2.
TULLIE
EPKIN3 MCKEE
(ANDREW
LOGAN
(MIMS)2,
UNKNOWN1
MIMS)
was born October 26, 1882 in Popular Springs, Laurens County, South Carolina,
and died September 05, 1957 in Mills Springs, Polk County, North Carolina.
He married MAGGIE
DRUCILLE
FREEMAN July 05, 1903 in
Spartanburg County, South Carolina. She
was born March 09, 1883 in Woodruff, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, and
died October 07, 1965 in Mills Springs, Polk County, North Carolina.
Notes
for TULLIE EPKIN
MCKEE:
Birth
and death recorded in the family Bible
His
descendants have the Family Bibles
Tullie
Epkin McKee [From NC Heritage
Book]
Tullie Epkin McKee, born October 26, 1882 in the Poplar Springs area of
Laurens County, S.C., spent his boyhood days on a farm and worked in cotton
mills in Laurens County. About age 20, he left home and sought employment in
Spartanburg County, SC where he met Maggie Drucille Freeman, who lived and
helped on her father's farm near Wellford, SC. Maggie Drucille Freeman was born
March 9, 1883. Tullie McKee and Maggie Freeman were married July 5, 1903 at ages
21 and 20.
Tullie McKee, having studied electrical engineering, was employed by
Southern Power Company [now Duke Power Company] in 1904 when their first hydro
power plant was built on Catawba River in Mecklenberg County, NC. From there,
Tullie was transferred to many other power plant as they were built on the
Southern Power Company system. Three sons were born to them during this time,
Paul Epkin McKee, May 24, 1904, Broadus Marion, May 28, 1906, Eston Eugene, June
19, 1908.
Tullie finally was transferred to the new hydro plant on Broad River in
Cherokee County, SC----Ninety-Nine Islands. At Ninety-Nine Islands, two more
children were born, Maggie Myrtle July 26, 1910 and Woodrow Winston, the
youngest, September 18, 1912. From there, he was transferred to Mt. Holly Steam
Plant in February 1913. There he separated from Southern Power Company and
became employed by Chattanooga Power Company and moved to Chattanooga, Tenn. in
1913 where the family lived until 1916.
Tullie
in 1916 rejoined Southern Power Company and was stationed at the Enon Steam
Plant near Durham, NC. In 1918, he was transferred to the Greenville Steam Plant
at Greenville, SC. In 1920 back to Mt. Holly Steam Plant near Charlotte, NC,
then to Spartanburg,SC in 1921, to Kannapolis, NC in 1922, and to Greensboro
Stream Plant in 1923 where he was placed in the operator/dispatcher department.
While at Greensboro, the power company's name was changed from Southern Power
Company to Duke Power Company at the death of the founder, James B. Duke. Also
at Greensboro, the oldest son, Paul, went to Durham and was employed at Enon
Steam Plant---The first child to leave home.
Tullie applied for work with Blue Ridge Power Company and in October
1925, left Duke Power Company again and came to Polk County as superintendent of
the newly constructed Turner Shoals Hydro Plant which started generating
electricity in 1925. The family stayed on at Greensboro to crate and load the
household items into a railway boxcar and then stayed with relatives at
Wellford, SC while the household items were in transit to Tryon, and then moved
by truck to Turner Shoals.
On November 1, 1925, his wife and four children joined Tullie McKee in
Pole County. The family was thrilled by the country, though it was a rainy,
dreary, chilly day. Eston, Maggie and Woodrow entered school at the Mill Spring
School on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1925 and Broadus became employed with the
construction cleanup crew at the power plant and later in the plant itself on a
permanent basis. Broadus, the first of the children to get married, wed Leona
Lynch in November 1926. In 1927, Duke Power Company purchased the Blue Ridge
Power Company system putting Tullie McKee back in their employ. In June 1929 the
oldest son, Paul, married Hazel Cole at Durham, NC. Woodrow, Maggie and Eston
continued in school.
Eston, after graduating from high school at Stearns High School in
Columbus 1927 [at this time Mill Spring only had 10 grades], became employed as
operator at the plant and married Nellie Walker. The 10th grade was dropped at
Mill Spring School leaving only nine grades and Maggie and Woodrow transferred
to Stearns High School. Maggie graduated from the 11th grade in 1929 and then
went on to Asheville Normal College at Asheville, NC where she attended four
years and graduated. Woodrow graduated from Stearns High School in 1931 and then
attended NC State College at Raleigh, NC and then Weaver College at Weaverville,
NC finishing Weaver College in 1933.
Woodrow
became employed at the Turner Shoals Hydro Plant on August 28, 1933 and Maggie
started teaching at Sunny View School. During the Great Depression of the 1930s,
Tullie McKee invested in the Columbus Cotton Gin, Columbus Mill, Columbus
Mercantile Company, the Polk County Bank and Trust Company, Farmer's Mercantile
Company. He was vice president of the Polk County Bank at the time it closed and
he lost in all these investments. He was also a charted investor in the C.I.T.
Loan Company, but sold out his interest there for fear of losing again.
In 1934 Tullie purchased the Lynn Waldrop Farm near Mill Spring. This
failed him too, and he sold the farm to N.G. Walker. On June 3, 1934 Woodrow
married Gertie Mae Gilbert, a native Polk Mountain from the Sunny View Section,
and in 1935 Maggie married Y. F. Walker of Mill Spring who also was employed at
the hydro plant. Tullie was a Mason and a Shriner. The McKee family in Polk
County all attended the Mill Spring Baptist Church. Here Tullie was on the
deacon board along with Frank Jackson, John H. Gibbs, C.V. Elliott, Lee O.
Thompson, Hubert Pack and Hugh Arledge.
Tullie's
health started failing in the 1940s first with an appendectomy in 1942 and then
hypertension and he was relieved of part of his responsibilities as
superintendent of Turner Shoals Hydro Plant in 1946. He retired from Duke Power
Company on December 31, 1952. After he retired, he continued in his activities
as church deacon and stirred about with his poultry and garden until his death
on September 5, 1957 at age 74. Mrs. McKee lived in the home and Woodrow and
family moved in to help her. She died October 5, 1965 at age 82. She was
interred beside her husband, Tullie, at Polk memorial Gardens.
Written by Woodrow McKee
Memories
of Virginia Heaton
I remember that Uncle Tullie lived near the old Duke Power Plant and that
there were 5 houses along side it and he was in one of those houses.
Each of his children lived in the other surrounding houses. You could see the mountains at his back yard, the back yard
went right to the mountains. He did
not have a large back yard, but he had a chicken coop, and part of it was built
into the mountain. He also raised
Peacocks, and sometimes we would see them with their wings spread, and then
there were times when we could not get the Peacocks to open their arms.
TULLIE
MCKEE-GREENVILLE NEWS
MILL
SPRING, NC; SEPT. 7-TULLIE MCKEE, 74, OF RT. 2, MILL SPRING, DIED THURSDAY NIGHT
AT ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS.
MR. MCKEE WAS SUPERINTENDENT OF TURNER SHOALS POWER PLANT FRON 1925 UNTIL
1952 WHEN HE RETIRED. HE SERVED AS
A DEACON AND CLERK OF MILL SPRING BAPTIST CHURCH AND WAS A SON OF THE LATE
ANDREW AND MARY JANE PUCKETT MCKEE. HE
HAD LIVED IN POLK COUNTY FOR 32 YEARS.
SURVIVING ARE HIS WIFE, MRS. MAGGIE FREEMAN MCKEE; FOUR SONS, PAUL MCKEE
OF DURHAM; ESTON MCKEE OF CHARLOTTE, BROADUS MCKEE AND WOODROW MCKEE, BOTH OF
MILL SPRING; A DAUGHTER, MRS. YATES WALKER OF DALLAS, NC; FOUR SISTERS, MRS. SAM
WORKMAN OF SPARTANBURG, MRS. LIZZIE HILL OF LAURENS, SC; MRS. MILLIE PACK OF
GREENSBORO AND MRS. J.C. THOMAS OF DANVILLE, VA.; A BROTHER, JODY MCKEE OF
LAURENS, SC; SEVEN GRANDHCILDREN AND FIVE GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN.
FUNERAL SERVICESD WILL BE CONDUCTED SUNDAY AT 3 PM AT MILL SPRING BAPTIST
CHURCH BY THE REV. W. C. KELLER AND THE REV. A. C. MARTIN.
BURIAL WILL BE IN POLK MEMORIAL GARDENS IN TRYON.
NEWPHEWS WILL BE PALLBEARERS; BRUCE, ROYCE, ALLEN, E.L., JODY, AND
MAXWELL MCKEE.
THE BODY IS AT THE HOME. IT
WILL BE TAKEN TO THE CHURCH SUNDAY. MCFARLAND
OF TRYON IS IN CHARGE.
Children
of TULLIE MCKEE and
MAGGIE FREEMAN
are:
i. PAUL
EPKIN4
MCKEE,
b. May 24, 1904; d. December 12, 1987, Durham, North Carolina; m. HAZEL
COLE,
June 1929; b. April 25, 1908; d. November 29, 1997, Leland, Brunswick County,
North Carolina.
ii. BROADUS
MARION
MCKEE,
b. May 28, 1906; d. June 11, 1984, Mills Springs, Polk County, North Carolina;
m. LEONA LYNCH, November 1926; b. January 04,
1910; d. January 11, 1991, Mills Springs, Polk County, North Carolina.
Notes for BROADUS
MARION
MCKEE:
The Tryon Daily Bulletin
Tues., June 12, 1984
Obituary
Broadus M. McKee
Broadus Marion McKee, 78, husband
of Leona Lynch McKee, of Route 2, Mill Spring, died Monday morning in Charlotte.
Born in Spartanburg County he was the son of the late T. E. and Maggie
Freeman McKee. He had retired from duke Power Co. and was a member of the Mill
Spring First Baptist Church.
Surviving beside his wife are:
one daughter, Mrs. Betty Sutton of Charlotte two brothers, Paul McKee of Durham
and Woodrow McKee of Mill Spring; one sister, Mrs. Maggie Walker of Dallas, NC;
also three grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at
3 PM Tuesday [today] at Mill Spring First Baptist Church.
Burial will be in the church
cemetery.
McFarland Funeral Chapel is in
charge of arrangements.
iii. ESTON
EUGENE
MCKEE,
b. June 19, 1908; d. October 1967, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina; m. NELLIE WALKER; b. September 23, 1907; d.
February 1981, Polk County, North Carolina.
Notes
for ESTON EUGENE MCKEE:
The Tryon Daily Bulletin
Friday, October 20, 1967
Obituary
E. E. McKee
Eston Eugene McKee, 59, son of
the late T. E. and Maggie Freeman McKee of Polk County, died Wednesday in a
Charlotte Hospital.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs.
Nellie Walker McKee of 3625 Commonwealth Ave., Charlotte; one sister, Mrs.
Maggie Walker of Dallas, NC; 3 brothers, Paul McKee of Durham, and Broadus and
Woodrow McKee of Rt. 2, Mill Spring.
Graveside services will be held
Friday [today] at 3:30 PM in Polk Memorial Gardens, with the Rev. Joe Burnett
officiating.
McEwen Funeral Home of Charlotte
in charge of arrangements.
iv. MAGGIE
MYRTLE
MCKEE,
b. July 26, 1910, Blacksburg, Cherokee County, South Carolina; d. October 15,
1998, North Carolina; m. YATES F.
WALKER,
October 05, 1935, Columbus, Polk County, North Carolina; b. June 16, 1911; d.
January 25, 1983, Dallas, Gaston County, North Carolina.
Notes for YATES
F.
WALKER:
The Tryon Daily Bulletin
Fri., Jan. 28, 1983
Obituary
Yates Walker
Yates Franklin Walker, Sr., 71,
husband of Maggie McKee Walker of Dallas, NC., died Tuesday in a Gastonia
Hospital.
A native of Polk County, he was a
son of the late William Martin and Sally Arledge Walker.
He was a retired textile employee and a member of Mill Spring Baptist
Church, Shriners Oasis Temple of Charlotte and Woodmen of the World.
Also surviving are: son, Yates
Franklin Walker, Jr. of Dallas; daughters, Mrs. Ellen Rogers of Charlotte, Mrs.
Nellie Rush of Dallas; brother, William Martin Walker of The Dalles, Ore.,
Frederick Walker of Lakeland, Fla.; Britt and John Paul Walker of Mill Spring;
Thomas Walker of Shingle Springs, Calif; sisters, Mrs. Patricia Edwards of
Hendersonville, Mrs. Ethel Barton and Mrs. Annie Lola Littlefield of Landrum
nine grandchildren.
Services will be held Friday at 2
PM at Dallas Funeral Chapel with burial in Gaston Memorial Park.
v. WOODROW
WINSTON
MCKEE,
b. September 18, 1912, Ninety-Nine Island, Cherokee County, South Carolina; d.
November 14, 1986, Mills Springs, Polk County, North Carolina; m. GERTIE
MAE
GILBERT,
June 03, 1934, Mill Springs, Polk County, North Carolina; b. December 30, 1915;
d. February 19, 1990, Mills Springs, Polk County, North Carolina.
Notes for WOODROW
WINSTON
MCKEE:
The Tryon Daily Bulletin
Tues., Nov. 18, 1986
Obituary
Woodrow W. McKee
Woodrow Winston McKee, 74,
husband of Gertie Mae Gilbert McKee of 688 NC North, died Friday in St. Luke's
Hospital.
A native of Ninety-Nine Island,
Cherokee County, SC., he had been a resident of Polk County for 60 years.
He was a son of the late Tullie E. and Maggie Freeman McKee.
He retired from Duke Power Co, after 42 years of service and was past
president of the Hendersonville Duke Power Retirees. He was a newspaper carrier
for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Asheville Citizen and Charlotte Observer for
28 years. He was a member of the
Ruritan Club and Woodmen of the World. He
was a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Mill Spring First Baptist Church.
Also surviving are: son, Robert
Winston McKee of Columbus; daughters, Mrs. Shelba Jean Wilson of Columbus; Mrs. Juanita Mae Bruce of Edneyville; brother, Paul E. McKee
of Durham; sisters, Mrs. Maggie M.
Walker of Dallas, NC; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren
Services were held Monday at 2 PM
at Mill Spring Baptist Church with the Rev. Dewey Price, Rev. Houston Moses
officiating. Burial was in the
church cemetery.
Memorials may be made to Cystic
Fibrosis, c/o NCNB, PO Box 1000. Tryon, NC 28782.
McFarland Funeral Chapel was in
charge of arrangements.
The McKee Family
Woodrow Winston McKee was born
Sept. 18, 1912 at home at Southern Power Company's Ninety-Nine Islands plant at
which his father, Tullie E. McKee, was employed.
His mother was Maggie D. Freeman McKee and there were three brothers and
one sister before him; Paul E., age eight; Broadus M.; age six; Eston E., age
four; and Maggie M.; age two.
Tullie McKee was employed by
Southern Power Company as one of the first employees when the company was
established in 1904, and he was transferred very often to new plants as they
were built.
The family moved to Polk County
on Sunday, Nov. 1, 1925, a rainy and chilly day with some fog, but they were
well pleased and thrilled with the country.
The home was heated with a coal grate in the living room and a wood
cook-stove in the kitchen.
Woodrow, Maggie, and Eston
entered Mill Spring School, which at the time went through the tenth grade.
For the first time the children rode a school bus to and from school,
three miles away. The roads were
very rough, muddy and rutted. In the winter while the muddy ruts were frozen the
bus driver could let the steering wheel slide through his hands and the ruts
would steer the bus most of the three miles.
The family also attended church
at the Mill Spring Baptist Church [then the White Oak Baptist Church].
The children attended Mill Spring School until they had to transfer to
Stearns High School at Columbus, where they graduated with only eleven grades.
Broadus did not go to school but
was employed with the plant construction crew, shaping up the grounds, etc., around the plant before taking a permanent job at the plant.
Broadus in 1926 was married to Leona Lynch of Mill Spring, the first of
the children to get married. Eston,
after finishing high school, was employed at the plant as an operator, and he
married Nellie Walker. After Maggie
finished high school she entered Asheville Normal Teacher's College.
Woodrow spent the summer months
selling fish bait, renting boats and rowing boats for fishermen on Lake Adger
and Green River. After Woodrow
graduated from high school at Stearns, he entered North Carolina State College. But he was very unhappy away from the mountains and after the
first semester he came home and went to Weaver College at Weaverville, NC for
the term 1931-32 and 1932-33. After
this he was employed at the Turner Shoals power plant as operator on Aug. 28,
1933.
On June 3, 1934 Woodrow married
Gertie Mae Gilbert, the daughter of Martin H. Gilbert of Sunny View Community
and they lived at the Turner Shoals Power Plant village.
Woodrow and Gertie Mae finally
got their first car in 1937.
Their first child, a son, Robert Winston, was born Aug. 27, 1938.
Their second child, a daughter, Shelba Jean, was born April 6, 1940 and
their third child, a daughter, Juanita Mae, was born Nov. 24. 1941.
In 1943 Gertie Mae was employed at Adam Mills Hosiery Plant at Tryon
where she worked for nearly 19 years. When
Adams Mills Hosiery Plant closed Gertie Mae was employed by C. P. Clare at
Fairview, where she worked in electronics.
The children entered school at
Mill Spring and graduated from high school there.
Son, Robert at age 17 was married Sept. 17, 1955, to Carolyn Amelia Scism
of Shelby, NC. He became the father of four children, daughter Carla Donita, son
Robert Winston, Jr; daughter Julia Gay and son Charles Patrick.
He worked in textile for several years and was a deputy sheriff in Polk
County for a period of time before returning to textiles.
His home is in Columbus.
After completing high school
Shelba Jean and Juanita both attended and graduated from Brevard Junior College
in 1962. Shelba Jean later attended
Western Carolina University. She
was married to C. L. Wilson of Tryon on June 24, 1962; and their first son was
born Aug. 8, 1962, but only lived two weeks; another son was born to them on May
11, 1966, and named Charles Eric Wilson. Shelba
Jean later went back to school and graduated from Gardner-Webb College at Shelby
and became a teacher at Stearns School in Columbus. She continued her education through Western Carolina
University and obtained her master's degree in education.
She and her family live in the Peniel Community.
After Brevard College, Juanita
worked at Bigelow-Sanford, Landrum, later returning to college and graduating
from Carson-Newman in Tennessee in 1966. Next
she went to Florida State University at Tallahassee where she received her
master's degree in social work in April, 1968.
Afterwards she was employed by the Mental Health Clinic at Spartanburg
for three years and then went to the V. A. Hospital at Oteen, NC; as a social
worker. She was married Oct. 7,
1978 to Robert F. Bruce, Ph. D., and they live in Henderson County, NC.
Woodrow stayed with Duke Power at
Turner Shoals until he retired April 30, 1976, after 42+ years.
Gertie Mae at age 62 retired from C. P. Clare & Co. in April 1978,
after 17 years. Woodrow and Gertie
Mae, after retirement, are active in the Mill Spring Baptist Church, where
Woodrow is a deacon and Gertie Mae a BTU teacher; they serve in any other
capacities when they can help. They
now have two great-grandchildren, and that is how it is with the McKee family as
the Polk County History goes to press.
-Gertie
Mae McKee
Notes
for GERTIE MAE GILBERT:
The Tryon Daily Bulletin
Wed., Feb. 21, 1990
Obituary
Gertie Mae McKee
Gertie Mae Gilbert McKee, 74, of
Highway 9 North, Mill Spring, NC died Feb. 19, 1990 at her home.
A native of Polk County, she was
the widow of Woodrow W. McKee and daughter of the late Martin H. and Ocie
Williams Gilbert. She was a member
of Mill Spring First Baptist Church, where she was a member of the choir, served
as Training Union Director and was a nursery keeper.
She was retired from C. P. Clare Co. in Fairview.
Survivors include a son, Robert
W. McKee of Columbus, NC; two daughters, Shelba Jean Wilson of Columbus and
Juanita Bruce of Mill Spring; a sister, Georgie M. Walker of Mill Spring; five
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 4 PM today
[Wed] at the Mill Spring First Baptist Church with Revs. Dewey Price and George
Lynch officiating. Burial will be
in the church cemetery.
The family is at the home of
Larry Wilson, Peniel Community, Columbus, NC.
Memorials may be made to Cystic
Fibrosis, c/o NCNB, PO Box 1000. Tryon, NC 28782.
McFarland Funeral Chapel was in
charge of arrangements.