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The Land That I Farm - The land that I farm was settled by the McKenzie Family in the very early 1800's. The first known McKenzie was William David McKenzie born March 1817. I suspect his parents were the first actual McKenzie's on this land and that they traveled to America with the McSwain family. First Families of Perry County list McKenzie (2) and McSwain.
Malcolm McSwain was born 1775 in Perth County, Scotland and died 1847 in Perry County, Mississippi. He and his wife Christian had seven children. Their sixth child was named Catherine McSwain born January 1823 in Perry County. Catherine married William David McKenzie February 1847 and they had eleven children. Interesting tidbit - William David is buried in the Old Myers Cemetery in Forrest County, MS and Catherine is buried in the McKenzie Cemetery that is located on my farm. Please note this information comes from the book "The McSwain Family" by Robert J. McSwain, Jr.
August 2018 when I purchased the land that the McKenzie Cemetery is located on, part of my commitment was to clean it up, rebuild the fence, and keep it mowed.
William and Catherine's fifth child was named William Anguish McKenzie born December 1852: died 1911 in Perry County (where my farm is located) and buried in McKenzie Cemetery located on my farm. He and his wife Nancy Travis McKenzie had five children. Their home was located on an adjacent 80 acre farm that was owned by Alec Draughn when we first moved here in 1970. Alec was a tough man. I remember him smoking unfiltered Camel cigarettes to the very end and flip what little was left into the fireplace. He ran a great little farm that included cattle, chickens, pigs, and cane syrup. Their farm included a smoke house. He grew oats and harvested the seed - then the straw - and dried the seed under his barn. I sometimes helped him with seed drying. One of their daughters drove my school bus when I was in the 10th grade. Today, this land is grown up except for numerous spots where his ancestors live.
William and Nancy's second child was named Roy McKenzie. He was born August 1894 and died August 1974. He married Alice Myers December 1933. They did not have any children. Both are buried in Chappell Cemetery in Petal, MS. I remember them both, but Roy better than Alice as she died in 1971 the year after we moved here.
Alice Myers McKenzie raised her niece, Dorothy Cunningham (5 years old), after her mother died in 1912 until about 1925 when she married Grady Craft and their first child was born 1926. My step-mom was their fourth child - thus the connection that brought us here.
Roy McKenzie's home was about 100 yards from where I live now. However, his first home was located on a different part of the farm. I learned about this back in 2010 when I cleared the first pastures and came across pieces of an old boot, dinnerware, Coca-Cola bottle, and a large sprocket and shaft. When I asked an older neighbor, John, about this I was told that was where Roy lived after he left home. John also said his parents lived with Roy when they migrated from Jasper County in exchange for cooking meals and washing clothes.
Maybe Roy's first job was operating his sawmill that was located within throwing distance from my house. He cut sweetgum logs into railroad ties that were used to build the spur lines to haul longleaf pine from the forest to the large mills in and around Hattiesburg.
My driveway is part of an old buggy road that connected McKenzie Road with the Old River Road. You can still see the old road bed in the pasture behind my house.
In the mid to late 1950's, Roy was a County Supervisor during the building of the second bridge across Tallahala Creek in 1957. This one was replaced about three years ago.
Roy's farm consisted of chickens, vegetable garden spot with peach trees and strawberries for their needs. Livestock included Herford cow/calf operation with the calves sold at the local stockyard. Back then the cattle were loaded onto the back of the pickup truck after installing a metal or board cage to help keep them in. Roy had a black man named Lawyer Scott who operated his Massey Ferguson 235 tractor to plant soybeans I'm guessing on about 60 acres. Roy would also let Lawyer plant about 5 acres of cotton for his use. I remember Lawyer would bring 8 to 10 women with empty 100# feed sacks to hand pick his cotton.
The only structure left on the farm from Roy's day is his old corn crib that we now use to store bags of wood chips for our chicken brooder.
I remember an old sharecropper shack when growing up. It was located across Hem Branch near the big curve before my home. There were only boards on the outside wall and there were quarter to half-inch gaps between the boards. I cannot imagine how they stayed warm in the winter nor dealt with mosquitoes in the summer!!!
The sharecropper was named Mike (Sam) Wade. Here is a quote by Roy McKenzie from the Perry County, Mississippi Genealogy and History
website: Sam is a Methodist preacher, he has also taught school for several years. His (wife) was an educated woman. She was a schoolteacher also. Sam has been living on Mr. McKenzie's place as a share cropper for 11 years. He planted one acre of cotton each for himself, his landlord, and his Lord. Strange to say, but that acre seemed to make better cotton than those next to it. Mr. McKenzie suggested that he keep that acre and give one of the others to (his Lord), but Sam said, "No, that belongs to the Lord." Mr. McKenzie stated that he made a bumper crop on this acre for several years. Sam's days of usefulness are over for he is old and has heart trouble. Mr. McKenzie is taking care of him and he also gets an old age assistance check of $4.00 per month.
My pigs are rotated through the area where the shack was located and have rooted up glass, pieces of pots, and about a half blade of a cross-cut saw. Back in the day there was no such thing as Monday morning trash pickup so discarded items were piled on the ground.
Thursday, while rebuilding burn piles I came across this broken piece of a cross-cut saw blade with very worn down teeth. There is no telling how old or how long ago this was used here on our farm.
Hope you enjoyed this different story today.
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** Product Availability Update **
NOTE: Restocks are made about 6 PM on the dates indicated below!
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