Mary
McKEE - (Ca.1797 - Ca.1843)
MARY McKEE was one of the two daughters "under age 10" on the 1800 Federal Census for Abbeville District, SC. MARY was the ancester of Fern HUNT (whose extensive research on the McKEE/McKAY line provides the "heart" of the input on the International Genealogical Index relating to the line & who was quoted as the primary source of information on this branch in the WIDEMAN Family History, newspaper articles, etc.) and Gladys Lee CASTLEBERRY whose newspaper article entitled West Side Stories--McKays and McKees Come to Jefferson County provides unique insights into the lives of SAMUEL & MARY McKAY. The next several paragraphs borrow extensively from these sources.
MARY McKEE -- married --
SAMUEL McKAY "Sr."
c1797-c1842
c1787-after 1850
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William Ruen Samuel Milton
Michael S.
Isabel
Mary ("Polly")
1817-1902 c1819-1859
1821-1896 c1826-c1874
c1831-
plus a daughter born 1825-30 and one born 1830-35 (per 1840 census)
Based upon information given to census takers, MARY was born ca.1797 (although possibly as early as 1795) in SC. Since there were four children under age ten in MICHAEL's household on the 1800 Census for Abbeville District, we can conclude that MARY was the second or third child born during MICHAEL's first marriage. She grew up on the family plantation on Jobs Creek of the Long Cane near what is now on the Abbeville County, SC linr. (see the section on MICHAEL Sr and the SC McKEE narrative). As with the others from the clan who married while residing in South Carolina's highlands, there is nothing to document the precise date of marriage, but she married SAMUEL McKAY some time prior to 1816. MARY's Uncle WILLIAM SETH McKEE (who was only a couple years older than she was or possibly even the same age) married MARY F. McKAY (believed to have been SAMUEL's sister) during 1811, according to several different sources. MARY may have been anywhere between age 14 and age 19 when she married. Their oldest (known) child was William Ruen McKAY who was born 19 Nov 1817.
Gladys CASTLEBERRY's father described his great-grandfather (SAMUEL McKAY) as "a rolling stone" living first one place and then another. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and was born ca.1787. SAMUEL's place of birth was uncertain. As noted in the SC McKEE/McKAY segment, there were a couple clusters of McKAYs in middle & western South Carolina but no documented McKAY settlements in Abbeville District. This would tend to corroborate that the McKAYs were a family in perpetual motion, seldom remaining in one place from one census to the next.
At roughly two year intervals, three sons were born to SAMUEL & MARY McKAY:
WILLIAM RUEN born 19 Nov 1817
SAMUEL MILTON born ca.1819
MICHAEL S. born 1 Nov 1821
Family group sheets identify two of the four
daughters reflected by census records:
ISABEL born ca. 1826
(census records show another daughter born
before 1830)
MARY, nicknamed "POLLY" born ca.
1831
(census records show another daughter born
1830-35)
There may have been other children born to this couple who did not survive long enough to be included in a census enumeration.
MARY (McKEE) McKAY died ca.1842 in Jefferson County, MO. After her death, SAMUEL married MARGARET MURRELL.
During the time the family resided in Jefferson County, MO, Gladys CASTLEBERRY's father recounted that SAMUEL made at least one trip to Texas and back. "Sometime about 1850" (before the census taker came around) SAMUEL Sr. (& wife), SAMUEL Jr (& wife), ISABEL (& husband) and POLLY went to Texas. Enroute - as Gladys CASTLEBERRY's father continued the account - while camping alongside the trail, some men from another wagon train camped nearby, visited and one of the men "bantered SAMUEL Sr. for a horse trade". When SAMUEL responded to a question about the horse's age, the stranger "called Grandfather Samuel a liar". Now SAMUEL had been described as "a drinking, fighting Irishman who would permit no man to insult him without a fight" and as he had a skillet in his hand, preparing to fry meat, the skillet collided with the stranger's head, knocking him out. His friends assisted the stranger back to their camp but there were concerns that the blow might prove fatal, so it seemed advisable that SAMUEL "stay off the trail a few days". He was never seen or heard from again by his family.
WILLIAM ("Uncle BILLY") McKAY, who along with his brother MICHAEL McKAY had remained in Missouri, went to Texas "about 1858 or 1859" and brought some of the family back with him. However they decided that MARGARET was too feeble to make the trip and she remained in Grayson County, Texas. She was listed on the 1860 census (age 63, born in SC) and remained in Texas until her death during the early 1860s. After her death, POLLY & ISABEL also returned to MO with their families. In 1976, when the West Side Stories article appeared, they were still seeking to identify which of MICHAEL McKEE's daughters SAMUEL McKAY had married, but information from Fern HUNT "fills in the blanks", including the second marriage.
Now, more about the children of SAMUEL & MARY McKAY:
WILLIAM RUEN McKAY; 19 Nov 1817- 21 Nov 1902 (whose line was documented in the WIDEMAN Family History) married ADELINE WILSON, the daughter of JACOB JUSTUS WILSON on 28 Jan 1829 in Jefferson County, MO. Fondly known as "UNCLE BILLY", he was to be the subject of a second article by Gladys CASTLEBERRY (which I haven't seen) entitled Great-Uncle Billy McKay, the Pioneer Preacher.
The WILSON family also came from Abbeville District, SC but Grandfather EPHRAIM WILSON reportedly brought his family to Missouri a few years after the McKEEs and McKAYs arrived. Undoubtedly they knew each other in SC as well.