Newaygo County MI Archives Biographies.....McKie, Charles February 26, 1825 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 March 17, 2009, 7:36 pm

Author: Chapman Brothers

CHARLES McKIE, farmer, section 18, Bridgeton Township, was born near the St. 
Lawrence River, 50 miles west 

of Montreal, Feb. 26, 1825, and is a son of James and Elizabeth (Campbell) 
McKie, both of whom were of 

Canadian birth and respectively of French and Scotch descent.  His parents 
went to Glengarry, Can., when 

he was five years old, where he remained until he had reached the age of 23 
years.  He had been reared as 

a farm laborer, and in 1848 went to Dt. Lawrence Co., N.Y., where he found 
employment for some time as a 

millwright, afterwards engaging in farming.  He remained there until the fall 
of 1854, when he came to 

Michigan and settled in Newaygo County, at the point known as the "Plain," 
where he entered upon the 

business of rafting on the Muskegon River and otherwise interesting himself in 
the lumber business.  In 

March 1856, he secured a tract of land of the Government in (now) Bridgeton 
Township, by making a deposit 

with a condition attached giving him 30 days' grace.  His fellow lumbermen 
made a bee on easter Sunday of 

that year and built his house.  No time could be afforded during the week, and 
the near expiration of the 

marginal time made the erection of the building on that day necessary.  The 
INdians located in the 

neighborhood urged him to avail himself of their hospitable invitations, to 
place his wife and two 

children under the shelter of their tents; and he wishes to record his 
appreciation of the liberal 

kindness he and his family receivd at their hands.  He remained over night in 
their care, and the next day 

he set himself vigorously at work to render his rude hut suitable for the 
accommodation of his family.  A 

nice residence, built at a cost of $1,000, replaces the pioneer home, and 65 
acres of the then unbroken 

forest are cleared and otherwise improved.

Mr. McKie was married April 7, 1850, at Burlington, Vt., to Anna, daughter of 
James and Mary (Ragen) 

Shehan.  Parents and daughter are natives of Limerick, Ireland, where the 
latter was born June 1, 1832.  

The father and mother came to the United States in her infancy and located at 
Quebec.  They went thence to 

Montreal and later to Lancaster, Glengarry County, ONt., where the daughter 
remained until the fall of 

1849, when she went to Burlington, Vermont, and resided there until she was 
married.  She has become the 

mother of nine children, born in the following order:  Charles J., Feb. 17, 
1851; James E., Nov. 16, 1853 

(died May 5, 1854); William P., March 25, 1854; John A., March 25, 1860; 
Elizabeth A., Aug. 25, 1865; 

Alice M., April 8, 1867; Mary A., July 12, 1869 (died April, 1870); Georgie 
A., April 1870 (died April 15, 

1871); Robert H., Dec. 22, 1871.

Mr. McKie is a Democrat in political sentiment, and has held most of the local 
offices in the township.

Additional Comments:
1884 Portrait & Bio Album of Newaygo County.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/newaygo/bios/mckie285nbs.txt

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