William McKEE (~1785-1842) +
Catherine ROBINSON (~1788-1870)

Nancy Catherine (~1806-~1839) — m. Tilghman Anderson Cantrell on 3 Mar 1823

William C. (11 Jun 1807-26 Mar 1879) — m. Matilda Tanksley about 1830; m. Julia Ann Osborn Holtsclaw on 15 Oct 1848

Mary “Polly” (~1809-????) — m. Ezekiel Evans about 1826

Elizabeth (~1811-????) — m. John W. Robinson

Levisa (19 Mar 1814-10 Aug 1859) — m. William W. Day on 7 Jan 1829

Phoebe (31 May 1816-17 May 1886) — m. Isaac Coffman on 8 Mar 1834; m. William Wood on 11 Jan 1844

Calitha (~1817-????) — poss. m. John Walker in 183x

James (~1819-????) — m. Louisa Jane Best

John (~1821-????) — m. Martha Wiles; m. Cynthia Hendrix Rider

Fanny (~1825-????)

Catherine (~1827-4 Jun 1855) — m. James Robertson on 12 Jan 1843

Weathy (~1829-????)

Charles P. P. (~1834-????) -- NOT SURE

William was born in South Carolina. His parents were Major William H. MacKay and Margaret ???, both from South Carolina. His mother is believed to have died about 1788, and his father remarried twice. The family moved to Tennessee when William was in his teens. Note that the spelling of the family name is quite flexible. McKee, MacKee, MacKey, McKey, MacKay, it’s all good.

Catherine was born in Tennessee, parents unknown.

William and Catherine married on 20 Aug 1804 in Carter County, Tennessee, which is in the northeastern tip of the state right up against the border with North Carolina. They might have lived before or after this in Bristol, which straddles the border with Virginia.

By 1830, they had settled in Jefferson County, Tennessee, where the census first found them. It listed William McKee and wife as a man and woman in their 40s, with an older woman in her 60s – probably Catherine’s mother – and ten presumed children: a man and woman in their 20s, a girl age 15-19, a girl and boy 10-14, two girls and a boy 5-9, and two girls under 5.

The 1840 census for Jefferson County listed two families each headed by a William McKee, almost certainly our William and his eldest son. One consisted of a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s, with a woman in her 20s, two girls and a boy age 15-19, and a boy age 5-9. The other was a man and woman in their thirties, with two boys and a girl age 5-9 and two boys under 5.

William reportedly died about 1842.

In the 1850 census, Catharine (60) was heading a household that included Fany (24), Weathy (21), Charles P. P. (15), William L. (6), Sarah J. (4), and another William (0). I’m guessing the three older ones were Catherine’s children and the three younger were her grandchildren, but that’s just a guess.

The 1870 for Jefferson County listed Catharine (82) as “now dead”, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a census before. Her death must have been recent. She was listed as such for the household of her daughter Elizabeth Robinson (59) and grandson Claiborn H. Robinson (21), “a cripple”.

Children

A lot of people from Tennessee headed west in the decades after the Civil War. That’s probably part of why several of the children of William and Catherine remain untraced.

Nancy Catherine McKee (~1806-~1839)

Nancy married Tilghman Anderson Cantrell (1803-11 Jun 1897) from North Carolina on 3 Mar 1823. Known children:

Nancy Catherine (1824-1895) — m. John Turner about 1838

William G. (23 Nov 1826-18 Jul 1902) — m. Rebecca Clementine Jamison in 1846

Lavicy (~1829-????)

James Miller (~1831-~1857)

Andrew David (2 Sep 1834-20 Jun 1881) — m. Frances Arimetta Benbrook in 1858; m. Mary Lucinda Byrd

George S. (19 Jun 1838-10 Jan 1918) — m. Catherine Jane Taylor in 1858

Tilghman A., Jr. (~1839-~1863)

The 1830 census for Jefferson County listed them as a couple in their twenties, with a girl age 5-9 and a boy and girl under 5. Don’t know who the younger girl was. The 1840 census for Dekalb County, Tennessee (between Nashville and Knoxville) had “Tilmond Cantrel”, a man in his thirties, with no wife and three children: a boy and girl age 15-19, and a girl 10-14. Apparently Nancy died in 1839 or 1840. On 16 Aug 1842 Tilghman married Jane Black Jamison (16 Apr 1821-8 Apr 1893). They moved to Alabama, where the 1850 and 1860 censuses show them. Tilghman died in Texas in 1897.

William C. McKee (1807-1879)

William married Matilda Tankersley in Tennessee around 1830. Their children:

Commodore Perry (1839-25 Jul 1862) — m. Elizabeth Blecker on 27 Jul 1860

Emily/Emma (1841-????) — m. ??? Click

About 1840 he moved to Vigo County, Indiana, where Matilda died. In 1848 he relocated to Richland Township, Greene County, Indiana, where he married a young widow, Julia Ann Osborn Holtsclaw (7 Feb 1828-24 Jan 1883), who had a son, Zachary, by her previous husband. Their children:

Parilla (20 Aug 1849-14 Feb 1927) — m. William H. Timmons in 1867

Lewis C. (~1852-????) — poss. m. Eliza ???

Sarah E. (1854-????)

William B. (26 Aug 1856-18 Jun 1885) — m. Eliza A.

Charles Tankersley “Charlie” (23 Feb 1858-5 Aug 1930) — m. Hope Delight Buell on 10 Sep 1889

Julia Ann (Aug 1863-2 May 1935) — m. David R. Kidd on 20 Mar 1881

The 1850 and 1860 censuses showed the family in Richland Township. William died in 1879 in Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana. He is buried in Tulip Cemetery there.

This family’s son Lewis was not the Howard County, Indiana man named Seneca Lewis McKee (1853-1900).

Mary “Polly” McKee (~1809-????)

Polly married Ezekiel “Zeke” Evans (1797-1870) about 1826. Their children:

Eliza Jane (11 Nov 1832-29 Dec 1900) — m. William Thomas Osborne on 7 Nov 1851

Mary E. (~1836-????)

Nancy A. (1838-????)

Minerva S. (1841-????)

James R. (~1844-????)

Augustus Porter (5 May 1845-12 Sep 1923) — m. Beersheba Walker on 16 Dec 1869; m. Susan ??? about 1893

Laura (~1847-????)

Sarah (~1850-????)

Maria F. (~1851-15 Feb 1930) — m. Yorber? Yarbrough?

Cynthia (1853-????)

The 1850 and 1860 censuses listed them in Jefferson County. In 1860 their children, listed by initials only, were Minerva (18), James (16), Augustine (14), Laura (12), Maria (9), and Cynthia (7). No Sarah? In 1870 they were in Grainger County, and still had Sarah, Maria, and Cynthia at home, plus an unexplained girl named Sarah Anderson. Can’t find them after 1870.

Elizabeth McKee (~1811-????)

Elizabeth married John W. Robinson (~1797-185x) in probably the late 1820s. Their children that I know of:

Tennessee (~1833-????)

William N. (~1835-????)

Jeremiah (1845-????)

Claiborn H. (~1848-????)

The 1850 census, which got their surname as Robison, had them still in Jefferson County with all four children. (Tennessee was a guy, by the way.) John apparently died in the 1850s. In 1860, the three youngest were still with Elizabeth. In 1870, Elizabeth was in Grainger County with Claiborn, who was crippled – whether temporarily or permanently it doesn’t say. Her mother Catherine had been living with her, but had recently died. In 1880, with surname misrecorded as Roberson, Elizabeth and Claiborne were in Hamblen County. Claiborne was listed as a married farmer, no mention of being crippled, but no wife in residence. I can’t find them after 1880.

Levisa McKee (~1814-1859)

Levisa in 1829 married William Weaver Day (10 Sep 1810-18 Sep 1890), whose family had come south from what is now West Virginia and reportedly suffered losses from an Indian attack. Their children:

Steven Lorenzo (1 Apr 1833-7 Nov 1900) — m. Sarah “Sally” Hatfield on 28 Dec 1854

Katherine (1 Mar 1835-15 Dec 1837)

Nancy (7 Mar 1837-Feb 1862) — m. Charles Edward Tappana about 1860

John E. (7 Jun 1839-????) — m. ??? in 1864

George Alexander (14 Dec 1841-????) — m. ??? about 1866

James Adam (26 Jan 1845-Nov 1848)

Sarah Jane (3 Sep 1847-Jan 1849)

William F. (15 Dec 1849-Jul 1851)

Levisa (~1850-????) — prob. died young

Joel Benton (27 Jul 1852-27 Oct 1929) — m. Rebecca J. Cox on 22 Jun 1876

Charles (1858-1859)

Between children 4 and 5 – so, around 1840 – they moved from Tennessee to Cass County, Missouri. Life in Missouri must have been difficult, as at least four of their children died there in the 1840s and 1850s. Levisa died in 1859, and is buried in Virgil City Cemetery, Virgil City, Vernon County, Missouri. In the 1860 census, William’s household in Sherman Township, Cass County included sons George and Joel, an Elizabeth Day (42) from Tennessee (not his wife – probably his younger sister), and an unexplained girl named Catherine McKee, age 9 (stepdaughter? niece of Levisa?). William remarried to Louisiana Ann “Lucy” Cummins from Kentucky on 21 Oct 1860, and had at least four more children. He died in 1890, and is buried in Austin Cemetery, Austin, Cass County, Missouri.

Calitha McKee (~1817-????)

Calitha reportedly married John Walker. 1850 through 1880 census records in Jefferson and later Grainger County show a John Walker (~1816-????) and wife variously identified as Lalitha, C., Letha, and Saletha with their children. This might have been her, but at least one familysearch.org source has identified her as the “Selety” Carter who married John Walker in 1838.

Phoebe McKee (1816-1886)

Phoebe has her own entry in the family tree.

James McKee (~1819-????)

James reportedly married Louisa Jane Best. Cannot confirm.

John McKee (~1821-????)

John reportedly married Martha Wiles, and then Cynthia Hendrix Rider. Cannot confirm.

Fanny McKee (~1825-????)

TBD

Catherine McKee (~1827-1855)

Catherine married James Robertson (25 Dec 1824-12 Sep 1888). They lived in Hawkins County, Tennessee, where the 1850 census found them. Children:

James Allen (31 Mar 1845-18 Jan 1914) — m. Ann Elizabeth Keithley on 22 Mar 1868

Ewell Woodson (1 Sep 1846-24 Jan 1878) — m. Emma Matilda Stanley on 7 Jul 1870

Luther Thomas (Oct 1849-????) — m. Missouri Ann Lewis on 11 Sep 1870

Catherine (1853-????) — m. Adolphus Harrison Tanner on 31 May 1874

Agnes (1855-1855)

About 1854, like older sister Levisa, she and her family moved to Cass County, Missouri. She died there in 1855.

Weathy McKee (~1829-????)

TBD

Charles P. P. McKee (~1834-????)

The 1870 census for Jefferson County listed a Charles T. P. McKee, invalid, living with the Hamilton family. This was probably the “Charles P. P. McKee” from the 1850 census, and it’s the only other data point I find for him.