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James A. McKee
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JAMES A. McKEE, one of the best known residents of Butler and editor of the present volume, was born in Butler Township, this county. May 11, 1865, son
of Robert and Mary Jaue (Kirk) McKee. His paternal grandfather was James McKee, and his great grandfather, Thomas McKee, who married Margaret Hogue. James, the grandfather, who was the eldest son of his parents, was born in 1780, in Tuscarora Valley, Mifflin County, Penna.
He came to Butler from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, in 1796, and purchased a tract of land in Butler Township adjoining that of his father. He married Mary McKee, a daughter of John and Mary (Hogue) McKee, of the Tuscarora Valley, and they were the parents of seven children,
as follows: John, who served one term as sheriff of Butler County, died in 1864; Robert, who resided on the old homestead until 1888, then removed to Butler, and died December 18, 1890; Martha, who died in youth; Thomas, who died at the age of twenty-one; Mary A., who resided
in Butler down to the time of her death, July 2, 1890; James, who was drowned in the Ohio River in 1852, while en route to California; and Hugh, a surveyor of Butler County in 1852, and afterwards appointed surveyor-general of Kansas by President Buchanan, who died April 30, 1886.
James McKee and his brother Hugh served in the War of 1812; the former served as sheriff of the county from 1815 to 1818, and as a member of the state legislature in 1828. His death occurred October 1, 1832. His wife survived him more than thirty years, and died in 1874 at
the age of eighty-seven.
Robert McKee, son of James and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Butler Township, Butler County, June 17, 1817. He was reared upon the farm, and in 1847 he married Mary J. Kirk, a daughter of John Kirk, an early settler of Clarion County. They resided upon a farm in Butler Township until 1888, and then removed to Butler, where Mr. McKee died on December 18, 1890, leaving two children, Mary A. and James A. Robert McKee was a justice of the peace in Butler Township for thirty years and was a prominent member of the United Presbyterian church. His widow survived him until March 9, 1902. James A. McKee was educated at Witherspoon Institute, Butler, and at Wooster University, Wooster, Ohio, and came with his parents to Butler Borough in May, 1888, where he has since resided. In October, 1888, he formed a partnership with William G. Ziegler and purchased the Democratic Herald from the estate of the late Jacob Ziegler. He continued in the active duties of newspaper work until 1899, when the Herald plant was sold to P. A. Rattigan & Sons, and the partnership of Ziegler and McKee was dissolved. He was subsequently engaged as reporter for the Associated Press, the Tri-state Press Bureau, and eastern papers, and in 1902-3 was city editor of the daily Eagle. He was subsequently engaged in contracting business for two years, and since that time has been in the insurance business. For over twenty years he took an active interest in local military affairs, first enlisting in Company E, Fifteenth Regiment, P. N. G., in 1885. After serving two enlistments he was discharged with the rank of sergeant. In 1898, when the local militia company was called into the service of the United States for the Spanish War, Mr. McKee, James M. Maxwell, and John C. Graham organized a second company and drilled it for the second call of troops. The services of this company were tendered to the adjutant-general of Pennsylvania and also to the secretary of war. The suspension of hostilities after the battle of Santiago rendered the further call of troops unnecessary and the local company was tendered a place in the provisional guard of the State, which was accepted. Mr. McKee was elected Captain of Company L, Sixteenth Regiment, National Guard, July 2, 1902, and served the full term of five years. He is a Democrat in politics and has taken an active part in the affairs of his party in the county, but has never held any publie office. He is a member of tlie United Presbyterian Church, which his parents assisted in founding. Source: 20th century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and respresentative citizens, McKee, James A., 1909, page 607-609. |
