NOTABLE MEN
OF
ALABAMA
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PERSONAL AND GENEALOGICAL
WITH PORTRAITS
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HON. JOEL C. DUBOSE, Editor
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VOLUME I
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ATLANTA, GA.
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
1904

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   OSCE FRANKLIN McKISSICK, bookkeeper for the Sylacauga branch of the Southern Cotton Oil company, was born in Coosa county, Ala., Nov. 26, 1875. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, the McKissicks coming originally from Scotland, and his maternal ancestors, the Gillilands, from Ireland. His great-grandfather, whose name was William McKissick, married a Miss Burroughs, and lived in Meriwether county, Ga. He died there in 1848, and his wife in Columbia county, Ark., in 1880. His grandfather, Thomas Jefferson McKissick, was born in Meriwether county, Ga., on May 26, 1818, and married Emily Gay, daughter of Benjamin Gay, in that county in 1839. They lived there until December, 1850, when they moved to Coosa county, Ala., and settled near Nixburg. Thomas Jefferson McKissick died near Nixburg the 16th day of April, 1888, at the age of seventy years, and was buried in Rehobeth cemetery, in Coosa county. He served one year in the Confederate army during the war. His wife survived until April 11, 1900, when she died at the advanced age of eighty-one years. She was buried by the side of her husband in Rehobeth cemetery. Both of these people were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. O. F. McKissick’s other great-grandfather was Hugh Gilliland, a native of Mississippi, married a Miss Sanders, and he died in 1857. His wife died in 1832, near Fielder’s Ferry, in Tallapoosa county, Ala. John Clark Gilliland, who was a son of Hugh Gilliland, and the grandfather of O. F. McKissick, came with his ftaher from Mississippi, and was married to Marthena Welch in Chambers county, Ala., the 19th day of October, 1845. They were both members of the Missionary Baptist church. He served in the Confederate army from the beginning to the close of the war, and after the war he resumed farming and accumulated considerable lands and money. He died Sept. 13, 1891, at the age of sixty-seven years, and was buried in Concord cemetery in Coosa county. His wife still survives at the age of eighty years. James Arnold McKissick, the fourth and youngest son of Thomas Jefferson and Emily McKissick, married Sarah Matilda, the third daughter of John Clark and Marthena Gilliland, in December, 1874. He was born Jan. 5, 1853, and she was born Feb. 8, 1852. O. F. McKissick is the oldest of five children, four of whom are living, born to this union. He received an early education, and at the age of eighteen he took up the work of a teacher, which he continued to follow for three years, and he then took a business course in one of the leading business colleges of Atlanta in 1896. Since that time he has been connected with some of the leading business concerns in his State as bookkeeper, and since August, 1902, he has had charge of the books of the Southern Cotton Oil company’s Sylacauga branch. He is regarded as one of the most efficient office men in the State, is always found attending strictly to business, and as a result, he commands the confidence of his employers, and the respect of all who know him. He is a Democrat in politics, as were his father and both his grandfathers. His father is a member of the Presbyterian church, his mother is a Baptist, but he has not as yet united with church or matrimony.

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2010