John T. McKee Biography


	This biography appears on pages 494-497 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				JOHN T. McKEE. 

	John T. McKee, an enterprising agriculturist residing on section 
2, Sioux Falls township, is widely recognized as one of the worthy 
native sons and influential citizens of Minnehaha county, South Dakota. 
His birth occurred in Sioux Falls on the 17th of September, 1876, his 
parents being John and Ella (Brooks) McKee, the former a native of 
Belfast, Ireland, and the latter of Dodge county, Wisconsin. The 
father, who learned the trade of a harness maker in the Emerald isle, 
emigrated to the United States in 1865 as a youth of eighteen years and 
stopped for a short time in New York city. Subsequently he removed to 
Pennsylvania and in 1871 came to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where in 
the fall of that year he embarked in the harness business in the old 
barracks building. Some years later he moved his shop but afterward 
returned to the barracks building, where he was actively engaged in 
business until his death on the 2d of March, 1913, being at the time of 
his demise the oldest business man in the city. Just a year prior to 
his death Mr. McKee erected a new business structure on the site of the 
old barracks building and pulled up the old pump used in the barracks. 
He won a gratifying and well merited measure of success in his 
undertakings and acquired valuable city properties, also owning three 
hundred and twenty acres of farm land where our subject now lives, The 
period of his residence in Sioux Falls covered forty-two years and he 
enjoyed an enviable reputation as one of its leading business men and 
most respected citizens. He was one of the prominent Masons of the city 
and also an influential factor in local politics, his popularity and 
the trust reposed in him by his fellow citizens being indicated in the 
fact that he served as democratic county commissioner in this 
republican stronghold for about nine years. 

	It was in Sioux Falls that John McKee was united in marriage to 
Miss Ella Brooks, whose father was killed in a runaway when she was 
only four years- old, and in 1870 she was brought to South Dakota by 
her mother and stepfather, William Howie, who settled in Sioux Falls. 
Here she grew to womanhood and by her marriage became the mother of 
four children, namely: Nellie, now the wife of Dr. Bowen, of Hartford, 
South Dakota; John T., of this review; Mayme, the wife of B. T. 
Stapleton, of Sioux Falls; and Anna, the wife of Wayne Webster, of the 
same city. The mother still lives in the old home at No. 503 South 
Dakota avenue, where as a bride she and her husband began housekeeping. 

	John T. McKee acquired his education in the public schools of his 
native city and also pursued a course of study in the Sioux Falls 
Business College. Subsequently he began the study of pharmacy but at 
the end of about a year in a Sioux Falls drug store was advised by the 
physician to obtain outdoor work. Accordingly he turned his attention 
to general agricultural pursuits and during the past eighteen years has 
cultivated a tract of land in Sioux Falls township, on section 2, which 
his father had acquired. Three years ago he came into possession of the 
southwest quarter of section 2, on which his residence and farm 
buildings stand. His undertakings as an agriculturist have been 
attended with gratifying results, for he follows practical, modern 
methods in the work of the fields and annually gathers bounteous 
harvests. 

	On the 1st of June, 1898, Mr. McKee was united in marriage to 
Miss Cora Baldwin, of Hudson, Iowa, by whom he has two children, Roland 
and John. He gives his political allegiance to the democracy and has 
served as a member of the school board for several years, the cause of 
education ever finding in him a stanch champion. In religious faith he 
is an Episcopalian, and in the community where his entire life has been 
spent he is widely recognized as an upright, esteemed and 
representative citizen.