birth of our Jefferson Davis McClintock.
William Henry Harrison was the 9th President of the United States. He was a famous pioneer war hero, having fought several battles against Native Americans to push them further west and open up more land for white settlement. The most famous may have been the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. In the War of 1812, Harrison defeated a combined British and Indian army and killed the famous Tecumseh, a leader of a group of Native American tribes that had united to fight the continued westward expansion and settlement of their lands. One month after his election to the Presidency in 1841, he contracted pneumonia and died, the first US President to die in office.
Robert E. Lee was the famous US Army general from Virginia, who resigned his commission so that he would not be required to go to war against his fellow Virginians. He then reluctantly led the Confederate States' military.
I do not know of any famous Albert Byrons or Johns after whom these children might have been named.
Why Western Kentucky?
In 1861, the state of Virginia seceded from the Union, but the folks in the western part of the state refused to secede and set up their own government. In 1863, the independent state of West Virginia was formed. In view of the names given to the McClintock boys, it's pretty sure that James was politically very pro-South. Perhaps he left West Virginia to escape their insufferable liberal politics. The easiest way to head south, and still hope for work as a ship builder was to travel down the Ohio River, probably from the Wheeling area. We first find the family in "Bells Mines", a little community about 3 1/2 miles from Weston, a port on the Ohio River.
Choctaw Nation and beyond
It appears that most of the family moved to the Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory (present day eastern Oklahoma) in the late 1880s or early 1890s.
Gyp: JG (aka Gyp aka George) married Jennie and in 1880 they lived in Earlington, where he worked in the mines. I don't know what became of Jennie, but in 1885, in Hopkins county (i.e., near or in Earlington), Gyp married Tillie Storton, a native of Indiana, daughter of immigrants from France and England. There were no children by either of these marriages, as far as I know. By 1900, they were living in Lehigh, in the Choctaw Nation of the Indian Territory, located in what is now Coal County, Oklahoma. Gyp was a "Hotel Keeper", but had been unemployed for 6 months of the previous year. He died in Lehigh in 1908. Tillie remarried C.P. Taylor a few years later somewhere in Coal County.
Albert: Albert died in Kentucky in about 1880, probably near Earlington.
Jeff: Jeff also moved to the Choctaw Nation, to South McAlester, not far from Lehigh, in present day Atoka County. In 1891, he married Mrs. Ilian Burke. I found an unmarried Jeff D. McClintock in Houston in 1893, working for the I&GN railroad, and in Quintana in 1900. This is either a different Jeff in Texas, or his marriage to Ilian was very short-lived.
William: [I'm not sure where William went. We know that he died in 1924 in San Bernardino, California. In prior years, I found only one William H. McClintock whose census data (birthdate, birth state, parents birth states, and a coal miner) match our William H., and pending further information am assuming they are one and the same.] William married Margaret Baird, a native of Livingston, Kentucky, in Mansfield, Arkansas in 1899, then moved to Saginaw, Michigan, where he worked in the coal mines. They had no children of their own. Elmer Collett, Margaret's daughter by a previous marriage, lived with them. I last find William in Saginaw in 1920. In 1923, only Margaret is listed in the city directory and in 1930 she is a widow, still living in Saginaw. Our William passed away in California in 1924. He could have been visiting, or he may have separated from his wife, or he may have moved there to recuperate from a lung disease developed from so many years working in the coal mines. It will take some research to sort this out. Margaret Baird McClintock died in Saginaw in 1955. [Another research area: There was a William McClintock charged with 127 other defendants in a larceny case in the Fort Scott, Arkansas, court files for 1885. Fort Scott is near Mansfield. I haven't had time to research this, yet, to see if this is our William.]
Robert: Robert also moved to Lehigh, Choctaw Nation. In 1892, he married Katie, one of seven children born to John and Mary McLaughlin Covington. Robert worked in the coal mines until he was about 60 years old. They had five children, all but Zelma born in Lehigh: Albert (b. 1894), Robert (b. 1899), Rita (b. 1903), Zelma (b. 1906 in Colgate/Coalgate), and Mary (b. 1911). Life must have been very hard there. In 1900, Robert had been unemployed for one year. In 1910, he had not worked for 8 of the previous 12 months. Sometime in the 1920s, Robert and Kate and some of their children moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, where they remained until Robert's death in 1949. Kate moved to San Francisco, where she passed away in 1960 at the age of 86.
John: In 1894, John married Nora Banes in the Choctaw Nation. They lived in Lehigh. Their two kids, Vivian and Lawrence, were born in "Oklahoma" (probably in Lehigh, in the Indian Territory), in 1897 and 1903, respectively. In 1910, the family had moved to Tyler, Texas, where John was working as a brakeman with the railroad. Lawrence was living with Nora's sister, Bridget, and her husband, Lon Edge, in Bonita, Arizona. Lawrence was listed as an adopted son, and their only child. Lon and Bridget owned a home in Lehigh in 1900. Perhaps life was very hard (there seemed to be a lot of unemployment) and John and Nora gave Lawrence to the Edges to raise. In 1920, John, Nora, Bridget, and Lawrence (now 17) were living in San Bernardino, California. John was still a brakeman for the railroad. In about 1926, Lawrence married Kathleen (last name unknown), born in Tennessee in 1909. By 1930, the family had moved to Montebello, in Los Angeles County. Vivian McClintock Hopkins may have been married and remained in San Bernardino. She was a resident of Colton, in San Bernardino County, when she passed away in 1985. John passed away in 1934. At some point, Nora and her no-longer-married son moved to San Diego. In 1942, Lawrence enlisted in the Army there. Nora passed away there in 1955. Lawrence died there in 1962, and is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
Out of Oklahoma:
Robert Lee's oldest son, Albert, was not going to work in the mines. He started a weekly dance, hiring a band and renting out a hall, which was quite popular for a while. But the local boys weren't happy about the Coalgate boys coming and dancing with the Lehigh girls, and the dances ended. He spent some time hopping trains to explore other parts of the country.
Stayed in Oklahoma:
To be continued (in progress)
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Cushing.
mcclintock.htm; last updated 20 November 2006