New article by Karen – Mackey
J. Howard Mackey
By Karen Cuccinello
After researching for Howard on and off for two weeks I was only able to discover information related to his time in the Stamford area. I was about to send the article in with what I found then decided to try one more search and discovered his parents but still did not find much on his post married life. What his first initial “J” stands for is also still a mystery. This photo is from the Samuel I. Brown collection housed at the Stamford Historical Society.
Howard was born May 1878 in Cooksburgh, Albany County, NY to “Cooney” Orrin E. Jr. and Emily/Emma/ Emegene (Mackey) Mackey. I believe he was an only child and was living with his family in Harpersfield in 1892. Howard’s family made numerous trips to Florida. His father died in 1893 and his mother married Franklin D. Tripp 1895 in Cottage City/Oak Bluff, MA. His mother listed her occupation as a dealer in Florida goods on their marriage certificate.
Howard listed as non-resident academic student from Cottage City, MA in the 1896-97 Stamford Seminary and Union Free School booklet and as a post-graduate in 1897-98. Howard, who was secretary of his class, won the Dr. Stephen E. Churchill prize for best impromptu English composition in June 1897. His future wife, Leona Hildreth Cotton, also attended Stamford Seminary two years behind him and they both posted good grades in the newspaper.
He accepted a position as a clerk in W. H. McAlpine’s office then entered Union University in Schenectady, NY in 1898. The only census I found Howard in, as an adult age 22, was the 1900 census for Schenectady. The 1902 Stamford Village Enumaration lists Howard as single and living on Main St. He also completed a course at the Bliss Electrical school in Washington, DC in 1902. In 1903 he worked in NYC at the offices of the American Fire Alarm Co. and the Electrical Contact Co. but had to come home to Stamford for about a month because he was sick with tonsillitis and brain fever.
On January 30, 1904 Howard, a 26-year-old salesman, and Leona, age 23, got married at the home of Leona’s mother, Mrs. Merton H. Maynard/Jennie (Hildreth) Cotton. Leona lived with her mother, in Stamford, until April 1905 when she and daughter Dorothy joined Howard in Cottage City, MA. In 1907 Howard bought a large store together with the stock of general merchandise in Cottage City.
1911 (Stamford Mirror-Recorder)- Howard Mackey of Oak Bluffs, Mass., accompanied his grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Mackey, to Stamford. She spent the summer there and will spend the winter with her daughter, Mrs. Samuel I. Brown, at Hotel Hamilton.
In 1919 Mrs. Howard Mackey is living in New Britton, CT according to her mother’s obituary. In July 1934 Howard of Sharon, CT, Stamford Seminary class of 1896, attended a Seminary reunion. His wife Leona was not listed as attending.
