Alexander McKee

This article is about the 18th century agent of the Indian Department. For the 20th-century discoverer of the wreck of the Mary Rose, see Alexander McKee (author).

Alexander McKee
A possible depiction of McKee (centre) in The Great Indian Council (1793)
Deputy Superintendent-General
In office
26 December 1794 – 15 January 1799
Preceded byOffice Created
Succeeded byWilliam Claus
Personal details
Bornc. 1735
Western Pennsylvania, British America
Died15 January 1799
Thames River (Ontario), Upper Canada
ChildrenThomas McKee (son)
Parent(s)Thomas McKee Sr.
Nonhelema
Nickname(s)The White Elk, the White Moose
Military service
Allegiance Britain
Branch/serviceBritish Indian Department
RankDeputy Superintendent-general
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War, Northwest Indian War

Deputy Superintendent-General Alexander McKee (c. 1735 – 15 January 1799) was a British Indian Department officer and merchant who served the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. He achieved the rank of deputy superintendent-general in 1794, the second highest position in the Indian Department at the time.

Biography

Alexander McKee was born about 1735, the second son of Thomas McKee an Irish immigrant (probably Scots-Irish from northern Ireland), fur trader, and Indian Agent. McKee developed a lifelong relationship with the Ohio Indian tribes.[citation needed]

As a young man, Alexander McKee began working with traders who did business with the Indians of the Ohio Country. Soon, he was able to establish his own trading business. Because of his good relations with the Ohio tribes, Indian agent George Croghan enlisted McKee to join the British Indian Department. Around 1764, McKee settled in what is now McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and built a substantial house. George Washington visited him there in 1770, and mentions this in his diary. McKee continued in the service of Pennsylvania for some time after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.[citation needed]

Around 1768 or 1769, McKee married a woman in a Shawnee village on the Ohio River. Her identity is unknown; she may have been a Shawnee woman, or possibly a white captive named Charlotte Brown who had been raised among the Shawnees. He had a son, Thomas McKee.[1] After he was the subject of mistreatment by American Patriots, McKee left Pennsylvania and defected to the British at Fort Detroit. It was during this transition that he established his well-known association with Matthew Elliott and the Girty brothers: Simon, James, and George.

During the next 25 years, Alexander McKee led efforts to promote the alliance of the Indians with the British, most especially with the Shawnee, but also with the majority of the Northwest Indian tribes. He guarded the interests of the Indians and was their honest friend. The Continental Congress branded him a traitor for remaining loyal to Britain and organizing several tribes on the side of the British.[2]

"Alexander McKee, the British Indian Agent, who resided at the Machachac towns, on Mad River, during the incursion of General Logan from Kentucky in 1786, was obliged to flee with his effects. He had a large lot of swine, which were driven on to the borders of this stream, and when the Indians came on they called the river Koshko Sepe, which in the Shawnee language signified 'The Creek of the Hogs, or Hog Stream'."[3]

McKee negotiated several treaties on behalf of the British authorities with the Indigenous First Nations of Upper Canada in the Detroit area. This included Treaty 2 or "McKee's Purchase", which surrendered a large part of what is now South-western Ontario.[4]

Legacy

Alexander McKee Log Mansion, McKee's Rocks, PA

McKee died in Upper Canada in 1799. He was mourned and greatly honored by the Northwest tribes.[5] His son Thomas McKee was a Canadian soldier and political figure.

The borough of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, is the site of Alexander McKee's original 1,200 acres (490 ha) land grant, which the agent was awarded on 25 November 1764 by Colonel Henry Bouquet. The McKee plantation was called FairView. George Washington dined at Fairview in 1770, and the eight-room log mansion was mentioned by George Washington in his journal. The home was razed by the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad in 1902.

References

  1. ^ Nelson, p. 63.
  2. ^ Wulff, Frederick. (2013) Alexander McKee: The Great White Elk, British Indian Agent on the Colonial Frontier. Denver: Outskirts Press.
  3. ^ Harrison, R. H. (1880). Atlas of Allen County, Ohio from Records and Original Surveys. Philadelphia: R.H. Harrison. p. 36.
  4. ^ Boileau, John. "McKee's Purchase". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  5. ^ Paulett, Robert (2012). An Empire of Small Places : Mapping the Southeastern Anglo-Indian Trade, 1732–1795. University of Georgia Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0820343464.
  • Nelson, Larry L. A Man of Distinction Among Them. Alexander McKee and British-Indian Affairs along the Ohio Country Frontier 1754-1799. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1999.