He was of great stature, being six feet four inches. He established a tannery in Butler which he successfully conducted many years. In the war of 1812 he served in Capt. Brubaker's Company, Col. Purnanca's regiment in which were his relatives, James McKee, John Dunbar and Robert Hoge. He filled with credit and fidelity the offices of County Commissioner and Justice of the Peace and was an elder in the Butler A. R. Church from 1812 to his death.

Bio in :
HUGH MCKEE, second son of Thomas and Martha McKEE, was born in the Tuscarora valley, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, in 1783, and died in the borough of Butler in 1835. He came with his parents to this county when about fourteen years old, learned the tanner's trade, and later established a tannery on the site of Berg's bank, which business he followed for many years. This tannery is one of the well remembered industries of early days. Mr. McKEE was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving in a company from Butler county. He was one of the first elders of the United Presbyterian church, and filled that office for more than thirty years. In 1810 he married Margaret DUNBAR, a daughter of John DUNBAR, of Butler township, to which union were born the following children: Jane, who married George POTTS, of Altoona; Thomas; Robert; Maria, who married Alexander McBRIDE, of Butler; Martha; Margaret; Isaiah J., who died in California in 1861, and James Cooper, a retired surgeon of the United States army, the last being the only survivor of the family. Mrs. McKEE survived her husband more than forty years, and died in 1876.