Recent correspondence from Patty Knapke, great great great (great?) granddaughter of William Houston McKee, brother of Col. John McKee, prompted my cousin Mia to research and write about Col. Mckee, who was dear to our family:

Mia writes (to Ms. Knapke): The Hill of Howth, I am sad to say, is no longer standing, having been dismantled by the heir in the 1960s I believe, claiming that it had termites, to the grief and outrage of his whole generation, all of whom had gone there as children in the summer to visit their grandmother and grandfather. However, his sister built a house in Boligee with the logs. Some in the family suspected that he had boasted about a plantation house and was ashamed of what was in fact a rambling (and much loved) log house.

Though I suspect that you have researched Col. John McKee's public life, your letter has prompted me to do some internet research this morning using some parameters I have not used before, and have found for the first time an account of Col. McKees part in the dealings with the eastern native people, specifically the Chocktaw of which only rumains survive in my family, and of his activities with Andrew Jackson in Florida. I am grateful to you for the opportunity. These appear in the attachment to this letter with the other things that I have found. buried somewhere in the last entry (accounts of Alabama specifically) is the information that Col. John McKee was a native of Virginia. This would link him with something I did not copy (not being sure that it was relevant) about Indian raids and massacres in Virginia in the period before the Revolution written by or involving a McKee family. I'm so sorry I didn't save the reference. If you choose to research it, I used the parameters "John McKee Andrew Jackson Indian," and the article in question came up with a green background, presumably from a site relating to your family.

To return to the Hill of Howth: It was obviously named for the Hill of Howth in Ireland, and I gather from my wanderings on the internet that the McKees are an Irish family. The original house was built on a hill (where there was at least one artesian spring) at a place, as family history has it, shown to Col. McKee by the local Native people when he first came to what became Greene County, Alabama as federal agent to the Chickasaw Indians. It was the first house in the area (which fact appears somewhere in the attachments). The original part of the house was built by Indian labor.

Our ancestor, William Proctor Gould (grandfather of the second WPGould who was born shortly after the Civil War) was originally from Salem, Massachusetts. He came to Alabama in 1822 from several years working in France at Marseilles, and was was appointed postmaster and register of the Land Office at Tuscaloosa. In 1828 he became a member of a commission to settle the affairs of the Alabama State Bank. At some time--perhaps immediately upon his arrival and as part of that commission, he became secretary to Col. John McKee.

A warm friendship grew up between the older man, an Indian fighter who had ridden with Andrew Jackson in the (incursions, actually) against the Indians in Spanish Florida (see atached document) and younger man, apparently a charming, urbane and educated man and with his equally charming wife Mary Eliza Chotard Gould who had been raised in New Orleans and whose brother (Henri de Chotard) had been aide de camp to Andrew Jackson at the time of the Battle of New Orleans. In time Col. McKee apparently came to regard them much as his children and named WPGould as his heir. (It was his journals, now in microfilm form at the University of Alabama, from which Jim Sturges quoted in his response to you.)

At some point in their relationship, the Goulds moved to the Hill of Howth. I suspect that this may have been during the time when John McKee (according to one item in the attached document) served as Senator from Alabama, when the plantation at the Hill of Howth would have required oversight; this would be a natural responsibility of Co. McKee's secretary, if that was still WPG's post. I don't know whether WPG was named his heir by this time or not. In any case he and his wife (and children by then, I believe) lived with Col. John McKee in his age and cared for him until his death.

Their eldest son, John McKee Gould, (my great grandfather, Jim Sturges's gg-grandfather), was his namesake. His eldest son, (our direct ancestor's William P. Gould II's 's older brother), whom Jim Sturges mentioned in his reply to you, was the second of that name. It was the heir of that second John McKee Gould who tore down the house. Which cousin he was, I am not sure.

My mother has a black and white copy of a portrait of Col. John McKee which once hung in the State House in Alabama, but was destroyed in a fire there. He is a craggy looking man with a long face and serious mein, rather what you would expect of a man who had spent a good deal of time on the frontier.

So far as I know, John McKee never married. There is a story in the family, however, that he had a "common-law Indian wife," whom he could never have married of course, under the misogenation laws of the time, whatever his regard for her. Three facts-- that this story made it to later generations through the verbal delicacy of the Victorian Civil War era, and that my own mother , who is still living, knew her grandfather John McKee Gould who probably knew Col. McKee when he was a boy, and that front porch family stories were part of the fabric of their summer lives--lead me to assume that the story is accurate, if sadly sketchy. Also the use of the relatively respectful term "common-law wife" indicates a certain regard for the relationship and both parties to it.

One other possible clue--some years ago, searching in the geneological records in North Carolina's geneology lists I came across a thread in the Cherokee section from someone searching the name McKee who said that there was a tradition in her family that there was some Indian blood several generations back. I wrote to her with this story, but her email address was no longer active and my letter came back. Though that the native peoples of that area of Alabama is Chickasaw and (at least now) Creek, there is just some possiblility that this is a trace of children of that relationship.

There is no question that your gggg-uncle John McKee was much loved and admired by our family, which has made him one of its own, as he made our grandparents part of his.

I hope that the attached documents are not all just duplicates of things in your possession. I would love to know more about your ancestor, John McKee's brother, and about their family,and would be delighted to hear from you if I can be of any further help. If I should come across any other enlightening facts, I will send them to you. thank you for giving me the occasion to check my facts and do some more digging.

With warm regards,
Mia Shargel (Millicent Doll Shargel)
Tallahassee, FL
miashargel@aol.com

Mia also provided her sources.