Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Meet my Uncle George

Today, I'd like to introduce ye rabbits to my great-uncle George Everett Macy (1850-1928).


His grave marker may be found near the back of Greenwood Cemetery in downtown Orlando, in Section A to be more precise.


If you squint at this image, you can barely make out some words beneath his name and vital dates: "Absent from the Body, present with the Lord."

Uncle George came down to this little corner of heaven with his dad, my great-great-great grandfather William H. Macy during the years immediately after the Civil War.


Settling in Orlando in 1875, George established a blacksmith shop at what is now the intersection of South Street and Hughey Avenue.


His two-story home stood nearby at 208 West South Street, but had to be moved over to the grounds of the old Boone homestead on Irvine Street when I-4 was rammed through our old downtown area.


Anyway, Uncle George's blacksmith shop grew from producing horseshoes and branding irons to become a wagon factory--the biggest in the state, as a matter of fact. It covered 12,640 square feet of workspace and produced 16 varieties of wagons, carriages, buggies, and surreys.


I'll bet it was a Macy Wagon that the old funeral homes used to carry caskets and mourners out here to Greenwood Cemetery back in the long ago, maybe even for Uncle George funeral!

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