Waste family history

 

McIntosh Family Relatives

My great-great-grandmother was Mary Catherine McIntosh. She was born in Kentucky and traveled by wagon to California in 1852. This page is about her family. The story began hundreds of years ago in Scotland.

Sept., 2003, update: my recent genealogy expedition yielded a great deal of interesting new details about our McIntosh relatives. One of the discoveries is that they are descendants of a family that included General Lachlan McIntosh, of McIntosh County, Georgia. They played a big part in the settlement of Georgia and the American Revolution, among other things.

The Inverness region of Scotland is the home of the McIntosh clan. The earliest American McIntosh ancestors that I've found so far are James McIntosh and his wife Elizabeth (last name unknown), who lived in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Almost nothing is known about their life except for the nine children they had. (this is about to be revised significantly)

 James McIntosh

Birth: ?
Died: ?

Elizabeth McIntosh

Birth: about 1768
Died: February 10, 1824

Elizabeth's maiden name is still unknown but she was born about 1768. We do know that James and Elizabeth McIntosh had nine children. Their son Frederick, born April 20, 1790, in Pennsylvania, was the father of Mary Catherine McIntosh, my great-great-grandmother.

Children of James and Elizabeth McIntosh

John McIntosh, born Aug. 11, 1790.
James McIntosh, born Nov. 10, 1792.
William McIntosh, born Feb. 10, 1794.

Frederick McIntosh, born April 20, 1796 in Pennsylvania. He married Rebecca Ann Helphinstine were married March 24, 1820 in Bath County, Kentucky. Their extended families traveled to California overland in 1852. He died May 16, 1854. Later in life, Rebecca became widely known as "Grandma McIntosh".
Thomas McIntosh, born Dec. 16, 1798.
Susannah McIntosh, born July 15, 1800.
Nancy McIntosh, born Oct. 12, 1805. She married John Benham Fugett in 1826. Nancy died on April 11, 1886 in Sacramento, Calif.
Joseph McIntosh, born July 26, 1809 in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. He died Dec. 26, 1886 in Topeka, Kansas.
Sarah Ann McIntosh, born May 12, 1812.

 

1850's California Emigrant Family of Frederick and Rebecca McIntosh

 Frederick McIntosh

Birth: April 22, 1796, in Pennsylvania, possibly Huntingdon County

Died: May 16, 1854, aged 58, at Canyon House, near Redding, Shasta County, Calif.

Rebecca Wolf Helphenstine
Birth: March 8, 1804 in Bath County, Kentucky
Died: November 28, 1888, at Lone Tree Ranch, Colusa County, California. Another record shows a Rebecca McIntosh living at the Northwest corner of Chestnut and Fifth in Chico in 1885. In any case she is buried with most of her family in the Chico Cemetery.

Frederick married Rebecca Helphinstine on March 24, 1820 in Bath County, Kentucky, probably in Owingsville. (The story of our Helphinstine relatives is under construction here.) Later in life, Rebecca became widely known as Grandma McIntosh, even appearing in public records under that name.

 

 

Rebecca "Grandma" McIntosh, 1804-1888

(Rebecca Wolf Helphenstine)

Frederick and Rebecca and their extended family left their Kentucky home in 1852 and traveled by covered wagon to California. Their son John William McIntosh and son-in-law Archibald Cooper had taken part in the 1849 Gold Rush. John returned by ship in the autumn of 1851. In 1852, twenty-seven wagons carrying members of the McIntosh and Helphenstine families headed west. An account of their trip can be found below in the biography of their grandson John Francis Cooper.

 

 
John Francis Cooper was a grandson of Frederick and Rebecca McIntosh. When his family made the long and eventful journey by wagon train, young John rode the whole way on a little white mule. Read his biography by clicking on his picture.   Here is a a listing of the known family members of the McIntosh-Helphinstine wagon train of 1852. It's still being added to.

The Lone Tree Ranch

 "Lone Tree Farm Residence of Lewis Harrison McIntosh, Colusa County, Calif."

From "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California", by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.M., 1906

Click on it for larger version.

 

The family settled in Colusa County at the Lone Tree Ranch. In 1854, while out hunting, Frederick had an accident which resulted in his death. He was buried on a hillside near the Canyon House site on the old road to Shasta from Redding. Later in life, Rebecca became widely known as Grandma McIntosh. Here are two newspaper articles published about her many years ago:

 

"Rebecca McIntosh's Eighty-First Birthday"

 

Click on the link above to see an old article about Rebecca McIntosh called "The Pioneer Banquet"

 

"My Trip Across The Plains and Early Life in California" by Elizabeth Jennie Mooney contains an incident at the Lone Tree Ranch. Click on the link above for that excerpt.

 

Here are the children of Frederick and Rebecca McIntosh, presented in order of their birth.

Their first child, Anna McIntosh, did not survive.

 

 Elizabeth Agnes McIntosh

Birth: Oct. 3, 1821, in Kentucky
Died: Aug. 22, 1854, near Redding, Shasta County, Calif.


 

 

and son John Francis Cooper

 

 

Oscar Frederick McIntosh

Birth: July 7, 1822 in Kentucky
Died: Oct. 30, 1852, near Redding, Shasta County, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.

 

 

 

John William McIntosh

Birth: July 16, 1825, in Greenup County, Kentucky
Died: July 19, 1905, near Santa Rosa, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.

 

and daughter Anna Rebecca McIntosh

 

 

Margaret Ann McIntosh

Birth: Oct. 2, 1827, Kentucky
Died: March 25, 1842, in Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky

Margaret died when she was only 14 years old.

 

 

Joseph Wallace McIntosh

Birth: March 10, 1830, in Kentucky
Died: July 28, 1904, in Macomb, McDonough County, Illinois

 

 

Sydnia Anne McIntosh Jones

Birth: June 3, 1832, in Kentucky
Died: July 12, 1927, in Chico, Butte County, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.


 

Sarah Ann McIntosh Barnard

Birth: Nov. 12, 1834, in Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky
Died: June 25, 1910, in Chico, Butte County, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.

 

and daughter Marie Barnard

 

 

Lewis Harrison McIntosh

Birth: Jan. 19, 1837, in Bath County, Kentucky
Died: Oct. 11, 1908, in Chico, Butte County, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.

 

Anne Rebecca McIntosh

Birth: July 14, 1839, in Kentucky
Died: Nov. 17, 1852, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.

Anne died only four months after arriving in California. She was 13 years old.

 

James Thomas McIntosh

Birth: Feb. 24, 1842, in Kentucky
Died: Jan. 29, 1895, in Chico, Butte County, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.

 

 

*Mary Catherine McIntosh*

Birth: Oct. 20, 1844, in Bourbon County, Kentucky
Died: Dec. 5, 1868, near Chico, Butte County, Calif.
Buried: Chico I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Butte County, Calif.


Mary is my great-great-grandmother.

 

 

 

John Jackson Waste and Mary McIntosh home.