The Tracy Family History
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(REVISED FORMAT, AUGUST 2009)
This is the family history of the three Tracy brothers: Al, Will and Jim...and the story of the Woods, Wallace and McDowell families from whom they descend.
The family history has been done in 79 chapters. The first 21 chapters are on my Moon line. They deal with my direct family and I do not think would be of any interest to the Woods-Wallace-McDowell (MacDowell) cousins. They would be of interest to my Moon cousins.
The remaining chapters deal mostly with our Woods-Wallace-McDowell (MacDowell) lines. I consider these families the same because they have a common ancestry, and the three families are so strongly intermarried.
For my Moon cousins, keep in mind that you also descend from the Woods-Wallace-McDowells (MacDowells). For the Moon readers, start with chapter 1 and read straight through to the end of chapter 79. Just skim, or skip over, those chapters on the personal lives of the Tracy brothers that you may not find of interest (chapters 16 thru 21).
For the Woods-Wallace-McDowell (MacDowell) readers, you might want to start with chapter 24, which is my 9 page condensed history of Scotland. Next, read chapter 25, and then 26, which is my 8 page condensed history of Ulster.
Chapters 24 and 26 show the life and times in which our people lived. It also explains why our people got out of there and came to America. Chapter 26, also has the pedigree of our Woods-Wallaces before the immigration to the colonies. If you are not interested in the background history of Scotland and Ulster then start on chapter 27, which has our Woods and Wallaces immigrating to the colony of Pennsylvania in 1724.
It is difficult for me to advise the reader exactly where to go as the chapters are written from my family history viewpoint. From the beginning to the end many of the stories were designed to flow from one chapter to the next telling my story. However, not all are interested in my story, but only how it tells your story.
So, I suggest from chapter 24, read to the end, chapter 79. Then go to chapters 22-23, "Proctors," as the Estills weave in and out of some of the stories.
Of course, the reader is free to browse through any of the chapters they wish. I would not suggest that you try sitting down and reading the family history all at once. Whenever you have some spare time, or a dark and stormy night, then go to the web and read a chapter or two. Just skip over the chapters you do not find interesting. If you have enough dark and stormy nights where you live, eventually, you will read the entire story and know from whence we all came.
This is not a 100% genealogy site. I do give genealogy. However, I have evolved more as a storyteller. Genealogy is where I get my stories.
Also, this is being done at no profit to me and some expense.
The stories have been written for my family, close and distant, known and unknown. If anyone else in the world wishes to read the stories then they are free to do so. My purpose is not to rewrite history. If anyone disagrees with anything that I say then I will not argue with them.
PRINTING: Anyone is welcome to print off a copy of this family history. (You don't have to be a family member). If you want to have a book copy of this family history you can print one from the web site. Go to Dockudesk website (http://www.docudesk.com/desk_pdf_standard.shtmlv) . Download desk PDF Standard Edition for $19.95. This was the price in 2010. (You need this program for the images to print out.) Be careful to download the correct version as they have different versions at higher prices! You get a free trial for a few uses so you can practice before you decide to buy. Go to your major office supply store and get a package of 20, or 24 pound, acid free print paper. This will last a long time and can be passed down through the generations. Open the chapter, click on VIEW and set the Text Size that you want. Then go to FILE, then click on PRINT. From your PRINTERS chose Deskpdf. Click on PRINT. Give the file a name. SAVE, FILE, PRINT, OK. Print just those chapters that you want, or all 79 chapters if you wish. Not everything comes out on the same page. But you will have a printed copy. Use a three-hole punch, place in a binder and you have your own copy with my compliments. For a lot of chapters you may have to use more than one three-hole binders.
Jim Tracy, August 2004
Chapter 1 Uncle Billy Moon...Uncle Billy Moon, a mountain man, becomes one of the first Americans to settle California.
Chapter 2 Bear Flag Revolt....Uncle Billy and his friends meet in the famous Moon House to instigate the Bear Flag Revolt.
Chapter 3 Moon House....The Moon House then and now.
Chapter 4 Archibald Moon...Archibald Moon chooses the wrong side in the Civil War, is burned out of Missouri and brings our families to California.
Chapter 5 George Wm Moon...George William Moon, Archibald's son by a first marriage.
Chapter 6 Funeral photo....Archibald Moon family photo at his funeral.
Chapter 7 Igo Cmeetery ....Moon family plot at Igo Cemetery, CA.
Chapter 8 Order Number 11 ...Why our people were burned out of Missouri during the Civil War.
Chapter 9 Mildred Bailey ....Eminent historian and genealogists.
Chapter 10 Paskenta ....Our adopted Moon's by San Francisco earthquake. The descendents of Henry Christensen (Moon).
Chapter 11 third born ...Through a strange series of events we include the most famous actor in the world.
Chapter 12 Elam Wedding ...Lusannie Jane Moon marries an Elam
Chapter 13 Elam 2
Chapter 14 Elam 3
Chapter 15 Elam 4
Chapter 16 Wiltsey_Tracy ...Myron Tracy marries Matilda Knabb Wiltsey, has a son and then disappears.
Chapter 17 Saddle Camp ...The son, Granddad Alva Tracy, builds Saddle Camp in Tehama County, CA.
Chapter 19 My Family ...The three Tracy brothers begin life having been beget by a strange parentage.
Chapter 20 Uncle Harry ...Harry Guerin marries dad's sister and becomes judge of Sparks, Nevada.
Chapter 21 three brothers ...The three Tracy brothers. A short bio.
Chapter 22 Proctor ...The 9 Proctor brothers enter Kentucky and save the frontier for America during the War of Independence.
Chapter 23 Proctor 2
Chapter 24 Magnificent Wallaces ...A short history of our Scotland. The life and times that our people survived.
Chapter 25 2nd thoughts ...Short story of William Wallace, Scotland's greatest hero, from whom it is said we descend.
Chapter 26 Ulster ...Condensed history of Ulster, Ireland, and what it was like for our people living on the wrong side of the religious track.
Chapter 27 Pennsylvania ...In 1724, our people immigrate from Ulster to the Colony of Pennsylvania. The stories in this chapter, and the previous, tells of why and how.
Chapter 28 Donegal Church ...Our people help establish the Donegal Presbyterian Church (PA), which still stands and has preaches to this day.
Chapter 29 Virginia ...10 years after settling the frontier of Pennsylvania, Michael Woods, the Englishman, leads our Scottish clans into the wilderness of Virginia.
Chapter 30 2 Genealogists .....On Michael Woods plantation, our family builds the Mountain Plains Presbyterian Church, which still stands and is active.
Chapter 31 M Ws of Blair Park ...Michael Woods Sr., and his wife Lady Mary Campbell, are buried in the old family cemetery at Mountain Plains.
Chapter 32 three mansions ...Our family mansions in Virginia.
Chapter 33 Spring Hill and ...Our family mansions in Virginia.
Chapter 34 Dwellings ...Mansions of our famous and interesting friends and neighbors.
Chapter 35 Rockbridge Co ...We cross the mountains a little ways into the Valley of Virginia. This begins our MacDowell stories, the high and mighty in American history.
Chapter 36 McDowell Cemetery ...Magdelene Woods marries three times (MacDowell, Borden, Bower) and would one day become the richest woman west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Chapter 37 Borden Grant ...The mighty Borden Land Grant, the source of Magdelene's wealth.
Chapter 38 Timber Ridge Church ...We start another church, Timber Ridge Presbyterian Church, and a college, Washington and Lee University, both still there today.
Chapter 39 French_Indian War ...Our people get wiped out in the French and Indian War.
Chapter 40 Revolutionary War ...Background to our Woods-Wallaces-McDowells winning the Revolutionary War with a little help from George Washington.
Chapter 41 Waxhaws 1....We would fight and die at a little known battle of the Revolutionary War, which would set the stage for "The War in the South."
Chapter 42 Waxhaws 2 poem....An old poem on Capt. Wallace's brave death.
Chapter 43 Waxhaws 3 battlefield ...Photo's of the Waxhaws Battlefield where Adam Wallace was "hacked to pieces."
Chapter 44 Waxhaws 4 church ...Old Waxhaws Church where the wounded were taken to be nursed by a teenage Andy Jackson and family. Andy would one day become president.
Chapter 45 Tory ...The Americans who chose the wrong side, the Tories. Not many of them in our patriotic Albemarle and Augusta Counties, Virginia.
Chapter 46 Kings Mountain ...Our Woods-Wallaces-McDowells, fight shoulder-to-shoulder and defeat the British at Kings Mountain. The British kept fighting but after this battle knew that, militarily, the war was lost.
Chapter 47 Barracks ...An entire captured British army is put into a prison camp right in our backyard. Treated quite well, actually.
Chapter 48 Cowpens ...Capt.. Andrew Wallace makes a mistake, which would win the battle and come a long ways towards winning the war.
Chapter 49 Guilford Ct House ...At Guilford Court House, Andrew Wallace has a premonition of death in what would become the most brutal battle of the entire war.
Chapter 50 the Duck ...The British make their only invasion of Albemarle County, narrowly failing to capture our friend and neighbor, Thomas Jefferson, and leave with a duck.
Chapter 51 Slavery ...Our people owned slaves, a lot of slaves.
Chapter 52 Woods Gap 1 ...The pathway through the Blue Ridge Mountains, Woods Gap, through which our families would pass between the two valleys for generations. Much is preserved today.
Chapter 53 Woods Gap 2
Chapter 54 Cumberland Gap ...Magdelene's mighty Borden Land Grant is the Gateway to the Cumberland Gap, which opened American to the westward expansion of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Chapter 55 Anderson Co ...Our Wallace's immigrate to Anderson Co., Tennessee, and are still there.
Chapter 56 1812_Civil War ...Our people are on the American side in the War of 1812, and the Civil War.
Chapter 57 Jessie Fremont ...Her mother a McDowell, Jessie Fremont makes her husband the "Pathfinder," and almost president.
Chapter 58 Big Foot Wallace ...Texas greatest folk hero.
Chapter 59 Melville Fuller ...The most obscure Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.
Chapter 60 Surgeon ...A McDowell who would give to the world the first successful abdominal surgery.
Chapter 61 Birney ...Once a slave owner, he would marry vivacious Agatha McDowell, and becomes a famous abolitionists.
Chapter 62 CW Prison ...Another McDowell, an eccentric surgeon, who had the only medical school in America with canons sticking out of the windows. The school would be converted into an infamous Civil War prison.
Chapter 63 Ben Hur ...The famous author of Ben Hur. Was he, or was he not, our cousin?
Chapter 64 Bryan ...William Jennings Bryan, again we almost have a cousin who becomes president.
Chapter 65 Anne Ralston ...Wife of Frank James, brother to Jesse.
Chapter 66 Commodore ...Commodore Cornelius Kingsland Garrison, a tycoon, who would control all of the shipping on the Mississippi River, and other things.
Chapter 67 Yazoo Fraud ...The Yazoo Land Fraud, one of the biggest scandals in American history.
Chapter 68 Dorothy Dwan ...Famous silent screen star.
Chapter 69 Reaper ....Cyrus McCormick, invents the reaper, and I suspect is one of our MacDowell cousins.
Chapter 70 Blairs ...The famous Blair family (Blaire House, DC). I hope they are one of ours.
Chapter 71 Baptist Billy ....A preacher, a martyr, and an opera star.
Chapter 72 More Maybes ...Some interesting, possible, yet unresearched cousins.
Chapter 73 Not Ours ....The wife of a president, the founder of Reader's Digest, and a famed frontier poet scout, all not ours.
Chapter 74 Unusual Names ...We are the only family in the world to have the common name of "Docturn," and some more unusual names show up in our family tree.
Chapter 75 Unusual Deaths ...Some of our people did not die in bed.
Chapter 76 Great Beauties ...Two great beauties in our family: Maud Coleman Woods, 100 years ago, considered the most beautiful woman in America, and Andie MacDowell, today.
Chapter 77 Conclusion ...Some historians say the Wallaces do not constitute an actual clan.
Chapter 78 Oblique ....How my mind works, if you don't already know.
Chapter 79 epilogue ....Who owns our Virginia plantations today? You would never guess.
About the Author
The story of Gene Bybee
The story of Tracy's Karate Schools