Jefferson County History
Goodspeed's The History of Jefferson (and other) Counties tells us that John HILDEBRAND, who settled on Saline Creek ca. 1774, was the earliest known white settler in the area which was to become Jefferson Count. His descendents remain there today and included the famous (or infamous, depending upon where your sympathies lie) Civil War "bushwacker" , Sam HILDEBRAND, (whose colorful memoirs are well worth reading) as well as some "shirt tail cousins" of our McKEE clan. From 1769-1790, there were Spanish grants of 200 arpents of land for each head of family homesteading along the Mississippi, plus 50 arpents for each child and 20 for each slave (up to a maximum of 800 arpents). In 1799, Francis VALLE (for whom VALLE Township was later named), the commander at Ste. Genevieve gave permission to settle under his administration with grants along Big River and much of the rest of Jefferson County. Settlers at that time included Thomas BEVIS, Phil ROBERTS, and Robert JEWETT who made claims near Victoria (where Wm.Seth McKEE later settled). I have not found a family connection to any of these "original" settlers, but in 1804 PETER HUSKY brought two sons, three daughters and a few other relatives from SC in carts drawn by four horses. The McKEEs and HUSKYs may have been friends in SC and certainly the Jefferson County McKEE/HUSKY families remained very close into the present century.
As the territory changed hands from Spain to France to the United States, land rights became less clear and, although "protected by squatter sovereignty or settlement rights", couldnt obtain "legal" title to their land.
By the time Missouri became a state our McKEE and McKAY ancesters were already well established in the area, having settled in the Big River valley and the area which is still known today as "the foothills of the Ozarks". The Ozark Mountains were (and still are) a rugged and less densely populated area than the river valleys along the eastern edge of the state and the Missouri Valley which disects the state from St. Louis to Kansas City. (Encyclopedias, state/county histories, etc provide this and much more extensive information about the area into which our ancesters migrated).