My Genealogy Hound

William A. McKinzie, retired merchant and farmer, and ex-postmaster of Durham, Ark., was born in Sevier County, Tenn., in 1826. His parents, Charles and Sarah (Ellis) McKinzie, were born, reared and married in South Carolina, and about 1818 located in Tennessee, where they resided until 1847, then going to Georgia; and after living in Murray County eleven years they moved to Comanche County, Tex., where the father was killed by the Indians in 1863. The mother’s death occurred in Georgia, leaving a family of five children: John (residing in Texas), Nancy (deceased), James, William A. and Kenneth (who was killed in a battle with the Indians in Comanche County, Tex., in 1858 or 1859). After the mother’s death the father married Stacy Murray, who bore him one child that died in infancy. William A. McKinzie was reared in Tennessee, but moved with his parents to Georgia, where be learned the wagon and blacksmith’s trade, and also attended school. He was married at the age of twenty-six, and located on a part of the home place, where he lived until about 1856, when he came to Arkansas. After residing near Fayetteville for about a year, he came to Washington County, where he worked at his trade and farmed until 1878, and then engaged in the mercantile business at Durham, being appointed postmaster of the town the same year, and held the position until 1888. He was first married, to Mary Shields, who died October 22, 1873, having borne four children: John H. (deceased). Sarah L., Charles S. (deceased) and William J. (deceased). October 29, 1874, Mr. McKinzie married Mary F. Masters, who died May 19, 1879, and May 29, 1884, he married his present wife. They are members of the church, and he is a Democrat in politics and a Master Mason. He helped organize the township in which he resides, and during the late war served two years in Gen. Cabel’s brigade. He has a good farm of 195 acres, with sixty-five or seventy acres under cultivation.