Capt. John Mckee

he is mentioned in his father's will

to my loving wife Margaret I bequeath all my right and title and all privileges that I reserved for myself in the Plantation and Ferry. I sold to my son John McKee as is mentioned in an article of agreement made between us the time I sold to him and John my son And also I leave her all my household furniture and Cows and horses I may have at the time of my decease and also the last Fifty pound bond from John McKee bearing date to be paid January 1794 and this to be a her disposing after my decease as she shall think proper and further I bequeath to my oldest son John the sum of ten shillings lawful money of Pennsylvania to be paid him after my decease

The emigrant David McKee's son John McKee was born in 1746 and died January 11, 1807.

It was he who founded McKeesport, Pennsylvania. 

On July 26, 1791 he married Sally Redick who was born December 1765 and died July 15 1814.

Her lineage may have been important, as her surname was repaeated as the Christian name of a son Redick McKee born Dec 7, 1800 whose son Redick McKee, Jr. died in infancy and another of whose sons, Charles Redick McKee died before he reached the age of 8. But the name persisted and was repeated in Redick Henry McKee who in 1930 who was consulting civil engineer in Seattle, Washington. The earliest association of the McKee name with that of Redick is probably when William M'Gye of Balmaghie, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland who flourished circa 1471 A.D. consented to the marriage of his granddaughter Marion to John Redick of Balharro. There is of course no connection whatsoever, but it does seem a pleasant coincidence.

The following from Family Bible of Redick McKee of Wheeling, West Virginia:

• Redick McKee was born at McKeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Dec 7, 1800 and died September 13, 1886.
• ELiza Richie was born at Cannonsburgh, Washington COunty, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1802. Died at Washington D.C. April 22, 1871.
• Redick McKee and Eliza Richie were married at Cannonsburgh by the Reverend Andrew Wylie, Han 12, 1826.
• John McKee (older brother of Redick McKee) and Sarah Brison were married at the residence of Jas Brison, Esq near Pittburgh, Pa on Nov 7, 1816.

Children of Redick and Eliza R McKee all born at Wheeling, West Virginia were: * John McKee b 12-01-1826 died 12-17-1893;

• William Ritchie McKee June 5, 1828 death date unknown;
• Andrew Wylie McKee 01-11-1830 died 01-11-1879;
• Charles Redick McKee 09-17-1831 died 06-13-1838;
• ELiza R McKee 4-30-1833 died 06-30-1833;
• Henry Martyn McKee 11-13-1834 died 03-24-1840;
• Sarah Louisa McKee 09-18-1836 death date unknown;
• Redick McKee Jr. 10-05-1838 died 02-18-1840 and
• David Ritchie McKee 09-17-1842 death unknown

The material that follows is from the Family Records of John McKee of McKeesport, Pa- father of Redick McKee. July 26, 1791

John McKee and Sally Redick are married. June 15, 1792 David their first child was born. He died May 10, 1793. July 31, 1794 John, Second child was born at McKeesport. August 18, 1797 Sally, third child born at McKeesport. December 7, 1800 Redick fourth child, born at McKeesport. September 15, 1818

• Joseph Irwin McDowell and Sally McKee were married at Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Mr McDowell died at Mobile Ala Aug 20, 1824, and on the 25th, same month, Sally his wife.
• In April, 1823 their first child, Mary, died at Mobile, aged 3 years and 4 months.
• Sarah Jane McDowell died at Pittburgh, March 12, 1825 aged 3 years.

Craig Ritchie born in Glasgow, Dec 29, 1758. Died at Cannonsburgh, Pa June 13, 1833 aged 74, (father of Eliza Ritchie)

RECORD

1. The first one hundred years of McKeesport. An historical and statistical description of the city from its inception until its centennial in 1894 Walter S. Abbott & William E Harrison compliers, 1894, McKeesport, Pa., Press of McKeesport Times pg Pg. 11-16

John McKee. - He has been stated, John McKee succeeded his father as the possessor of the McKee land at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers some time previous to his father's death. John McKee was the owner of McKee's Ferry and the founder of McKee's Port — afterwards the Borough and now the City of McKeesport. The McKee homestead was located outside of what became the town of McKeesport. viz: On the East side of Walnut street near the spot now occupied by the new portion of the iron works of the W. Dewees Wood Company. W. E. Harrison and probably one or two others of our oldest citizens, remember playing about the old log pile, the remains of the McKee home, which marked its location in their boyhood days. All traces of it disappeared many years ago.

John McKee was born in Ireland in 1746 and at the death of his father was fort3'-nine 3'ears of age. He was a man of fine presence, much energy and of infinite resources of mind and body. He had been very prosperous in his undertakings up to the date of the whiskey insurrection, ranking as one of the wealthiest men in Western Pennsylvania. Subsequent to the whiskey war his affairs became somewhat tangled and he suffered losses in large sums prior to the year 1795-

During that year he laid out the plan of McKee's Port on the site formerly known as McKee's Ferry. McKee's Port as he laid it out was bounded by the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers, Ninth street and Walnut street. The plan consisted of upwards of two hundred lots, sixty feet front and forty feet deep, each fronting a street and running back to an alley. The two principal streets. Market and Fourth, were eighty feet wide, all the others being sixty feet wide. All the lines ran at right angles and the plan is today - pronounced perfect, regret being expressed that the original lines were not continued in subsequent additions to the work so well begun by John McKee. Near the center of the new town Mr. McKee left a large area intended for market house purposes, which for many years has been known as the Diamond. Two lots each for church and school purposes were set aside and the remainder of the lots were offered for sale.

Mr. McKee adopted a novel plan to dispose of his town lots. He put the price of the lots at twenty dollars each, and by way of satisfying purchasers as to the selection of lots, he arranged a lottery scheme. The purchaser paid him ten dollars for which he received a numbered ticket and when the lottery drawing occurred, each man was assigned the lot his ticket drew, when, if he paid ten dollars additional, he received a deed for the property. There seems to have been no blanks in John McKee's lottery but if a ticket holder did not like the location of the lot he drew, he forfeited the ten dollars he paid for the ticket. Even in that early day the value of advertising was recognized and appreciated and John McKee accordingly made his lottery and land booming scheme known to the world through the columns of the Pittsburgh Gazette. W. E. Harrison has the advertisement clipped from that paper dated February 5. 1795, a valuable relic, a copy of which is herewith reproduced:

A NEW TOWN

IS laid out by the fubfcriber on the fpot known for many years paft by the name of M'Kees ferry-. The ground intended for the Town is de- lightfully fituated on a fine level point, at the junction of the Monongahela & Youghiogeny rivers about fixteen miles above Pittfburgh by water, and twelve only by land. The plan on which the Town is to be improved confifts of upwards of 200 lots of 60 feet front ; each lot having the advantage of a ftreet and an alley 20 feet wide, for the convenience of ftables etc. The principal ftreets are eighty feet wide the others fixty. Near the center of the Town is a large area or fquare intended for a market houfe. Forty eight of the lots front the two rivers Monongahela and Youghiogeny, Four lots will be given by the fubfcriber, for the ufe of a place of worfhip and a feminary of learning.

The fituation of this place is fo well known in the Weftern Country that it needs no enconium that can be given it but for the information of thofe perfons below the mountain who may wifh to become purchafers it may be neceffary to premife, that its fituation is one of the beft in the weftern country for trade and commerce, having the advantage of the two rivers Monongahela and Youghiogeny flowing under its banks, being near feveral grift and faw mills, clofe to what is called the Forks of Yough fettlement which is indifputable the richeft that we have it is at leaft 12 miles nearer to Philadelphia than Pittfburgh is, it has public roads laid out from it in different directions.

The price of each lot is to be 20 dollars, and one dollar ground to be paid annually. To avoid difputes the lot every purchafer, is to poffefs is to be decided b}' a Lottery, which will be held on the fpot on the iftday of April next. Each purchafer at the time of receiving liis ticket is to pay ten dollars, and the refidue when he draws his number and gets his deed. The majority of purchafers prefent at the drawing are to choofe the perfons who fhall draw the tickets, which perfons fhall point out the four lots to be appropriated to public ufes, prior to the drawing.

Tickets to be had of John Hannah mercht. Pittfburgh ; Andrew Swearingen Efqr. Wafhington ; lohn Taylor Efqr. Greenfburgh, lames Wallace Efqr. Carlifle, Peter Whitefide mercht. Mercerfburgh and of the fubfcriber on the premifes. - lOHN M'KEE.

N. B. A plan of the town with propofals annexed, may be feen at any of the above places. - February 5, 1795.

[The advertisement as it appears above was clipped from the Gazette by the late Judge Veech of Pittsburgh, formerly of Uniontown. About thirty-five years ago he gave the clipping to C. C. Taylor, Esq., then an attorney-at-law here, who presented it to W. E. Harrison, who has it preserved in a glass-covered frame].

The new town had not been formally christened and it was not until sometime in November 1795 that the name of McKeesport was finally determined upon. The lottery disposed of many of the lots, but we know little of the particulars of what modern land speculators would call a "boom," natural to follow the birth of a new town, claimed to possess many advantages over the village of Pittsburgh because it was "twelve miles nearer Philadelphia;" but we do know that many of the original purchasers abandoned their lots and refused to pay the taxes assessed against them. The omnipresent tax-gatherer kept charging up the taxes until the limits of patience had been exhausted and in the year 1834 a general clearing up of the tax muddle was inaugurated and about one half of the "lottery lots" were sold under the hammer for the delinquent taxes against them, at an average of less than ten dollars a lot.

Nevertheless, these apparent reverses did not prevent McKeesport from being something of a town. For instance it had, as a necessity, a graveyard outside the limits, just East of Walnut street and adjoining that portion of Ninth street which was afterwards laid out East of Walnut. This old graveyard was located by David McKee, father of John, and was not finally abandoned until the year 1872, when all the bodies, or what could be found of them, were removed to Versailles Cemetery…

John McKee died on January 11th, 1807, aged sixty-one years. His remains were placed by the side of his father in the old graveyard, previously described, where they rested quietly until the demands of later years made it necessary to abandon the old burying ground. Accordingly in 1872 the remains were removed by one of his relatives, the late William Whigham, to Versailles Cemetery where they are to-day, the location being marked by the original headstone erected by his family in the old graveyard. But a handsome granite monument to him as the " Founder of McKeesport " was erected over his remains (and those of his wife and his father), in 1887 b}' David R. McKee, as executor of the will of Redick McKee (son of John McKee, and born in McKeesport, December 7, 1800), who occasionally visited the old Borough and had many friends among its residents.

John McKee married Sally Redick, sister of Judge David Redick, of Washington County, Pa., whose pedigree is traceable back through the Hoges or “Hoags," Humes, Stewarts, "Reddochs," and Douglasses to the dawn of Scottish history, about the year 1100. Two of her grandnieces, Mrs. Jacob Burket and Mrs. John Merrington are still living and were recently residents of this city. A grandnephew, R. F. Ramsey, Esq., is living in Pittsburgh...

John McKee started McKeesport PA with a public announcement advertisement in the Pittsburgh Gazette on Feb-5-1795.

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Another gives an additional son George William McKay/McKee

• .......... 6 [1] MCKEE, John b: 1746 in Ireland d: 11 Jan 1807 in Mckees Port, Allegheny.Co.PA
• .......... +GOBEN, Sara d: 1789 in Mckeesport, Allegheny.Co.PA
• ..... 7 MCKEE, Margaret Marqery
• .... *2nd Wife of [1] MCKEE, John:
• .......... +REDICK, Sarah Sally b: Dec 1765 in Washington.Co.PA d: 15 Jul 1814 in Versailles, Allegheny.Co.PA m: 21 Jul 1791 in Cumberland Valley, PA
• ..... 7 MCKEE, David b: 15 Jun 1792 in Mckees Port, Allegheny.Co.PA d: 10 May 1793
• ..... 7 MCKEE, John b: 31 Jul 1794 in Mckees Port, Allegheny.Co.PA d: 1816
• ........... +BRISON, Sarah
• ..... 7 MCKEE, Sarah Ann b: 18 Aug 1797 in Mckees Port, Allegheny.Co.PA d: 25 Aug 1824 in Mobile, AL
• ........... +MCDOWELL, Joseph Irwin d: 20 Aug 1824 in Mobile, AL
• ..... 7 MCKEE, Redick b: 07 Dec 1800 in Mckees Port, Allegheny.Co.PA d: 13 Sep 1886 in Washington D.C.
• ........... +RITCHIE, Eliza b: 25 Jun 1802 in Cannonsburg, Washington.Co.PA d: 22 Apr 1871 in Washington D.C.
• ....... 8 MCKEE, Eight Children b: in WV
• ..... 7 MCKEE, George William McKay b: Bet. 1807 - 1810 in Mckees Port, Allegheny.Co.PA d: Abt. 26 Dec 1874
• ..... +CARTER, Ann Mariah b: 05 Dec 1807 in Mt. Pleasant, Frederick.Co.VA d: 05 Mar 1865 in Iroquois.Co.IL Burial: Brown Hill Cem, Iroquois.Co.IL m: 22 Oct 1829 in Brides parents home, Fairfield, Butler.Co.OH Father: Nathaniel CARTER Mother: Ann Elizabeth MCCLINTOCK

McKee surname Fayette County Iowa primary interest Geo. Wm. Mckee line

also found:

Redrick McKee, Colonel

• MyHeritage Family Trees
• Wehage Family Tree in Wehage Web Site, managed by Connie Wehage (Contact)
• Birth: Dec 7 1800 - McKeesport, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
• Death: Sep 13 1886 - Berkeley Springs, Morgan, West Virginia
• Parents: John Mckee (Born Mckee), Sarah "sally" Mckee, Miss (born Redick)
• Siblings: David Mckee, John Henry Mckee, Sarah Ann (Sally) Mcdowell (born Mckee), Redick Mckee, George Mckee

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GEDCOM Source

@R1103364057@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=156739478&pi...

GEDCOM Source

@R1103364057@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=156739478&pi...