Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....McKee, William L. 1856 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 23, 2007, 11:10 pm

Author: Emma E. Forter (1917)

WILLIAM L. McKEE.

    William L. McKee, one of Center township's best-known and most substantial
farmers and the proprietor of a quarter of a section of fine land in that
township, a part of the section upon which his father settled upon coming to
Kansas in the early days of the settlement of Marshall county, is a native of
the Dominion of Canada, but has been a resident of Marshall county since the
days of his boyhood and has therefore been a witness to and a participant in the
development of this county since pioneer times. He was born on a farm in Smith
township, five miles from Peterborough, in the county of that name, province of
Ontario, Canada, June 4, 1856, eldest of the seven children of John and Mary Ann
(Findlay) McKee, both natives of Ireland, of Scottish descent, who became
pioneers of Marshall county and here spent their last days.

    John McKee was born in County Donegal, Ireland, October 23, 1828, and was
but an infant when his parents emigrated to Canada in 1830 and settled in
Peterborough county, Ontario. There he grew to manhood and in Smith township,
that county, began farming on his own account after his marriage in 1852,
remaining there until the fall of 1869, when he came to Kansas on a prospecting
trip and in September of that year bought a section of railroad land in Center
township, this county, section 17, for which he paid five dollars and
twenty-five cents an acre. He then returned to his home in Canada, disposed of
his affairs there and brought his family to Kansas, arriving at Frankfort on
January 15, 1871. The first month was spent with his brother, William McKee,
three and one-half miles south of his homestead, and there the family remained
while a house was being erected on the place in section 17. The house was built
in the center of the section and into that new home the family moved in August,
1871.

John McKee was an excellent farmer and it was not long until he began to get his
section under cultivation, quickly becoming regarded as one of the leading
farmers and stockmen in that part of the county. Among the early improvements he
made on his place was the planting of an orchard covering twenty acres of his
tract and a vineyard covering a half acre or more, that orchard developing into
one of the finest orchards in Kansas. He also planted long stretches of hedge
and the improvements surrounding his home made of the place one of the most
attractive farm plants in the county. Mr. and Mrs. McKee were members of the
Baptist church and upon the organization of a congregation of that denomination
in that neighborhood, the Center Baptist church, Mr. McKee donated two and
one-half acres of the southeast corner of his section on which to erect the
church, of which for years he was a deacon. Mrs. McKee died on April 20, 1890,
and in October, 1896, Mr. McKee retired from the farm and moved to Marysville,
where, alternating his residence there with visits to his children, he spent the
rest of his life, his death occurring on August 29, 1913. He was an ardent
Republican and ever gave his earnest attention to local civic affairs, but was
never a seeker after public office.

    On June 11, 1852, John McKee was united in marriage, in Canada, to Mary Ann
Findlay, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, March 4, 1835, and who was thirteen
years of age when she emigrated with her parents, William Findlay and wife, to
Canada, the family settling in the Peterborough neighborhood in Ontario, where
she lived until her marriage to Mr. McKee. To that union seven children were
born, of whom the subject of this sketch, as noted, above, was the first-born,
the others being as follows: Mrs. T. M. Bishop, of Frankfort, this county; Nina,
who married S. M. Ferrell and is now living at Vance, Mississippi; Florence,
wife of Theodore Polack, of Marysville; Susan, deceased, who was the wife of
Allen Reed, also now deceased, and Robert and John, twins, who died before the
family left Canada.
    William L. McKee was fifteen years of age when he came to Marshall county
with his parents in 1871 and he ever since has made his home on the home place
in section 17 of Center township, a period of more than forty-five years. From
the time the family came to Marshall county he was a valuable assistant to his
father in the labors of developing and improving the home place and is now the
owner of the northwest quarter of the section his father bought upon coming
here. In addition to that he farms another quarter section and is doing very
well in his operations, conducting his place along modern lines of agriculture,
being accounted one of the up-to-date farmers in that part of the county.

     On October 20, 1896, William L. McKee was united in marriage to Louise
Fitzgerald, who also was born in Smith township, Peterborough county, Ontario,
January 14, 1867, daughter of Thomas Edward and Agnes (Hall) Fitzgerald, who
were born and reared in Canada, the former of Irish and the latter of Scottish
descent, who spent all their lives in their native land. To this union one child
has been born, a son, Maxwell Fitzgerald McKee, born on April 23, 1898, who is
assisting his father in the management of the home farm. Mr. McKee is a member
of the Center Baptist church and Mrs. McKee, of the Methodist church of
Marysville. They take a proper interest in church affairs as well as in other
neighborhood good works and have ever been helpful in promoting worthy causes
thereabout. Mr. McKee is a Republican and takes a warm interest in political
affairs, but has never been included in the office-seeking class.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions
by
Emma E. Forter

Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917)


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/mckee486gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/

File size: 6.3 Kb