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"THOMAS McKEE & ALEXANDER McKEE

Title: History of Pittsburgh and environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution Vol. 1 / By George Thornton Fleming.
Author: Fleming, George Thornton, 1855-1928.

pg. 168
“...Of the early traders on the Allegheny, and that meant to the Ohio region also, there must be mentioned THOMAS McKEE, whose family name has been preserved in McKees Rocks. THOMAS McKEE was the father of ALEXANDER McKEE, a notorious Tory leader at Fort Pitt during the Revolution, who fled to the British in 1778 in company with Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty and some others. THOMAS McKEE was a licensed trader on the Susquehanna as early as 1742, and “at Allegheny” in 1753. He served as a captain in the French and Indian War. He has frequent mention in Pennsylvania Colonial Records and Archives and other Pennsylvania histories and in Dr. Egle’s “Notes and Queries.” In 1764 ALEXANDER McKEE received the grant of 1,400 acres at the mouth of Chartiers Creek. On the lower side of the creek is the famous rock that has given name to a great industrial town, the “Petit Rocher” of De Lery’s and the “Written Rock” of Celoron’s mention.

THOMAS McKEE adventures and perils would more than fill a chapter. He was one of the best known traders on the Susquehanna, having had a trading post on Big Island, now Haldeman’s Island, at the mouth of the Juaniata, and was also of the class of traders (pg. 169) called in history the Shamokin traders, and one of the most noted; others, John Fisher, John Hart, James Le Tort, Antony Sadowsky, and John (or Jack) Armstrong, who was murdered by a revengeful Delaware in 1744 at the gorge in the Juniata, since known as Jack’s Narrows. Darlington calls THOMAS McKEE the chief Indian trader on the Susquehanna for many years, and states that he built Fort McKEE, a border outpost on the Susquehanna, in 1756. Some accounts make McKEE’S wife a Shawanese woman; others a white woman captured by that nation on one of their raids in the Carolinas and adopted and reared among them. Hanna draws the deduction that this explains why the son ALEXANDER should have inherited a half savage nature, which he thinks was developed by the long residence of his father among the savages as a trader, and ALEXANDER’S own lifelong association with savages. This latter fact would be more striking if his mother had been a Shawanese. The Rev. David Jones found ALEXANDER in 1773 living near Chilicothe, Ohio, and added a line in is “Journal:” “Here the captain’s Indian relatives live.” THOMAS McKEE had another son, JAMES, who remained on the McKee’s Rocks tract, and he became the ancestor of the many descendants in and about Pittsburgh. JAMES’ name is found on the “List of Persons well disposed to His Majesty’s Government,” which was furnished that government by Lord Dunmore in 1775, and thought to have been prepared by the notorious Dr. Connolly, Dunmore’s tool at Fort Pitt. However, there was nothing prima facie particularly obnoxious in that, for this list contains the names of Colonel William Crawford, his brother Valentine, his half-brother, John Stephenson, and his nephew, William Harrison, Thomas Gist and others, subsequently proven patriots. These were, however, Virginia adherents prior to the Revolution, in opposition to the Pennsylvania party headed by Arthur St. Clair, Devereaux Smith, Aeneas Mackay and Andrew McFarlane.

ALEXANDER McKEE was the Tory leader at Pittsburgh. He was a man of some education and wide influence on the border. He, too, was a trader among the Indians, and for twelve years prior to the Revolution had been the King’s deputy agent for Indian affairs at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had served as a justice of the peace in Westmoreland county. He was intimately acquainted with most of the Indians chiefs of the Ohio Valley, and spoke their tongues. As the Rev. Jones attests, he had an Indian family among the Shawanese. He divided his time between his Pittsburgh cabin and his farm at McKees Rocks. Both THOMAS and ALEXANDER took part in many conferences with the Western Indians at Fort Pitt, the first, July 4, 1759, where there were present, according to the minutes, “George Croghan, Deputy Agent to the Hon. Sir William Johnson, Baronet: Col. Hugh Mercer, Commandant at Pittsburgh; a number of officers of the Garrison; Capt. (pg. 170) William Trent and CAPT. THOMAS McKEE, assistants to G. Croghan, Esq., and Capt. Henry Montour, Interpreter.” Most likely THOMAS McKEE was also at the conference at the same place, October 25, 1759, as the records read: “Present His Excellency, Brigadier Gen. Stanwix, with sundry other gentlemen of the army; George Croghan, Esq., and sundry assistants.

ALEXANDER McKEE’S name first appears in the minutes of a conference held with the chiefs of the Senecas living on the Ohio, the Delawares and Shawanese, October 17, 1764; present, “Col. Henry Bouquet, Commanding His Majesty’s forces in the Southern District, etc.” ALEXANDER McKEE is set down as assistant agent for Indian affairs, and doubtless at all of Bouquet’s conferences at that time though not always recorded as present. He is recorded as present at Dunmore’s council with the Delawares and Mingoes in the fall of 1774, and still “Deputy Agent, etc.” WASHINGTON dined with ALEXANDER McKEE on his journey down the Ohio to the Kanawha region, as he records in his Journal, October 20, 1770; however, he spells the name “MAGEE.” McKEE, Croghan and Lieutenant Hamilton of the garrison at Fort Pitt, had set out from Pittsburgh with Washington’s party, and continued with them to Logstown. ALEXANDER McKEE was during the Revolution a British agent among the Shawanese on the Miami river. More concerning him will be noted in the chapter detailing events at Pittsburgh during the Revolution.