James Harper McKee

There is no known photograph of James Harper McKee.

This page is divided into two parts

i) A Biography by Edith Duncan Field.

ii) Maps of Places of Interest mentioned in the biography

Edith Duncan Field Biography

James Harper McKee was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Feb. 14, 1818, where he spent most of his boyhood days. He was named after his uncle James Harper Smith, who later became a noted Philadelphia physician. As he grew older he made numerous trips back to the Tuscarora Valley where many of his relatives lived. While there he became interested in the anthracite coal mining operations around Hazelton some 80 miles to the northeast. As a young man he decided to enter that business, not in the mining end, but in the purchasing, transportation, distribution and selling part of the business. It was hard work and he was required to make trips to the various purchasing and distribution points.

During one of these trips, he met a girl with whom he fell madly in love. She was Mary Thomas, daughter of Hopkin Thomas, who was living in Beaver Meadow at the time, where James H. McKee was also living. In a letter dated October 1847 which he wrote to her while she was visiting in Cranesville, it was plain to see he was lonely and lovesick without her. They were married about six months later.

After their marriage she lived with her family in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, while he was on business trips. It was there that their first child, Katherine, was born. Travel in those days wasn't easy, and the routing and selling of coal kept him on the go most of the time. In letters from New York written in the spring of 1849, he mentions his great worry over the health of Kate, and warns Mary not to give her too much medicine. At that time he was living at the Merchants Hotel on Courtland Street, where he was sharing his room and bed with a William Spencer to conserve funds. He also wrote that he was looking for a boarding house in Jersey City. He did find one at $7 a week for two, but it was unfurnished, so he asked Mary to have brother Sam box up the bureau, bed and mattress at the Meadows, and send them down via boats. He described Jersey City as beautiful, with very sociable inhabitants.

Traveling at that time was both hazardous and tiring. A trip from Beaver Meadows to Philadelphia in September 1850 is described in a letter to his wife "Mr. Ratcliff and I started across the mountains. For the first mile and a half we went along smoothly, but after that we had to climb over rocks and along the ledges overhanging the water, which was very unpleasant and a little dangerous. In leaping down one place I lit on a stone that turned with me and wrenched my ankle. I walked on 2 miles without feeling any pain, then we got a farmer to take us in his wagon 12 miles where we heard that we had better go on to Fogelsville and thence to Allentown. I was then so lame I could scarcely bear my weight on my foot. We got another farmer to take us as far as Fogelsville, 9 miles from Allentown, where we expected to procure a conveyance to Allentown, but on arrival there we found such a mean set of men we could get them to do nothing for us. The farmer who had taken us that far, seeing what a mean party we had got in with, came and told us that rather than we should be under any obligation to such a party he would take us on to Allentown himself and return the next day. He got us to Allentown about ten o'clock at night and as my foot and ankle were them much more swollen and painful, did not feel like writing but went straight to bed. We started next morning at four o'clock, my ankle pained me but very little and the swelling had almost gone down. We arrived in Philadelphia about three o'clock, then went down to the office."

And on 11 June 1851 he wrote from Jersey City of another trip "It appears that I missed the first train on Thursday morning from Weatherly and arrived in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) about 10 minutes too late for the stage - - - - I arrived in Easton Friday afternoon about three thirty o'clock and finished my business by night." And due to missing his train, he didn't have time on that trip for several other errands.

His wife Mary did move to Jersey City as their second child, Joseph Jeans, was born there in January 1851. When the hot weather arrived in Jersey City, she and the baby went to Tamaqua for the summer where the weather was more pleasant. He wrote her once a week, giving her such business news as - got rid of two cargoes of coal today, such boarding house news as - a new boarder, a southern lady took Mrs. Valentine’s place, also the 1atest doings of the Bates, Fairchilds and Whittakers, and then there was his health - very unwell with cold and influenza, had physicked and bathed, also always very lonesome. Around this time be evidently purchased a house at 7 Grand Street, Jersey City, as his letters in 1853 spoke of getting a girl to help, having gas installed and painting the house. On 22 March 1853 he wrote Mary from Mauch Chunk, that he was very busy, very unwell, very lonesome, and very discouraged about his business and “wanted to quit the hard and tiring work for such small pay.” Business however did pick up and later he and James W. Fuller, his brother-in-law formed the partnership of "McKee, Fuller and Company,” which controlled, probably among others, the "Lehigh Car, Wheel and Axle Works" at the Fullerton Station of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. ( According to the Fuller history, the "Lehigh Car, Wheel and: Axle Works was formed in 1868.) There were letters sent to his wife from Jersey City as late as 1857, and several notes were made payable to him at 7 Grand Street as late as November 1857.

Just when he removed to Philadelphia is not known, however three letters he wrote to Mary on 4 October 1861 from Philadelphia reads “I have just arrived here twenty minutes past eleven o’clock. Imagine my surprise when the landlord asked me if I would room with my brother. I told him I had no brother here when he said he thought Lieut. McKee was my brother. Sure enough, Sam is here, he hails from Washington.” This brother, Samuel Gerfuson McKee, was later killed in action in Georgia on Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” In a letter to Mary from Philadelphia dated 1 December 1861 he mentions getting oilcloth and carpets for the living and dining rooms, for which he paid $1.43 a yard which he thought was very high. That was his last known letter written to his wife Mary until 1882, so it appears that she moved with him to Philadelphia with him about 1861 or 1862, where they resided at their home at 2003 Tioga Street.

James H. McKee was a member of the Church of the Resurrection at Broad and Tioga Streets in Philadelphia. He was a Vestryman there from 1866 to 1868, and again from 17 September 1872 until his death in 1895. His son Llewellyn McKee was a Vestryman from 1893 to 1898, and his wife Mary was one of the first treasurers. About 1870 the “St. George Protestant Episcopal Church of Kenderton in Philadelphia united with the Church of the Resurrection. James McKee and his family evidently were ardent church members, and in the Church and Vestry windows were installed in memory of his wife Mary McKee, Mary Norton McKee, Llewellyn Thomas McKee and his wife Carrie B. McKee, and Helen Thomas McKee.

After removing to Philadelphia, he conducted most of' his business there. Any business trips he had to make were probably of short duration due to the improvement in forms of transportation. His business evidently prospered and he became, luckily, a financial. success. As they were residing together in Philadelphia, there was no more letter writing between them until 1882 when Mary became plagued with rheumatism, and to escape its tortures tried most of the mineral spas in the country. Between 1862: and 1887 letters indicate that she spent considerable time at each of the following spas, Healing Springs, Virginia - Hot Springs, Arkansas - Capon Springs, West Virginia - Wagon Wheels Gap Springs, Colorado - Missisquoi Springs, Vermont – also listed are Springs at Berkely, Gettysburg and Spring Lake. She also went to the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. and the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana to take the "cure," and probably other spas too. Her health was of great concern to her and to her husband. She appears to have been a self-centered rather spoiled lady. She usually took a friend or one or more of her children when she made these trips, more to assist her than to offer them added pleasure. She also developed what she classed as "nervous spells”.

The reason that her oldest daughter, Mary Norton, never married shows clearly in her letters as she wrote disparagingly of the men mentioned, and would write a letter to them to curtail the romance. This makes her stand out as a domineering, and possessive woman, but her great charm must have put a coverlet of satin over everything. In 1887 he wrote his wife Mary at 1606 Summer Street, Philadelphia, from their home on Tioga Street, indicating that she may have been in a nursing home for treatment of her rheumatism. There was an exchange of several letters during January and February of 1887. They took a trip together to Atlantic City, as in a letter to his daughter "Mamie" written on 8 March l887 he wrote "Mama doing well but has nervous spells.”

Both James and Mary were beloved by their daughter Edith. Pictures of James show a rather handsome, stocky man with a neatly trimmed beard and a keen twinkle of' humor in his eyes, yet the couple were known as "The Beauty :and the Beast ." His daughter Mamie (Mary Norton) described him as having a "jovial, good humored face with a pleasant expression." His wife Mary predeceased him, dying on 4 January 1891, while he died 5 November 1895. Both deaths occurring in Philadelphia, and both were buried in the McKee Plot in the Fairview Cemetery at Catasauqua, Pennsylvania.

Parish Recorder, Vol. XXVI #2 October 1925, Church of the Resurrection, Broad and Tioga Streets, Philadelphia, Pa.

Family Bible, Family Letters and Memorabilia.

First child Katherine Sarah was born in Tamaqua in 1849 and died in October of that year.

William Wier was born in Jersey City in 1852.

Places of Interest

Jersey City is located at the confluence of several railroads and it would be logical to locate near such a junction if you travel was a major element in your business life.

Apparently there are a number of Grand places to live in the vicinity of Jersey City

The 7 Grand St. on the Hudson River is now a six story complex

It looks like the McKees lived right on the railroad tracks in Philadelphia.

The Church of the Resurrection was at Broad and Tioga Streets. The North Philly Rail Station is a dozen blocks to the south.

Google Earth shows the location to be in right field of a ball park. My guess is that the house under the “P” in Philadelphia is the McKee residence.

This is Broad St. (Rte. 611) and W. Tioga. Anybody see a church?

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