Joseph G Mckee

His was passed down to son Robert James his second wife and the grandchildren of his children from his first marriage appear to receive nothing from his estate

Registration in the Sixties and What It Meant

Some time in the Civil War (the idea of calling any war civil) an election was due in Sparta. Though too young then to vote the writer went. At the polls Mr. Joe McKee asked to ride back with us as we passed close to his house on our return; in fact forded the Lick Branch itself.

Lest I forget it later on I will say “Lick” Branch was so called because of “deer licks” on its banks. Once I saw one of these “licks” and could go close to the spot yet I think. The poor deer are long ago gone, and the “licks” too. The white man was too much for the deer and the Indians as well. It begins to look as if the white man is too much for everything brute or human. He has killed off most of them, and is now killing himself and his fellow man.

He is a gay fellow, this white man. “Pray to God, and take care of yourself,” is his slogan today. How men will wonder some day that such a thought is today the title of a book

Joe was worried and mad and we soon discovered what was wrong. He had neglected to register, and each party closely watched the other for such delinquents. Joe was one of them this time, and the Democrats had promptly challenged him.

As he got in the wagon, father wanted him to get in the spring seat with us.

“No,” he wouldn’t and didn’t but sat down on the straw in the bottom of the wagon bed, his back braced against one side of the bed, his feet against the other. He was chewing tobacco vigorously and spitting vindictively. He shook his head menacingly, grumbled constantly, sometimes in a low voice to himself, but often he turned and directed some remark to us, when the thought of the indignities which has been heaped upon him became too heavy to bear.

This went on the whole road back home, some six miles or more. Finally with his right hand clenched and raised high over his head he wrathfully exclaimed: “I voted in Sparta when it was Columbus, and today I had to swear in me vote.” - - - from Early History of the Flack School District Randolph County, Illinois by J. B. GORDON, M.D. published by Sparta News-Plaindealer, Sparta, Illinois. Pages 9-10

McKee—At his home in Six Mile Prairie, on Monday evening, February 11, Mr. Joseph MCKEE, aged 80 years. Mr. MCKEE was one of the oldest inhabitants of this vicinity, and was a man of marked individuality and character. He has numerous friends who grieve to hear of his death. - - - Sparta Plaindealer, Tuesday, 19 Feb 1884, Page 4