“Mary McKee”

Family notes

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

• Alexander McKee (ca. 1735 – 15 January 1799)
• 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.

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.

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 ...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 alligned 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,.... 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, ..."

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This tree comes from the books: Green, Don with Schultz, Noel. Shawnee Heritage I. Second Edition. Published by Lulu.com. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4357-1573-8./ Green, Don. Shawnee Heritage II. First Edition, Published by Lulu.com. 2008. ISBN: 978-0-557-03605-9.

Loyparkoweh Straight Tail aka Loyparkoweh Opessa born about 1702 or 1705 and died after 1760. His first wife was Nancy. She was born about 1706 or 1710 in Maryland and died after 1752 in Alabama. Their children were:

• 1 . Tecumsapah - Margaret Opessa born about 1724 or 1725. By 1737 she was married to Thomas McKee, born about 1695 and died 1772 in Harrisburg, PA, adopted Irish. Their children:

• Alexander "Trader" McKee born 1738
  
• Nancy McKee born 1740
  
• Hugh McKee born 1742
  
• Catherine McKee born 1744
  
• Child McKee born 1746
  
• Child McKee born 1748
  
• Thomas McKee born 1750
  
• Child McKee born 1752
  
• John McKee born 1754
  
• James McKee born 1755
  

She was the step mother of the sons of Thomas McKee by his previous marriage:

• Thomas -Pelewiechen McKee born 1720 - white, adopted Delaware
  
• Col. Alexander -Wapimescheu - White Elk McKee born 1725 - white, adopted Shawnee, died 1799, Ontario, Canada.
  

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320. THOMAS MCKEE, born Abt. 1693 in IRELAND; died 1769 in Paxtang, Lancaster Co., Penn. He was the son of 640. ALEXANDER "MacKey" MCKEE. He married 321. SHAWNEE INDIAN TECUMSAPAH Abt. 1715 in probably Penn. Child of THOMAS MCKEE and Irish girl is:

• i. Alexander McKee, born Abt. 1720; died 1799 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada; married Indian Maiden.

Children of THOMAS MCKEE and SHAWNEE TECUMSAPAH are:

• i. Nancy McKee.
• ii. Elizabeth McKee.
• iii. Catherine McKee, married ? Greydon.
• iv. James McKee, born Abt. 1725; died 1782 in CUMBERLAND CO., PA; married (1) Maiden Indian; married (2) Elizabeth Verner.
• 160 v. HUGH MCKEE, born Abt. 1730 in Penn; died May 1795 in Peters, Franklin Co., Penn; married MARY NESBIT Abt. 1750.

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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.

Tecumpsah McKee (born Powhatan)

• FamilySearch Family Tree
• Birth: 1658 - Derry, County Londonderry, Ireland
• Parents: Eleventh Son Powhatan, Mrs Eleventh Son Powhatan
• Husband: Alexander William McKee
• Children: Sarah Sallie Larimer (born McKee), Alexander or White Elk McKee

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

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...

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.

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. ... source notes at end of chapter:

11-12 A romanticized version of the marriage of Thomas McKee to "beautiful Maiden" may be found in Margaret Wister Meigs, 'True Tales of Fort Hunter', 1933. A legend has circulated that Mary was Tecumapease of Meneqaulakoosee, the sister of Tecumseh.
Stephen Rubbell gives such an account as cited in Benjamin Drake, Tecumseh, 1852.
Descendants of the McKees conducted correspondence in 1875, which disclosed the existence of a legend that the mother of Alexander McKee was a member of Tescumseh's family, possibly an aunt. See Colonel Arthur McKee Rankin to Attie, February 19, 1875 quoted in Raymond McKee, The Book of McKee, pg. 435-437

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* Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Dec 11 2020, 15:55:55 UTC

• https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Tecumsapah-Margaret_Opessa_%28... Has as 3rd wife
• Pekowi was the name of one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Mekoche, Kispoko, and Hathawekela. Together these divisions formed the loose confederacy that was the Shawnee tribe.