He came to America in 1774 and located in the Juniata Settlement. At the commencement of the struggle for Independence he entered the service, and was under Morgan in the Southern campaign, in the Pennsylvania company attached to the corps of that brave partisan leader. His canteen and powder horn, carried through the war, are in the possession of his grandson Lieut. Col. J. Cooper McKee, Surgeon, U.S.A. In 1795 the family removed to Allegheny County, Penn. and the year following 1796 permanently settled on a farm near Butler, Butler County, that state.

The following bio in contains some info that conflicts with other sources:
THOMAS McKEE, a soldier of the Revolution, was the progenitor of the McKEE family of Butler township. He was born in Ireland, in 1749, a son of David McKEE, and came to Pennsylvania with his brother John in 1767. They settled in the Cumberland valley, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and on the breaking out of the Revolution, Thomas enlisted in Captain CLUGGAGE's Company, First Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, and was in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. At the close of the war he settled in the Tuscarora valley, Mifflin county, whence he removed to Ligonier, Westmoreland county, in 1794. In 1796 he came to Butler county, whither his son James had preceded him, and settled on a tract of land three miles west of the site of Butler, the farm now occupied by William BARNHART. His wife was Martha HOGE, and they [p. 832] reared a family of seven sons and two daughters, as follows: James, who served as sheriff of Butler county, and also in the legislature, and died in 1832; Hugh, who died in Butler, in 1835; Robert (1), who died in infancy; David, who joined the Mormons, and died at Nauvoo, Illinois; John, who died on the Mississippi; Thomas, who moved to Kentucky, and was mortally wounded while making an arrest as a police officer; Robert, who died on Red river, Arkansas,, in 1847; Letitia, who married John DUNBAR, and moved to Indiana, and Jane, who married James McKEE, of Butler county. The father died in June, 1815, and was buried in the old cemetery at Butler.

has POB as County Down.