Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
John S. Lackey
John S. Lackey, who is well known throughout Wayne county and this section of the state, comes of a family early identified with its history. He is a grandson of John Lackey, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, about 1798, and reared eleven children, four of whom were associated with Cambridge City annals in later years, namely: Ira, Sanford, Mrs. Maria Richey and Mrs. Susan Kendall. The wife of Ira Lackey, Mrs. Catherine (Merritt) Lackey, departed this life, January 6, 1899, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.
Sanford Lackey, the father of our subject, was one of the pioneer merchants of this vicinity. Coming here from Cincinnati, Ohio, he established the first large and well equipped dry-goods store in Cambridge City, his original outlay of money in this enterprise amounting to ten thousand dollars. He was also much interested in horses, dealing in fine animals and transacting much business in this line in the course of a year.
John S. Lackey is a native of Cambridge City, born in 1850, and has passed his whole life in this immediate vicinity. He is the second in order of birth of the five children of Sanford and Jane Lackey, the others being: Charles, Parke, Frank and Alice, the last named being the wife of B. F. Mosbaugh, editor of the Cambridge City Tribune. John S. Lackey remained unmarried until he was forty-two years of age, when he wedded Miss Catherine Driggs, of this city.
From his youth John S. Lackey was extremely fond of good horses, early becoming a reliable judge of their merits. fn 1868 he opened a livery stable in Cambridge City, his native town, which enterprise he carried on successfully. In 1886 he instituted a combination sale, which has taken place each year since, and often from three to six hundred horses are sold, at one of these annual events the amount of money changing hands reaching one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Lackey is the owner and manager of the Cambridge City race track and stables, and makes a specialty of training trotters and pacers, buying and matching teams, and executing various commissions of that nature. He is recognized as an authority on all questions relating to horses or the turf, and unquestionably takes the lead in these matters in this part of Indiana.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899