The Mulkey Family

                    
What we know:
In the beginning there were three brothers named Mulkey. One was John Mulkey, a cooper who lived and owned property in Virginia and later moved to the vicinity of Halifax, North Carolina.

Another was Philip Mulkey, a carpenter who lived near Halifax, where he owned a plantation and other property.

The third was James Mulkey, who lived in North Carolina, probably near Halifax. Very little is known about him.


What We Do Not Know:
Obviously, these three brothers came from somewhere because they were not Native Americans. But no one seems to know for sure just where they did come from. We are not sure if they were immigrants or perhaps the sons of immigrants.

We can only suppose that these brothers or their parents came to he New World from Europe or the British Isles in perhaps the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century. Probably between 1650 and 1720.

Philip Mulkey, the first one that we know of to bear this name, left a will dated Dec.17, 1736. His name is found in a number of land transactions. Thus, more is known about him that the other two brothers. He was a carpenter and appears to have been a regular �wheeler-dealer� in land transactions. To the point that he would probably have been required to pass the state real estate license requirements if he were living in our time. Perhaps we should think of him as the family�s first realtor. His wife was named Sarah. I think they may have been the grandparents of Philip, born 1778 and he was married to Margaret Miller Mulkey.

PHILIP MULKEY and MARGARET MILLER.
There is little known about this couple. No one seems to know where they were born or when they died. What is known, they had nine sons who were : James and Christopher born in the 1790�s in Tennessee: followed by Thomas, Daniel, Johnson, Luke, Charles, Zachariah and Elijah - all born in Knox county, Kentucky between 1807 and 1814. We wonder why there were no babies born between 1798 and 1807. Just another question for which there is no answer.

We do know among some of their descendents we find one U.S. Senator and the wife of another U.S. senator; school teachers and a couple of miners who discovered �The Lost Mulkey Mine;�, many successful farmers; numerous soldiers and sailors who fought in America�s wars: an international known photographer; and a host of just plain citizens who have been the backbone of America for more than a century.

By far the largest group of Mulkey families who migrated from the Midwest to Oregon were the descendants of Philip and Margaret. In the 1852-53 period. Interest in the Oregon Country was growing as glowing accounts of the beauty of the country and the growth that its rich lands might sustain trickled back to a
populace which was already rapidly filling up the available land in the Mississippi Valley.

 

CHRISTOPHER MULKEY and NANCY REED
Son of PHILIP MULKEY and MARGARET MILLER
Daughter of SOLOMON REED and RACHEL JENNINGS (?)

Christopher was born in 1798 in Tennessee, the second son of Philip and Margaret Miller Mulkey. When he was very young his family moved to Knox Co. KY. where he grew up and where his seven younger brothers were born. In about 1818, after his father had died, Christopher�s mother moved her family to Lafayette County, Missouri,

Christopher was married twice but we are only concerned right now with the first wife, Nancy Reed. She was the daughter of Solomon and Elizabeth Reed. Nancy and Christopher had a total of fifteen children before she died at the age of 54 in Nov. 22, 1851.
He later married Elizabeth Cabiness and they had five more children.

Christopher was called �Colonel� but no one seems to know why. He was a farmer. He died Aug. 31, 1867 In Lafayette Co. Missouri.

SOLOMON MULKEY and MARY EMELINE ATTEBERY
Second son of Christopher and Nancy Mulkey
Daughter of JAMES ATTERBURY and MARY PERCIVAL

Solomon was born Oct 28, 1822 in Missouri and died May 6, 1902 in Eddyville, Oregon. He and Mary were married in 1846. In 1853 Solomon and Mary, along with four small children, started by wagon train to the Oregon Territory. Along the way a fifth child was born in the Idaho Territory. Another ten children were born after reaching Oregon.

It is said that he was a very religious man, reading his bible daily, until he died. He is buried in the Pleasant Valley Cemetary near Corvallis, Oregon. He is remembered as one of the early Benton County, Oregon pioneers.

EMMA REED MULKEY and JOHN WILLIAM COOPER
EMMA REED MULKEY was born April 13, 1857 and died Dec 9, 1924. She was the seventh child of Solomon and Nancy Mulkey.
She married John W. Cooper Jan 11, 1874. John loved the carnival life and traveled with it so often that many folks thought he was a part owner. This we do not know, only that he was nicknamed �carnival man�. He must have gotten home occasionally, Emma had eight children. The seventh child was named Ruth Ellen who married Smith Dollar. Ruth was born in Junction City, OR March 16, 1885.

Click here to send me an e-mail.

Last modified on Wednesday, April 03, 2002