LEAK ~ McKINSEY Families of Waynesville, Ohio

The McKinsey Family ~ The Children of Patrick & Elizabeth Bowman McKinsey: (from left to right seated) Nehemiah Myers McKinsey, Ellen McKinsey Sides, Geroge McKinsey, Mary Ann McKinsey Zell and Madison McKinsey.
(from left to right in ovals) James McKinsey, Henry McKinsey, Abraham McKinsey and Joseph McKinsey

McKinsey Genealogy at The Mary L. Cook Public Library:
http://www.mlcook.lib.oh.us/Descendants%20of%20George%20W.%20&%20Sara%20Thomas%20McKinsey.htm

Print Resource: The McKinsey's: McKensey, McKensie, McKinsey Family.
Descendants of George W. McKinsey and His wife Sarah (Thomas) McKinsey of Newberry County, South Carolina and Warren County, Ohio & the Migrations of their Children into Indiana compiled by Ruby Mundell Barry

The lady in the oval frame (left) is Sarah Ella Leak McKinsey (1854- 1940). She went by her middle name, Ella. She was one of the six children of Gideon Leak (1819-1897) whose home on Main Street in Waynesville is still standing. Gideon was married to Ann Williamson (1824-1899). He was a grocer.

Ella Leak was married to Madison McKinsey (1849-1945) on March 7, 1876. Madison first worked with his brother Henry in a grain and stock business in Corwin, Ohio (directly across the Little Miami River from Waynesville) and then settled on the family homestead and farmed. They had one child, Edna, b. Dec 21, 1880, who married Oakley M. Ridge, who maintained a photographer’s studio in Waynesville.

Madison and Ella McKinsey were divorced on August 13th, 1892. Sometime after their separation Madison moved to Pasadena, California. Madison re-married in 1916 when he was 63. His second wife Nellie Otstot, 45, was from near Springfield, Ohio. Madison and Nellie lived in California but moved back to Waynesville in Madison’s declining years.

After the divorce, Ella McKinsey lived with her brother, Christian Parker Leak (1852-1928), who was a butcher in Waynesville. In 1930 she was living by herself. She supported herself as a milliner. Ella died at the age of 86 of pneumonia and is buried in Miami Cemetery, Section G. Madison is also buried there in Section H.

The McKinsey family is an example of a family that migrated to the Waynesville area with Quakers families, but were not members of The Society of Friends themselves (see, Quaker Genealogy in Southwest Ohio). George McKinsey and his family migrated from South Carolina and located in Warren County in 1806. It could be that the McKinseys were "attenders" of Quaker meeting but not formal members of the Society. It could also be possible that they were neighbors of the Friends who decided to travel west with them. No evidence has been found to prove a Quaker membership.