Biographies
COLIN McKENZIE
McKenzie,
Colin An industrious, far-seeing and experienced rancher, who may
well be proud of his trim farm, a fine tract of some 320 acres, situated about
four miles northeast of Galt, is Colin McKenzie, a native of Cumberland County,
Nova Scotia, where he was born on December 16, 1856. His father, John McKenzie,
was a native of Prince Edward Island, who married Isabelle Ross, of Colchester
County, Nova Scotia; and his grandparents, who came from Scotland, removed to
Nova Scotia when John was only two years old, and there, in Cumberland County,
they followed farming all their lives. John McKenzie lived to be sixty-two
years of age, and his good wife, the mother of our subject, died when she was
eighty-two. There were ten children in the family: Anna has become Mrs. Peter
Brown, of Wallis, N. S.; Daniel George is at Seattle; Colin is the subject of
our review; Maria lived to be only three weeks old; the fifth child in the
order of birth was also called Maria, and she is the widow of Edward Halloway, of White Plains, N. Y.; Stewart died at the age
of forty; Margaret Jane lives in White Plains, N. Y.; Alexander Ross is a
practicing physician at Mount Pleasant, in Prince George County, Maryland; John
Thomas lives at the old home ranch, in Nova Scotia; and Peter died in infancy.
John McKenzie's farm consisted of over 100
acres, and as the educational advantages in that section of country were
meager, Colin helped his father at home until he was twenty-three years old,
when he came to California, arriving first at San Francisco. From there he went
inland to Cuffy's Cove, in Mendocino County, and for
a season worked in the timber country. Returning to San Francisco, he entered
the service of the Eureka Stone Company, during the autumn of that year, and then
came on to Stockton, and from there went to Collegeville, where he worked on a
ranch for M. D. McIntosh, remaining there for eight years. He then became the
foreman on the L. U. Shippee and Thornton ranches at
New Hope, in San Joaquin County, and was there for four years. While at New Hope, on November 6, 1888,
Mr. McKenzie was married to Miss Isabel M. Gaffney, a native of Liberty, San
Joaquin County, and the daughter of Dennis and Elizabeth (Keating) Gaffney, her
father being a native of Wexford, Ireland, and her mother a native of Nova
Scotia. Her father came out to California in 1860-1861, and at Galt he followed
his trade of shoemaker. He died at the age of sixty-four, and his wife breathed
her last in her seventy-fifth year. There were four children in the Gaffney
family. Annette married and became Mrs. D. Montague, and is now deceased;
Vincent has passed away; Isabel has become the helpmate of our subject; and
Raymond is deceased. Isabel Gaffney attended the Liberty school in San Joaquin
County, and the Alabama district school of Sacramento
County, and finished her studies at the San Jose State Normal School.
After having married, Mr. McKenzie
remained for two years at New Hope, and then, for two years, farmed for himself
in Tyler Island. He next leased the Figg ranch in San
Joaquin County, west of Acampo, for four years, and after that removed with his
family to Arno, where he leased 1,260 acres for four
years, and raised stock and grain. During this time, he purchased the Summers
ranch located southeast of Arno, and consisting of
323 acres, and later he moved onto it; and there he has since resided, putting
on the place every improvement seen today. He has a dairy, stock, and grain
ranch; he aims to have twenty-five cows, and he has set out a small vineyard.
He is a Republican; and is a member of the Catholic Church.
Four children have blessed Mr. and Mrs.
McKenzie. Annette Ray is at home; Montague Colin is with the Standard Oil
Company at Hayward; George Stewart; and Isabel Caroline. Montague Colin entered
the United States Army on January 24, 1918, and was sent to Ellington Field,
Texas, to join Aero Squadron No. 286. He trained there and at various other
fields in the South, and became a flyer, with the rank of sergeant.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 286. Historic Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.