BIO: George A. McKEAGE, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 869 & 870.
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  GEORGE A. McKEAGE, general merchant and a leading citizen of Burnside, Pa., 
was born May 11, 1856, at Cherry Tree, Indiana county, Pa., a son of Robert and 
Jane (Atchison) McKeage.
  Robert McKeage was born at Egg Harbor, N. J.  When he came to establish 
himself in business in Pennsylvania, he located at Cherry Tree, where he 
operated a saw mill, acquired timber lands and rafted lumber and also was 
interested in a grist mill at this point.  He married Jane Atchison, a daughter 
of George and Katie (McClellan) Atchison, the latter of whom belonged to the 
same family into which Gen. George B. McClellan, of Civil war fame, was born.
  George Atchison, the maternal grandfather of George A. McKeage, was born in 
County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1792.  In his boyhood while out hunting he 
rendered himself liable to prosecution of having broken the Tenant law and in 
order to escape imprisonment, fled to America.  In Center county, Pa., he was 
married and with his wife settled in the mountains, far from any settlement and 
in order to procure the necessities of life had to walk long distances through 
regions filled with wild and dangerous animals, and carried food back to his 
family often at the risk of his life.  He was a radical Abolitionist and was one 
of the conductors of the so-called Underground Railway, the medium through which 
many slaves, prior to the Civil war, escaped bondage and found freedom in 
Canada.  In 1845 he built a fine mansion by the side of the log cabin in which 
he had previously lived, but this was subsequently destroyed by fire.  In this 
house he had contrived a secret chamber, in which he hid many escaping slaves, 
but this was never discovered until 1876.  Some years before his death he moved 
to Cherry Tree, Pa.  The paternal grandfather of Mr. McKeage, was Cornelius 
McKeage who was born in County Latrone, Ireland, and it is said of him that he 
built the first saw mill in Clearfield county.
  To Robert and Jane McKeage the following children were born:  George A.; 
William, who is a resident of Cherry Tree; Margaret, who is the wife of E. B. 
McCormick, a merchant at Cherry Tree; Jennie, who is the wife of D. E. Notley, 
of Cherry Tree; Emily, who is the wife of J. M. Notley, of Cherry Tree; and 
John, who lives at Pittsburg.
  After his school days were over, George A. McKeage worked for his father until 
he was twenty-five years old.  He then married and for some years followed 
farming in Indiana county, afterward moving to Hillsdale, Pa., where he was in 
the mercantile business for ten years.  In 1900 he came to Burnside and embarked 
in the mercantile business here and has additional interests.
  Mr. McKeage married Miss Annabelle Ake, who was born August 17, 1863, at 
Gettysburg, Pa., a daughter of Jacob G. and Elizabeth (Nottley) Ake.  Jacob G. 
Ake was born in 1811 and his wife in 1820.  She was a daughter of John Nottley, 
who was born February 14, 1879, in Ireland, where he married Elizabeth Flanegan, 
who was born in 1792.  John Nottley and wife emigrated to Quebec, Can., in a 
sailing vessel, in 1829, passing ten weeks on the Atlantic Ocean.  Later they 
came to the United States.  Jacob G. Ake was a son of Daniel and Mary (Higgins) 
Ake.  Mr. and Mrs. McKeage have two children:  Mayme, who is the wife of Carl 
Eugene Patchin, of Burnside; and John A., who is associated with his father in 
business.