| Additional Information: | 2023 - Joseph Mackey, Cornelia Mackey and their toddler child Frank Mackey, came to Reedsburg from New York in 1853 bringing a law degree and $6,000 in cash. He used the money to purchase and upgrade the two mills and buy up vacant property. He set up a law office while brother Safford Mackey ran the two mills. Joseph acquired prime real estate called Mackey’s addition #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5. Now the mills were producing lumber and flour, new settlers started coming to town, bought land and built houses. Joseph wrote legal titles for the lots he was selling. Joseph Mackey along with David and Eli Rudd and James Lusk started the Reedsburg Bank in 1867. Joseph was a charter member of the Baraboo Air Line Railroad, a group dedicated to bringing the railroad to the area. On January 1, 1872, the first train arrived from Chicago. Joseph helped start the Reedsburg Herald newspaper and was one of three editors. Joseph owned the American House Hotel. Joseph and brother Dr. E.R. Mackey petitioned to bring the Presbyterian Church to town. Joseph died in 1879.
Frank Mackey, Joseph and Cornelia’s son, became a lawyer, was Cashier at the Reedsburg Bank before he moved to larger banks in Minneapolis and Chicago. He amassed a large fortune and built the Mackey Mausoleum in Greenwood Cemetery in 1912. He was an investor, he also was the founder of HFC, a lending agency, still in business today doing business as HSBC with 58,000 employees. He built the Hotel Leamington in Minneapolis for one million dollars. He was a gold medal winner in the 1900 Paris Olympics playing horse polo. When he died, his widow became one of the wealthiest women in the world.
Family members interred here include:
Cornelia Mackey (Joseph's wife), Harriet Mackey (Safford's wife), Frank Mackey, Florence Ida Day (Frank's wife), Carrie Mackey (Joseph's daughter) and others.
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