  These are copies of the actual Homestead papers and Land Grant papers that was given to Peter Ray McInnes for his land owned in Kingfisher County.  All pictures above are the property of Marca Lee McInnes Murray (used by permission) |
Pictured to the left is that of Peter Ray McInnes and his first wife, Augusta Amelia Jorns McInnes. Peter was born in Scotland on Aug. 11, 1861 to James McInnes (1822 - 1869) and Mary Ann Marian Rae McInnes (1823 - 1896). Peter Ray McInnes was in Ohio in 1870 and 1880. James and Mary Ann McInnes brought their family to Massillon, Stark Co., Ohio when they left Scotland. It is believed they arrived at Boston originally, although the record has not been found. After 1880 Peter left Ohio. We do know that he became a naturalized citizen on 31 Mar. 1890, Greenwood District of Sebastian Co., Arkansas. He married Augusta on March 3, 1896. He and Augusta had six children together: Charles, Archie, Ray, Jeannette (Bishop), Tom and Bill McInnes. Augusta died in 1902 and is buried in Clear Creek Cemetery, Kingfisher County, Oklahoma. After her death he married a widow: Grace Agnes (Howe) Hensley who already had 4 children, Ivan, Iris, Inez (McInnes), and Ruby Hensley. They had 4 children, Gladys (Morton), Elmo, Winona (Zenor), and Easter Lilly who died in infancy. He was a coal miner and then a farmer near Kingfisher and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Peter moved his family to Oklahoma City where he purchased land which is located on what is now the Southwest corner of SW 44th and Pennsylvania Avenue. The following is a story as told by her granddaughter, Marvel Morton Mitchell, to Linda Craig on August 22, 2008: The story of Peter Ray McInnes began in Scotland and at a very early age his family immigrated to the United States in the 1860's. He use to tell his grandchildren stories and one has narrated to me by his grandaughter, Marvel (Morton) Mitchell was that after landing in the United States they began their journey in a covered wagon passing thru Washington D.C. on the very day that President Abraham Lincoln's funeral was being held. They continued their journey and stopped in Pennsylvania where his father began working in the coal mines. By the time he was eight years old he was also working in the coal mines. At the age of fifteen he and a brother quit the coal mine and struck out by whatever means of travel was available to them and began touring the western part of the United States. He told them at one point they were on a boat and it docked at Seattle but they did not disembark as he said all it was, was trees. They continued their journey and eventually found themselves in No Man's Land in the area of what we now call Kingfisher County, Oklahoma. He obtained land and he and his first wife Amelia began to farm. He could not read nor write until his wife began teaching him. After her death he married Cora Howe and they also raised their family in Kingfisher. They lived in a dugout and the women would take care of the children and the farm animals while the men would go out and work their crops which was many miles from their dugout. She recalled that once her grandmother went to move the cattle to a better eating place and a group of cowboys with a herd spotted her and they stampeded their cattle and it took her the rest of the day to find all of their cows, and she vowed she would never again take the cows so far from their home again. Soon Peter found better land and he obtained this land (which is now the area around Southwest 44th and Pennsylvania in Oklahoma City). It took them several trips to move all of the farm animals and people from Kingfisher to Oklahoma City. On the last trip about three weeks later when they returned to Kingfisher for the last time, they dugout they had been living in was leaking water and reverting back to the land it was built from. She said that she wished that someone had written down her grandfather's stories so they could be shared with others now. Whenever she visits she relates information about her mother's families past. |
 Picture was probably taken by Fred Jorns who was a
professional photographer (submitted by Marca Lee McInnes Murray) |
Jorns - Burtis- McInnes Cousins (Some of Gustav Jorns’ grandchildren) Seated – Lena Jorns (1888) holding Elza (1895) and Effie Jorns (25 May 1898), Fred Burtis (1880), Jeanette McInnes (1895), Minnie Burtis (1886), Ray McInnes (1891), Tom (22 Feb. 1897) (The Burtis children are Emma Jorns Burtis’ children, all the McInnes children are Augusta Amelia Jorns McInnes’ children, these Jorns children plus Elizabeth and Alta are Albert Jorns’ children.) Standing – Albert Jorns (1890), Charles McInnes (1887), Harry Jorns (1885), Archie Jorns (1887), Archie McInnes (1888) (These Jorns are Fred Jorns’ children) Cousins not in the picture were Elizabeth Jorns b. 30 November 1901 Alta Jorns b.12 Feb. 1910 Bill McInnes b. 16 Sept. 1899 I am guessing the picture was taken when Effie was about a year old. That would make the picture taken a little before my dad, Bill McInnes was born. That would make it taken about 1899. |
 Taken in 1919 |
Thomas Carroll
McInnes was the son of Peter Ray
McInnes and Augusta
Amelia
Jorns. He was born 22 Feb. 1897, Jenny
Lind, AR and died 11 June
1966, Lynnwood,
California. He
married
12
Feb. 1919 Pearl
Leona
Boiwyer,
daughter of
John Stewart and Mary
Ely. Pearl was
born 23
March 1898 in Perkins,
OK, and
died
10 July
1957,
Burlington,
WA.
They are buried Green
Hills
Mem. Cem.,
Burlington
Cem.,
WA. (submitted by Marca Lee McInnes Murray) |
