ANTHONY WAYNE McKINNEY, who died at his home in Dunkirk in the fall of 1918, was for many years one of the most potent factors in the development of the commercial interests of Jay county, particularly of the region surrounding the towns of Dunkirk and Redkey, and it is but fitting that in this formal history of the county in which he was born and in which his useful career had its fruition there should be carried some modest tribute to the good memory he left at his passing. His was a permanent and enduring work in this community and promises to be continued in successive generations, for the careful commercial plans he so wisely laid now are being carried out by his sons Jesse, Frank and Arthur in the operation of the McKinney department store at Dunkirk, which claims the title of "Indiana's greatest country store," an establishment containing upward of thirty departments and occupying 30,000 square feet of floor space.
Anthony Wayne McKinney was born on a pioneer farm in Richland township, this county. May 2, 1847, and was a son of Joseph J. and Elizabeth McKinney, who reared their family of ten children on that quarter section homestead farm, the grant of which was secured by Joseph J. McKinney during the VanBuren administration is still held in the family.
... Reared on the home farm in Richland township, Anthony W. McKinney completed his schooling at Liber College and when seventeen years of age began teaching school, continuing thus engaged during the winters for several years or until he went into business at Redkey as the proprietor of a sawmill, that having been in the days when "timber was king" hereabout. He married at the age of twenty-two and not long afterward added to his business enterprise a store at Dunkirk for the sale of hardware and agricultural implements, presently moving this stock to his home town of Redkey, where he established the first exclusive -hardware and implement store in the vicinity, and where for more than thirty years he continued successfully to serve his community as a distributor of household and farm commodities. He introduced and urged upon his farmer neighbors and friends the installation of improved farm machinery and add and started the first reaper and the first selfbinder in this section of the country, it having been written of him that "so eminently did he ply his trade in this particular line that Redkey became known far and near as a center of supply for all kinds of farming implements, supplies and repairs." With the development of the natural gas industry in this region Mr. McKinney took an active part in the promotion of the interests incident to that particular phase of industrial development and was one of the prime movers in the company which took charge of the work in Redkey, drilling wells and interesting outside capital in the utilization of the new fuel. During the later years of his life Mr. McKinney lived practically retired from mercantile activities and occupied himself with looking after his various property; interests, taking particular enjoyment and pride in the big department store which had been promoted by his sons at Dunkirk and which was the outgrowth of the business started by himself half a century before. He was a member of the board of directors of the Farmers State Bank of Redkey and was also a director of the City State Bank of Dunkirk. Though ever active in the general public affairs of his community Mr. McKinney was not an aspirant for political office and the only position of this sort he ever held was that of treasurer of the city of Redkey, in which capacity he served for a number of years. Mr. McKinney was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Dunkirk. His wife died in 1906 and his last years were spent at Dunkirk, where his sons had made their home, his death occurring there on September 5, 1918. It was in 1869 that Anthony W. McKinney was united in marriage to Martha Jane Goe, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, a member of one of the real pioneer families of that county, a county from which so many of the pioneers of Jay county came and to this union five sons were born, one of whom died in infancy; Harry, who died at the age of twenty-three years, and Jesse, Frank and Arthur, proprietors of the McKinney department store at Dunkirk, who are doing business under the firm name of the McKinney Brothers Company. ...
