Colonel Alexander "the Great White Elk” McKee

Thomas McKee (1693-1769) had two sons born in Ireland by his Irish wife;

• Thomas b1720 (Pelewiechen) and
• Alexander b1725, (Wapimescheu).

  ---

https://www.facebook.com/5thgreatgrandaughter/photos/a.107012856171...

Thomas McKee, whose family name has been preserved in McKee’s Rocks, was the father of Alexander McKee (1725-1799) probably best known for his defection from the patriot cause to the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. As a result of his defection, all of his lands were confiscated by the Americans. McKee went on to gain a villainous reputation with Simon Girty and his brothers among the settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier for organizing and instigating deadly Indian attacks against them. Sometime following the end of the war, Colonel Alexander McKee moved to Canada where he died of lockjaw and was buried on his farm on the Thames River, Ontario, Canada in 1799. In 1769 he is believed to have married Edna Yellow Britches Rising Sun (1732-1793) and by this marriage became related to the Shawnee war chief, Blue Jacket. His known children were William, Alexander, Thomas, Elizabeth and Catherine, however, Thomas McKee had many Indian wives and children.

Alexander McKee - The Great White Elk: British Indian Agent On The Colonial FrontierJan 11, 2013 by Frederick Wulff

Chapter One - Diverse Roots

pg. 1-2 Alexander was a product of that strange, shadowed perilous borderland between the white and Indiana worlds... from A company of Heroes: The American Frontier, Dale Van Every, 1962, pg. 173...
His father was Scotch-Irish and his mother a full-blooded Shawnee...
The lineage of Alexander McKee on his father's side can be traced to sturdy Scotch-Irish stock in Northern Ireland. His grandfather Alexander McKee, after whom the young Alexander was named had been an officer in the Protestant forces of William of Orange, and had distinguished himself in the Battle of Boyne, 1690, in which King James II was defeated. The McKee clan in Ireland belonged to the Strathaver Mackays... McKee's grandfather was a restless ambitious man who sought escape from the overcrowded region for opportunity in the New World. Pennsylvania had particular appeal... The elder gentleman already had a large family of at least five children and possibly as many as eleven. Of these offspring only the names of Thomas, Robert, John and William are known from existing records....At Any rate, the senior Alexander McKee left Ireland with his oldest son, the fifteen-year-old Thomas,, sometime between 1707 and 1720. The younger members of the family remained in Ireland for the time being. Eventually they too made the crossing, sometime between 1735, and 1737. When the grandfather and father of Alexander McKee arrived in Philadelphia after the long voyage, the immediately made plans- to journey westward to the Susquehanna frontier of Pennsylvania...

pg.2-3 The Indian Mother of Alexander McKee

The mother of Alexander McKee was a young Shawnee woman named Mary, who Thomas McKee met sometime in the early 1730's...

Although no church and civil records exist of an official marriage or of the birth of their children , various estimates place of the birth of Alexander, the first-born son, at between 1735 and 1738, In accordance with eh McKee tradition the first-born was assigned the name of the grandfather sources in back of chapter:

5-6 No records of a formal marriage of Thomas and Mary exist. George MacDonald states Thomas McKee was "unmarried", in the MacDonald papers, Windsor Museum, Windsor, Ontario, Extract 73, pg. 4472. Hiram Rutherford, Notes and Queries 2 vols. give courtship account of Thomas and Mary McKee (Harrisburg, 1895) 2:267; see also a similar account in Heber G. Gearhart collection, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The absence of birth records for Alexander McKee in Pennsylvania has generated conjectures that he was born in County Antrim before Thomas McKee left Ireland. A descendant of the McKees, Eleanor Guthrie Reed, after three years research, came to conclude "Alexander McKee as a natural son of an Indian woman born abut 1784", cited in the Eleanor Guthrie papers, Pennsylvania State Library, Harrisburg. See also Raymond McKee
The names of the brothers and sisters of Alexander McKee are listed in Raymond McKee, Book of McKee pg. 438. On. pg. 438 a brief summary informs the reader of their marriages and offspring: Catherine McKee married William Craydon; Nancy McKee married twice before her early death in 1765; James McKee had two Indian wives before his last wife Elizabeth Verne who was white. James McKee's testimony that he was the only legitimate offspring of Thomas McKee may be found in the Pennsylvania Archives, Fourth Series, vol12, pg. 265. The will and copy of Mary McKee's formal request that Alexander McKee be administrator of the Thomas McKee will are given in Raymond McKee Book of McKee, plate 77 pg. 438.

Until recently most account of Alexander McKee have been based on the assumption that both his parents were Scoth-Irish. This inaccuracy should be placed to rest; the evidence that his mother was and Indian is overwhelming. A close friend and co-worker of Alexander McKee once recalled "Alexander McKee was born among the Indians". Another contemporary that knew Alexander well, Simon Kenton, testified: McKee was a Pennsylvanian by birth and looked as if by Indian descent.

Very little is known about the genealogy of Alexander McKee on his mother's side. Possibly the parents of Mary McKee were Indians of handsome appearance. Frontier stories refer to Mary McKee as "a beautiful maiden" and as being "young and very beautiful" . About all we can be certain of in regard to the lineage of Alexander McKee's mother is that she was Shawnee. More important that the lineage factor, in understanding the strong character of Alexander McKee, one has to look closer at his immediate family community in which he was educated.

Alexander McKee was th first of six children that grew up in the McKee household. Very little is known about his three sisters - - Nancy, Catherine and Elizabeth. And of his two brothers, Hugh and James the records are absolutely silent on Hugh. James McKee, the youngest member of the family, was not born until 1755. James became a well-known personality at Pittsburgh, and though he sided with the colonies in the American Revolution, he and Alexander McKee remained close brothers. Throughout the years that Alexander McKee lived under the influence of his parents, he was clearly considered the main object of their attention. Alexander was raised to assume his father's trade and benefited greatly as the first born. When Thomas died in 1769, Alexander was the administrator of his will and estate at the request of his mother. Naturally, Alexander McKee was named in the will as the sole heir of the vast real estate holdings of the father.

The Dual Education of Alexander McKee

pg. 4-6 From the very beginning, Thomas McKee took a keen interest in the education of Alexander, grooming his son to follow in his footsteps as a successful trader and Indian agent. A large-scale trade enterprise involvement required an ability to read and write...

The education Alexander McKee received from his mother and her people was quite different, yet equally important. She gave him an intimate knowledge of Indiana traditions and values. In contrast to her husband and son, she could not communicate as a formally educated person, Mary McKee spoke but little English and could not write... source note at end of chapter

20 Mary McKee to Edward Shippen, Deputy Register, August 3, 1769, copy in Raymond McKee, Book of McKee plate 77 opposite pg. 438 Bishop Cammerhoff visited the McKee home and commented in his journal that Mary McKee was unable to speak English. See 'Bishop Cammerhoff Journey to Shamokin 1748' Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1877 29:167-178

To what degree Mary McKee influenced he son is indicated by the behavior of her offspring. The Shawnees mother played an important part in the raising of er children and she took the responsibility seriously,...

Alexander was raised in a large comfortable home that reflected the prosperous nature of his father's trade establishment, but Mary McKee brought into those home-life traditions that affected both the father and the children. They were in Shawnee-Delaware country and Mary did not abrogate time-honored responsibilities of her role as an Indian mother. In her informal manner she taught the values of the old people....

The Father of Alexander McKee

pg. 7-8 Thomas McKee set an example for his son as a man of boundless energy and adroit ability as an Indiana trader....

The landholdings of Thoma McKee expanded from the initial tract at Donegal in Dauphin county to another 300 acres of land near Paxton Creek in 1733... By the time Alexander was born his father had acquired another two hundred acres of land north of Conodoquiner Creek...

The young Alexander watched his father expand his trade operations by building a store on the north side of the Blue Mountains. By 1742, the four-year-old Alexander moved with his father to a newly constructed plantation overlooking the Susquehanna, just opposite the mouth of West Mahantango creek in lower Mahony Township.... The McKee compound was made up of a substantial house and a trade store, a number of fertile acres under cultivation, and herds of live stock. Two years later, in 1744, Thomas McKee added land on the west side of the river opposite his plantation and McKee's Bigg Island at what became known as McKee's Half Falls... The compound was commonly referred to as McKee's Plantation or McKee's Upper Place... The Plantation consisted on 468 1/2 acres... Besides this the McKee's owned several large islands on the Susquehanna: Shuman's Island of one hundred acres, Hay's Island of seventy acres, Kline's Island of eight acres and McKee's Bigg Island of sixty-xi acres... Thomas McKee had to wait until March 5, 1755, when the land office opened, before he could take a warrant for this land....

Chapter Fifteen Legacy Of the Great White Elk

pg. 385-6... Alexander McKee had suffered from his ever present health problems again in the fall of 1798 and by this first of December was confined to his home on the River Thames....

McKee's afflictions grew increasing worse. New symptoms developed giving the appearance of "either gout in the stomach or Rheumatic fever". Although his life was gradually slipping from him, McKee continued to formulate police statements and maintaining paper work. Among his last activates he prepared appointments and to the battalions of the militia under his command...

The Indians Lose a Tender Parent

The end came quietly to Alexander McKee at his retreat on the River Thames. He had been bedridden when his disease-racked boy succumbed to a coma... The cause of death is generally accepted as lockjaw. A John Drake who was at McKee's bedside when he expired took upon himself the responsibility to inform Thomas McKee. That same morning he penned a brief message: "I am sorry to inform you that the Colnel your father is no more, he departed this life about One o'clock this morning....

The remains of Alexander McKee wee transported from the River Thames to the residence of his son Thomas at Petite Cote in Sandwich township. His body was committed to the grave in St. John's Cemetery in Sandwich. The interment was held on January 17th, a cold wintry day...

NOTE: the book really delves very little into his ancestry it deal mainly with his trading and military life.

=========================================================================================

He was not married to Sewatha Opessa Shawnee

His wife was: Edna Yellow Britches (Rising Sun) 1740 – 1793
children:

• Catherine McKee 1770 –
• Thomas McKee 1770 – 1814
• Elizabeth NcKee 1771 – 1843/ 1873
• Catherine McKee 1789 – 1861

Comments from abstracted mayerail further down about his wife: are:

McKEE married a woman living in the Lower Shawnee Town, and in 1769 or 1770, she bore his first child, THOMAS.
Little is known of McKEE'S wife. John Johnston, a United States Indian agent at Piqua, Ohio, in the early nineteenth century, understood that she was an Indian, and by his marriage McKEE became related to the Shawnee war chief, Blue Jacket.

===============================

Karen Louise Largent (Gregory)
Aug 30 2015 at 9:24 PM

Managers of Col. Alexander McKee,

I have made a very important discovery about Colonel Alexander "White Elk" McKee. I have been searching for his grave for a very long time. He is not buried where you think he is. In fact it is believed that his body was interred on McKee property in the area where they lived in Canada and some years ago while excavating for a highway, a body was dug up, careful records were kept about the bones found, where, when, etc. and they were buried in a pauper's grave in a cemetery. After examining these records a researcher has determined that with 99% certainty, and without doing DNA yet, that the bones buried in the pauper's grave are those of Alexander "White Elk" McKee....{remainder under discussions tab}

Sincerely, Karen Louise Largent

from Karen Largent

• Hugh McKee and his brother Col. Alexander White Elk McKee were on different sides politically we might say
• My cousin believes that at some point in time, Hugh McKee left his family with his brother Alexander and fled to Canada. We are having a lot of trouble figuring out which Elizabeth McKee is which. I see from your tree that Hugh had a daughter Elizabeth and a sister Elizabeth. I think that is correct.
• My cousin also says that Col. Alexander McKee was rescued from being killed by the Shawnee by Edna Yellow Britches Rising Son.

------------------------------

Dictionary of Canadian Biography /DCB/DBC News states:

McKEE, ALEXANDER, Indian agent, fur trader, and local official; b. c. 1735 in western Pennsylvania, son of Irish trader Thomas McKee and a Shawnee woman (or possibly a white captive of the Indians); d. 15 Jan. 1799 on the Thames River, Upper Canada.... Credit: Reginald Horsman go to above link to read more.

Note: Sources listed in this article for future research:

BL, Add. mss 21661–892 (transcripts at PAC). PAC, MG 19, F1; RG 8, I (C series); RG 10, A1, 1–4; A2, 8–12.
Correspondence of Lieut. Governor Simcoe (Cruikshank). Frontier defense on the upper Ohio, 1777–1778 . . . , ed. R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg (Madison, Wis., 1912; repr. Millwood, N.Y., 1973).
Johnson papers (Sullivan et al.), III, VIII, X, XII. Michigan Pioneer Coll., IX (1886), X (1886), XIII (1888), XIX (1891), XX (1892).
PAO Report, 1905, 1928–29, 1931. The Windsor border region, Canada’s southernmost frontier . . . , ed. E. J. Lajeunesse (Toronto, 1960). R. C. Downes,
Council fires on the upper Ohio: a narrative of Indian affairs in the upper Ohio valley until 1795 (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1940).
Reginald Horsman, Matthew Elliott, British Indian agent (Detroit, 1964). N. B. Wainwright, George Croghan, wilderness diplomat (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1959).
Frederick Wulff, “Colonel Alexander McKee and British Indian policy, 1735-1799” (unpublished ma thesis, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wis., 1969). W. R. Hoberg,
"History of Colonel Alexander McKee", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia), LVIII (1934), 26–36; NOTE: is PDF download.
"A Tory in the northwest", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia), LIX (1935), 32–41.

---

The Emigrant Tribes Wyandot, Delaware & Shawnee A Chronology Larry K. Hancks Kansas City, Kansas 1998:

c. 1735 Birth of Alexander McKee, son of trader Thomas McKee and a Shawnee woman (possibly an adopted white captive), in western Pennsylvania.
1760 Alexander McKee, after serving as a lieutenant with Pennsylvania forces in the first part of the war, enters the British Indian Department as an assistant to Thomas Croghan. Working and trading among the tribes in the Ohio country, he gains considerable influence
1770 Alexander McKee is living among the Shawnee on the Scioto, married to a Shawnee woman. They have at least one son, Thomas McKee.
1775 Alexander McKee as Deputy Indian Agent takes a leading role despite his position as a presumed Loyalist.
1784 Alexander McKee is appointed Deputy Agent of the British Indian Department at Detroit, using his influence to encourage continued resistance by the Indians to American expansion north of the Ohio.
1795 At the end of the year, Alexander McKee is appointed Deputy Superintendent and Deputy Inspector General of Indian Affairs, in charge of Indian affairs for Upper Canada.
1799 January 15; death of Col. Alexander McKee, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs for Western Canada, at his home on the River Thames at the age of 64. His position is temporarily filled by James Baby, Alexander Grant, and his son Capt. Thomas McKee

There is more mention of Alexander and his son Thomas in this work - also NOTE this Is a PDF down load

A Man of Distinction among Them

"ALEXANDER McKEE and the Ohio Country Frontier 1754-1799" by Larry L. Nelson The Kent State University Press Kent, Ohio, and London , c1999.

Chapter Two From the Susquehanna to the Ohio, 1735-1763

pg. 25-28 When he was a young man, ALEXANDER McKEE was a fully participating and fully accepted member of Ohio Country Indian society. The central-Ohio Shawnees regarded him completely as one of their own. He spoke their language, followed their customs, and observed their rituals. They were his family. In peace they were business partners; in war they were allies. He looked after their well-being and they his. At his death in 1799, McKEE was a fully participating and fully accepted member of Upper Canada's landed gentry. The governing aristocracy regarded him completely as one of their own...

McKEE was born about 1735 in the Pennsylvania backwoods of the Susquehanna Valley. His father, THOMAS McKEE (born c. 1695), was the first of three generations of McKEES active in Indian affairs along the northern frontier. THOMAS arrived in America with his father, ALEXANDER (died 1740), from County Antrim, Ireland, after 1707. ALEXANDER, a veteran of the Battle of the Boyne, began to farm along the Pennsylvania frontier in Lancaster County soon after he arrived. THOMAS established himself in the western Indian trade while in his thirties or early forties. Licensed as a trader by Pennsylvania in 1744 and 1747, he already had erected a post along the Susquehanna River near present-day Dalmatia, in 1740. By 1742 he had established a second site, McKEE'S Post, near present-day Dauphin and was trading at Big Island, at the mouth of the Juniata River, on the south branch of the Susquehanna.

In 1747 and 1748, McKEE organized a small company of rangers to protect the western region of Lancaster County during King George's War. In 1755, after the outbreak of the French and Indian War, he raised a second company of volunteers and commanded a small garrison, McKEE'S Fort, at Hunters Mill...In 1763 McKEE accepted an appointment to the post of Justice of the Peace and presided over cases held in Northampton, Berks, and Lancaster Counties. He died at his home at McKEE'S Falls in 1769.

"Less is known of ALEXANDER'S mother. It is certain that THOMAS married a woman who lived with a mixed band of Shawnees, Delawares, and Iroquois on the Susquehanna River, near present-day Lock Haven. In January 1743, McKEE attended a council at the village, located opposite his storehouse on Big Island. He had traded with this band for some time and considered the village headman, Johnny Skikellamy, a personal friend. Although when he arrived, McKEE greeted the Indians with the customary courtesies, their reception of him was noticeably cool. As the council began, the leader of a returning Iroquois war party related that while he and his band traveled through Virginia they had been ambushed by a group of whites. Four of the Indians had died in the attack. The action greatly disturbed the Shawnees and several at the meeting suggested the deaths might be avenged by striking at whites living along the Pennsylvania frontier. McKEE, who was fluent in several Indian languages and who understood the proceedings, became justifiably alarmed. Acting through "an Old Shawna, with whom he was best acquainted," he managed to discourage the band from taking part in any retaliatory raids, but several of the Shawnees remained noticeably upset.

Later that evening, a white woman who had been captured as an infant in North Carolina and later adopted by the tribe approached McKEE with a warning. Some of the warriors, she claimed, planned to kill the trader as he left the village the following day. Leaving his goods behind, McKEE and the woman escaped that evening, traveling three days and three nights to avoid capture. Later, this woman became his wife.
One source incorrectly identifies the woman as the sister of Tanacharison, the Iroquois Half King. A second tradition passed down by the McKEE family during the last quarter of the nineteenth century claims that the woman was Tecumapease, an older sister of Tecumseh's. An affidavit filed with the deputy of Lancaster County after THOMAS' death lists her simply as MARY McKEE.

MARY McKEE had become completely assimulated into the Shawnee culture during her capture. Five years after she and THOMAS escaped, the Moravian missionary J.C.F. Cammerhoff, who traveled along the Pennsylvania frontier stopped at McKEE'S home on January 13, 1748. Cammerhoff noted that the McKEES "received us with much kindness and hospitality." "McKEE is an extensive Indian trader," wrote the evangalist, observing that he "bears a good name among them, and drives a brisk trade with the Allegheny County. His wife, who was brought up among the Indians, speaks but little English." Even as late as 1756, Canaghquiesa, an Oneida chief, referred to MARY as McKEE'S "Shawanese squaw."

MARY McKEE is the woman who raised ALEXANDER as her son, beginning when he was an adolescent. It is less certain whether MARY McKEE was ALEXANDER'S biological mother. After THOMAS'S death in 1769, ALEXANDER filed petitions in December 1769 and August 1773 with the Lancaster County Orphans Court in which he declared that he was the eldest of his father's six children and that THOMAS had died without a will. As a consequence, ALEXANDER became the executor of THOMAS' estate.

In 1778, ALEXANDER openly aligned himself with the British cause during the American Revolution and escaped from Pittsburgh to British-controlled Detroit. After his defection, Patriot authorities charged him with treason, and the state government eventually confiscated his property throughout Pennsylvania. In May 1779, ALEXANDER'S younger brother, JAMES, informed the authorities in Lancaster that at least some of ALEXANDER'S lands had been seized improperly. JAMES claimed his mother and father were not married at the time of ALEXANDER'S birth. As a result, JAMES argued that he, and not ALEXANDER, should have the property in question, and therefore it should not have been taken by the state. In December 1780, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided the case in JAMES' favor and awarded his possession of THOMAS' plantation in Paxton Township, Lancaster County. Because JAMES' claim to the family property based on ALEXANDER'S illegitimately was not only asserted, but also successfully argued before the state's Supreme Court, it seems likely that the allegation was a truthful, albeit convenient, method of circumventing the forfeiture based on the charge of treason. JAMES' testimony, while admitting in his own self-interest, suggests that either ALEXANDER was born to THOMAS and MARY before their marriage was formalized, or he was the offspring of a passing relationship between THOMAS and an unnamed Indian woman..."

pg. 63 "...During the late 1760s and early 1770s, McKEE also entered the fur trade as a private trader, joining in a profitable partnership with another Pittsburgh resident, Alexander Ross. He used the proceeds to develop his property north of Pittsburgh, where he built a large and imposing estate, Fairview, that overlooked the Ohio River. Prosperous by frontier standards and highly visible as a result of his continuing association with Croghan, McKEE became active in local politics as well, accepting the position of justice of the peace for newly formed Bedford County in 1771. Despite his increasingly strong links to white society,

McKEE married a woman living in the Lower Shawnee Town, and in 1769 or 1770, she bore his first child, THOMAS

Little is known of McKEE'S wife. John Johnston, a United States Indian agent at Piqua, Ohio, in the early nineteenth century, understood that she was an Indian, and by his marriage McKEE became related to the Shawnee war chief, Blue Jacket

An un-attributed marginal note in the McKEE Family Genealogical file at Fort Malden suggests that her name was CHARLOTTE BROWN, raising the possibility that, like his mother, she may have been a white captive raised among the tribe. McKEE'S wife and child continued to live among the Indians in the Scioto Valley, while ALEXANDER divided his time between Pittsburgh and the central Ohio backwoods..."

pg. 147-48 "...McKEE had spent much of the post-Revolutionary period creating new links to Upper Canada's landed elite, based on finance and family.

Two loosely knit family groups dominated much of Upper Canada's economic life during the years that followed the Revolution.

• The first revolved around the Detroit land speculator and fur magnate John Askin.
• The second, somewhat smaller than the first, consisted of those in the orbit of Jacques Duperron Baby, who, like Askin, had made a fortune trading in land and pelts. McKEE was closely affiliated with both cliques. Askin and Baby were both involved with the region's militia, and each worked closely with McKEE during the crisis of 1790-94. Askin had invested heavily in the lower Maumee Valley fur trade, creating the Miami Company in the late 1780s to exploit the area's rich fur resources, and he was the largest contractor to supply goods and provisions for the Maumee Valley tribes during their conflict with the United States.
• McKEE watched over Askin's interests in the region and directed Miami Company employees from his post at the Maumee Rapids during the 1790s.
• Further, McKEE'S son, THOMAS, married ASKIN'S daughter, THERESA, in April 1797.
• Among those involved with Jacques Baby were William Caldwell and Matthew Elliott, two of McKEE'S closest friends and joint proprietors in his land holdings opposite Bois Blanc Island.
• McKEE had prospered following the Revolution because he had been able to fashion the same type of personal network of family, business partners, and acquaintances with the Detroit region's aristocracy that he had previously enjoyed with the Ohio Country Indian nations. As economic opportunities disappeared in Ohio and reemerged in Canada, he had wholeheartedly embraced the British and the values they articulated, and he had profited enormously as a result."

pg. 185 "...In May 1795, his close friend, Prideaux Selby, observed that McKEE had been extremely ill with a "Rheumatic or Bilious fever, attended with great swellings in his feet, hands, and joints." After five weeks of illness, McKEE and THOMAS traveled to St. Joseph Island to purchase it for the Crown's use, but for the most part he remained close to his Thames River estate. In 1798, he injured his leg just before he was stricken with another attack of the fever that left him bedridden and lame. On January 10, 1799, McKEE wrote to Selby, complaining that a "fever and pain in my breast" had kept him in bed for two days and that the episode had been followed by the onset of a cold and fever that afflicted him for another twenty-four hours. The attack was more serious that McKEE realized. He died at his home before dawn on January 15. His body was interred two days later at THOMAS' home, a few miles north of Fort Malden.

McKEE'S death marked the end of a remarkable career. Active with the British Indian Department for nearly fifty years, he had participated in events that had defined Great Britain's imperial interest in the Great Lakes frontier from the capture of Fort Duquesne to the surrender of Detroit. McKEE'S skills as a cultural mediator, one who brokered the encounters between the British government and the Indian tribes of the Great Lakes region, had served the Crown well. His activities with the Indian department had helped build a commercial and political partnership between Great Britain and the Ohio Country tribes that had been a powerful tool for securing and protecting Britain's interests in the region during the last half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, the understandings that McKEE created and the relationships that he developed during his career continued to form the underlying structure that shaped Crown policy toward the lower Great Lakes Indian nations until the end of the War of 1812..."

Who was John McKee states:

Colonel Alexander McKee - Indian Agent & Revolutionary Renegade

Alexander McKee, who is also apparently no relation to our New Sewickley farmer, was a trader and Deputy Indian Agent for the colony of Pennsylvania, as well as the gentleman for whom the present town of McKees Rocks is named.

According to Bausman's History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, prior to 1769, this McKee owned 300 acres of land opposite Logstown and opened a trading post for the Indians, thus making him one of the earliest non-permanent residents of what is now Beaver County.

Alexander McKee is probably best known for his defection from the patriot cause to the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. As a result of his defection, all of his lands were confiscated by the Americans. McKee went on to gain a villainous reputation among the settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier for organizing and instigating deadly Indian attacks against them. Sometime following the end of the war, Colonel Alexander McKee moved to Canada where he died and was buried on his farm on the Thames River, Ontario, Canada in 1799

Alexander McKee 1735-1799

ALEXANDER McKEE was the Tory leader at Pittsburgh. He was a man of some education and wide influence on the border.

He, too, was a trader among the Indians, and for twelve years prior to the Revolution had been the King’s deputy agent for Indian affairs at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had served as a justice of the peace in Westmoreland county. 

He was intimately acquainted with most of the Indians chiefs of the Ohio Valley, and spoke their tongues. As the Rev. Jones attests, he had an Indian family among the Shawanese.

He divided his time between his Pittsburgh cabin and his farm at McKees Rocks. Both THOMAS and ALEXANDER took part in many conferences with the Western Indians at Fort Pitt, the first, July 4, 1759, where they were present, according to the minutes, “George Croghan, Deputy Agent to the Hon. Sir William Johnson, Baronet: Col. Hugh Mercer, Commandant at Pittsburgh; a number of officers of the Garrison; Capt. (pg. 170) William Trent and CAPT. THOMAS McKEE, assistants to G. Croghan, Esq., and Capt. Henry Montour, Interpreter.” Most likely THOMAS McKEE was also at the conference at the same place, October 25, 1759, as the records read: “Present His Excellency, Brigadier Gen. Stanwix, with sundry other gentlemen of the army; George Croghan, Esq., and sundry assistants.”

ALEXANDER McKEE’S name first appears in the minutes of a conference held with the chiefs of the Senecas living on the Ohio, the Delawares and Shawanese, October 17, 1764; present, “Col. Henry Bouquet, Commanding His Majesty’s forces in the Southern District, etc.”

ALEXANDER McKEE is set down as assistant agent for Indian affairs, and doubtless at all of Bouquet’s conferences at that time though not always recorded as present. He is recorded as present at Dunmore’s council with the Delawares and Mingoes in the fall of 1774, and still “Deputy Agent, etc.” WASHINGTON dined with

ALEXANDER McKEE on his journey down the Ohio to the Kanawha region, as he records in his Journal, October 20, 1770; however, he spells the name “MAGEE.” McKEE, Croghan and Lieutenant Hamilton of the garrison at Fort Pitt, had set out from Pittsburgh with Washington’s party, and continued with them to Logstown.

ALEXANDER McKEE was during the Revolution a British agent among the Shawanese on the Miami river. More concerning him will be noted in the chapter detailing events at Pittsburgh during the Revolution. -- History of Pittsburgh and environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution, Fleming, George Thornton, 1855-1928.

BURKE, EDMUND (1850-1919) – VOLUME XIV (1911-1920) b. 31 Oct. 1850 in Toronto

The War of 1812 Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers The First World War

Other Links

Alexander McKee - Wikipedia

TIME LINE FOR MCKEES & RELATED FAMILIES IN EARLY LANCASTER CO, PENNSYLVANIA - PART ONE as extracted from archive land records

FLIGHT OF THE PITTSBURG TORRIES. - British Agents in Western Pennsylvania. - Captain Alexander McKee Chapter 7 - OLD WESTMORELAND: A HISTORY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA DURING THE REVOLUTION. BY EDGAR W. HASSLER J. R. WELDIN & Co. PITTSBURG 1900

McKee and Gibson: Earliest Settlers by Margaret Ross Milestones Vol 21 No 3 Fall 1996

[http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/bluelicksbattle.html Revolutionary War - Battle of Bluelicks, Kentucky] The British, allied with the Indians, controlled the territory north of the Ohio ... the 

direction of British Captain Bird and Indian Agent Alexander McKee, an army ...

Marker #4-2 McKee's Hill - Following the American Revolution, the British Crown sought to retain

possession of the Ohio Country by sending chief British Indian Agent Alexander  McKee ...

In May 1790 Alexander McKee, Deputy Agent of the British Indian Department, and the principal chiefs of the Ottawa, Potawatomi, Chippewa and Wyandot

McKee's Town (south of Bellefontaine) was the home Alexander McKee, a British Indian agent and trader. Most of the tribes in the county and surrounding areas ...

Interactive Timeline | Fort Pitt Block House 1772 - British decommission Fort Pitt; the Block House becomes one of the trading posts of Indian Agent Alexander McKee. 1774 - Dunmore's War begins, ...

ALEXANDER McKEE was the Tory leader at Pittsburgh. He was a man of some education and wide influence on the border. He, too, was a trader among the Indians, and for twelve years prior to the Revolution had been the King’s deputy agent for Indian affairs at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had served as a justice of the peace in Westmoreland county. He was intimately acquainted with most of the Indians chiefs of the Ohio Valley, and spoke their tongues. As the Rev. Jones attests, he had an Indian family among the Shawanese. He divided his time between his Pittsburgh cabin and his farm at McKees Rocks. Both THOMAS and ALEXANDER took part in many conferences with the Western Indians at Fort Pitt, the first, July 4, 1759, where they were present, according to the minutes, “George Croghan, Deputy Agent to the Hon. Sir William Johnson, Baronet: Col. Hugh Mercer, Commandant at Pittsburgh; a number of officers of the Garrison; Capt. (pg. 170) William Trent and CAPT. THOMAS McKEE, assistants to G. Croghan, Esq., and Capt. Henry Montour, Interpreter.” Most likely THOMAS McKEE was also at the conference at the same place, October 25, 1759, as the records read: “Present His Excellency, Brigadier Gen. Stanwix, with sundry other gentlemen of the army; George Croghan, Esq., and sundry assistants.”ALEXANDER McKEE’S name first appears in the minutes of a conference held with the chiefs of the Senecas living on the Ohio, the Delawares and Shawanese, October 17, 1764; present, “Col. Henry Bouquet, Commanding His Majesty’s forces in the Southern District, etc.” ALEXANDER McKEE is set down as assistant agent for Indian affairs, and doubtless at all of Bouquet’s conferences at that time though not always recorded as present. He is recorded as present at Dunmore’s council with the Delawares and Mingoes in the fall of 1774, and still “Deputy Agent, etc.” WASHINGTON dined with ALEXANDER McKEE on his journey down the Ohio to the Kanawha region, as he records in his Journal, October 20, 1770; however, he spells the name “MAGEE.” McKEE, Croghan and Lieutenant Hamilton of the garrison at Fort Pitt, had set out from Pittsburgh with Washington’s party, and continued with them to Logstown. ALEXANDER McKEE was during the Revolution a British agent among the Shawanese on the Miami river. More concerning him will be noted in the chapter detailing events at Pittsburgh during the Revolution.

Family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_McKee

• Spouse(s) 1st wife: Sewatha Sarah Straighttail (1727); 2nd wife: Yellow Britches-Edna Rising Sun.
• Relations Father: Thomas, an Irish immigrant; Mother: Mary, a North Carolina settler captured and adopted by the Shawnee;
• Brothers: Thomas Alexander McKee AKA Palewiechen, James McKee of McKees Rocks, PA.
• Son: Thomas McKee by Nonhelema AKA The Grenedier Squaw

Biography

Alexander McKee was born about 1735 as the second son of Thomas McKee an Irish immigrant (probably Scots-Irish from northern Ireland), fur trader, Indian Agent, and interpreter for General Forbes at Fort Pitt. His mother, Mary, was a white captive from a North Carolina settler's family who had been adopted and assimilated into the Shawnee tribe. She died when he was young. He had an older half-brother, Thomas Alexander McKee (AKA Pelewiechen), who had immigrated with their father to the colonies from Ireland. The senior Thomas McKee married Margaret Tecumsapah Opessa, a daughter of Pride Opessa, who signed the original Treaty with Wm Penn on April 23, 1701, and a granddaughter of King Opessa and Chief Cornstalk. Margaret was an older sister to Alexander McKee's first wife, Sewatha Sarah Straighttail, and to Metheotashe Mary Opessa, the mother of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet. It was Margaret who taught Alexander the customs and language of the Shawnee. He developed a lifelong relationship with the Ohio Indian tribes.

As a young man, Alexander McKee began working with traders who did business with the Indians of the Ohio Country. Soon, he was able to establish his own trading business. Because of his good relations with the Ohio tribes, Indian agent George Croghan enlisted McKee in the service of the Crown's Indian Department. Around 1764, McKee settled in what is now McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and built a substantial house. George Washington visited him there in 1770, and mentions this in his diary. McKee continued in the service of Pennsylvania for some time after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

Following mistreatment by the settlers, he left the Americans in favor of the British at Detroit. It was during this transition that he established his well-known association with Matthew Elliott and the Girty brothers: Simon, James, and George.

During the next 25 years, Alexander McKee led efforts to promote the alliance of the Indians with the British, most especially with the Shawnee, but also with the majority of the Northwest Indian tribes. He guarded the interests of the Indians and was their honest friend. The Continental Congress branded him a traitor for remaining loyal to England and organizing several tribes on the side of the British.[1]

"Alexander McKee, the British Indian Agent, who resided at the Machachac towns, on Mad River, during the incursion of General Logan from Kentucky in 1786, was obliged to flee with his effects. He had a large lot of swine, which were driven on to the borders of this stream, and when the Indians (Shawnee) came on they called the river Koshko Sepe, which in the Shawnee language signified 'The Creek of the Hogs, or Hog Stream'." [2]

Legacy[edit] McKee died in Canada in 1799. He was mourned and greatly honored by the Northwest tribes.[citation needed] His son Thomas McKee was a Canadian soldier and political figure.

The borough of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, is the site of Alexander McKee's original 1,200-acre land grant, which the agent was awarded on November 25, 1764 by Colonel Bouquet. The McKee plantation was called FairView. George Washington dined at Fairview in 1770, and the 8-room log mansion was mentioned by George Washington in his journal. The home was razed by the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad in 1902.

Alexander McKee Log Mansion, McKee's Rocks, PA

References

• http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mckee_alexander_4E.html “McKEE, ALEXANDER, Indian agent, furtrader, and local official; b. c. 1735 in western Pennsylvania, son of Irish trader Thomas McKee and a Shawnee woman (or possibly a white captive of the Indians); d. 15 Jan. 1799 on the Thames River, Upper Canada.”
• Jump up ^ Wulff, Frederick. (2013) Alexander McKee: The Great White Elk, British Indian Agent on the Colonial Frontier. Denver: Outskirts Press.
• Jump up ^ Harrison, R. H. (1880). Atlas of Allen County, Ohio from Records and Original Surveys. Philadelphia: R.H. Harrison. p. 36.
• Nelson, Larry L. A Man of Distinction Among Them. Alexander McKee and British-Indian Affairs along the Ohio Country Frontier 1754-1799. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1999.