Memoirs of David McKee  –   May, 1981.

Typed by Barry McKee, 2013, with Irish names updated.

I was born March 12, 1893, at Stewart Bay P.O. in the township of Machar, District of Parry Sound, Ontario.

My father, Andrew McKee, was born May 20, 1858 in the County of Donegal,* Ireland, and immigrated at an early age to Pittsburgh in the United States. He moved to the Township of Machar in the District of Parry Sound in the 1880’s and settled on a government grant of land at lots 31 and 32, Conn. 6, at Stewart Bay, P.O.  He cleared land in the virgin forest and built a log cabin. My father’s sister, Margaret, (Mrs. George Bow) had moved previously from Oro Township near Orillia with her husband to Lots 24 and 25 on Conn. 7 at Uplands P.O at Eagle Lake in the Township of Machar. Maps are shown in a previous page, and the History of the Bow Family in Canada is described in a later page.

On July 1st, 1890, my father was married to Janet Tennant, who had moved with her parents from Grand Valley, Ontario, and lived on Lots 31 and 32, Conn. 5 at Stewart Bay, P.O. in the Township of Machar. Henry Tough moved from Grand Valley and married Agnes Tennant. They lived on Lots 31 and 32, Conn. 4, at Stewart Bay, P.O. Stewart Bay P.O. was kept by Mr. and Mrs. William Hall and family on lots 33 and 34, Conn. 6, Township of Machar.

Early settlers in the area of my home and in the vicinity of Eagle Lake were Tough, Tennant, Hall, Simmonds, McKee, Preston, Carroll, Smyth, Bow, Quirt, Armstrong, Hawthorne, Ardiel, Robb, Robertson, Shaughnessy, Joy, and Benson.

In the early days, the Railroad ended at Gravenhurst, and the pioneers who settled on government grants of land in Parry Sound District moved their belongings in by horseback or with oxen. Quite a number of them travelled over what was known as the Nipissing Road. Portions of the old Nipissing Road are still being used. German immigrants settled in the vicinity of the Nipissing Road and named their neighbourhoods Watenwyl P.O., Mecunoma P.O., and Rye P.O. Some of the settler’s names were Minor, Maech, Haufshchid, Riedel, Reiche, Phippen, Ulrich, Sohm, Farig, Russel and McLaren. They lived in the area known as Deer Lake in the Township of Lount, some of them as much as 15 to 20 miles from what later became South River when the railroad was built from Gravenhurst to North Bay.

The period 1880 and into the 1890’s was a time of extreme hardship and meagre returns, but the pioneer spirit of the immigrants won out and eventually a considerable portion of the Parry Sound District was occupied by people of a wonderfully hardy breed and representing quite a number of nationalities. The McKee’s (my father and mother), the Tennants, and the Toughs were a closely knit group.

The first of my brothers and sisters, Ellen Jane (Nell) was born April 1, 1891. My birth followed March 12, 1893, then Alexander, on August 27^th, 1895, and William on August 8^th, 1897. My first recollection is of the day of William’s birth. In those days there was seldom a doctor at the births in the locality of my home. My grandmother, Mrs. Tennant, my Aunt, Mrs. Henry Tough, and Mrs. Hall, who was a midwife, were present at the births. On December 21^st, 1899 my sister Rachel was born, and on August 10^th, 1902, my sister Margaret Elizabeth (Bessie). All of us were born in the original log cabin and my sisters and brothers and I attended a log school at the north-west corner of Lot 31, Conn. 4. In later years a frame school was built at the south-east corner of Lot 30, Conn. 5.

In 1902-1903 a frame addition was added to the home and in 1904-1905 a large bank barn was built. A considerable amount of hard work was involved in the construction of the barn, hewing the timbers for the framework, cutting logs and hauling them to Eagle Lake to be sawn into lumber at a sawmill owned by Harry Robb. Stones were hauled from the fields and a foundation was constructed by James Bothwell of Trout Creek. Timbers for the framework were prepared by James Strang of Sundridge, and in the summer of 1905 all the neighbors got together and had a barn raising, July 5^th 1905.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s people were concerned about establishing a place of worship. My Grandfather, David Tennant, was the chief mover and along with the Toughs, McKees, Bows, Halls and Robertsons, the Presbyterian Church was created at Eagle Lake.  The minister at South River included the Eagle Lake congregation in his pastorate. Another group, the families of the Smyths, Bensons, Quirts, Hawthonrs, Joys, and Ardiels established the Anglican Church at Midford P.O. at the north end of Eagle Lake.

In 1935, the Presbyterian Church at the Narrows became a part of the United Church of Canada. It was burned down on July 1^st, 1964 and was never rebuilt. The cemetery at Eagle Lake is still maintained and is the resting place of a considerable number of the early inhabitants of the community. The Anglican Church at what used to be Midford P.O. is still standing and services are held there occasionally as a part of the Anglican Church in South River.

I attended school until the spring of 1910, including 2 years of High School in the old log school house. In September of 1910, when I was 17 years of age, my father and our school inspector, Mr. Phillips of Minden, conspired to get a job for me, teaching at a small school (5 pupils) west of Haliburton. I lived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Johnston Smith. Their family of four children and a cousin made up my school pupils. During that autumn of 1910, I was taken ill with pleurisy and developed a bealing ear. The pleurisy was cured, but the ear ailment did not disappear and Dr. Phillip Soady of Haliburton had me sent to the old General Hospital in Toronto. I can still remember, hearing from my bed in the ward the clop, clop, clop of the horse’s feet on the cobble stones of old Gerrard Street in front of the hospital.

While in the hospital, my father came to see me from South River. He had come to Toronto with Mr. Arthur Martin, who had purchased the home of Dan Blea at the Narrows at Eagle Lake. Mr. Martin lived in Rosedale and owned a mattress firm. He had two daughters, Marguerite and Gypsy.  They spent the summer months at the home at the Narrows at Eagle Lake. Some of the descendants of the Martin family still own the home at Eagle Lake.

I returned to the school at Haliburton until Christmas of 1910 and in January of 1911 went teaching at a small school (2 pupils) at Whitehall, near Sprucedale.  At the beginning of June one of my pupils was taken ill and the school was closed. I then went helping the cook on a log drive from Rock Lake to Whitney, on the Madawaska River, for Edward and Kerwood White of Whitehall; then home to the farm for the summer.

In September 1911, I started to work for the Royal Bank of Canada. I was moved around from Peterborough to Chippewa to Burks Falls to Sturgeon Falls and on July 12, 1912 to Sault Ste. Marie. I live during all of my stay in the Sault with people, named McClelland on East Avenue, and was promoted to receiving teller in February 1916.

On February 10, 1916 I enlisted with the 119^th Battalion and went to camp at Niagara on the Lake. The battalion went to England in September 1916. Because I had been a bank clerk, I was put in the Paymasters Office and became Paymaster Sergeant when we arrived in England. I was with Capt. P.H.B. Dawson, Battalion Paymaster, until February 1918, when the 5^th Division was broken up and the troops sent to France as reinforcements, I was sent to the Canadian Forestry Corps at Sunningdale Camp, and went to France as a Company Orderly Room Sergeant with the Independent Force of the Royal Air Force. Our work in France consisted of leveling landing fields for airplanes. We had advanced into Belgium when the war ended on Nov 11^th, 1918. Soon after, I returned from Belgium to camp at Sunningdale.

In March of 1919, in Richmond Park, I met and fell in love with Beatrice Victoria Hicks of Isleworth near Richmond. After the usual short army courtship we were married in Isleworth, Middlesex, England on June 21^st, 1919. I was sent to Buxton, awaiting transportation to Canada and my wife, Beatrice, and I left England, along with a boatload of other newly-married couples, in September 1919, and was discharged from the army in Halifax.

Instead of going to work for the Royal Bank when I returned from England, I took a position with the T. Eaton Co. in Toronto with the Boot and Shoe Department, Mail Order Office.

We lived the winter of 1919-1920 on Greenwood Avenue in Toronto. In the autumn of 1920 Beatrice’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hicks came from England to live with us and we moved to Highfield Road. Mr. Hicks worked the winter of 1920-1921 in a packing plant and returned to England in 1921 where he resumed his usual work as a cattle drover. During the fall of 1921 I was promised a position in an office in London, England. Beatrice and I and Mrs. Hicks moved to England. The position did not materialize, but I obtained a job with a cartage outfit until May of 1923, when I left Beatrice with her parents in England and returned to Toronto where I worked again at my previous position at T. Eaton Co. Beatrice came to me in the fall of 1923 and in the spring of 1924 Mrs. Hicks returned to us. In the spring of 1925, Beatrice and I and Mrs. Hicks moved to 16 Osborne Avenue, East Toronto, where on March 13^th 1926, our first son, Harold, was born. We moved again to 15 Thyra Avenue, East York, Toronto in early 1930, where our second son, William was born, on November 26, 1930. Beatrice’s mother had passed away July 12, 1930.

In spring of 1931, depression conditions were beginning to be felt and for the reason of seniority, my position was not so secure with the T. Eaton Co. We moved our household effects to my old home in Machar Township in order to take care of my father, who had been left alone in the old homestead.

We lived through very lean years during the Depression. I was employed during the winter months in the years 1932-1937 as a clerk and time-keeper at one of the two logging camps which were run by the Standard Chemical Co 23 miles east of South River. Our third son, Ross, was born on the farm March 8^th, 1934, and our fourth son, Earl, also was born on the farm, June 29, 1938.

My father passed away May 17^th, 1940 and we continued to live on the farm until October 1942, when I left the family on the farm and was employed by the Defence Industries Ltd. at Nobel, Ontario, as supervisor of the Nobel Community Club. My family joined me in the fall of 1943. Harold was then 17 years old and was employed by Defence Industries Ltd. until the summer of 1944 when it was thought the war would end and he was hired by B.F. Goodrich Ltd. in Kitchener. He enlisted in the fall of 1944 when he was 18½ years old and reached England when the war did end in 1945. He returned to Kitchener and was employed by B.F. Goodrich Ltd. for some years until he took a position with Friden Calculators for another few years, then to Avery Labels Co., where he is at present employed.

On October 15, 1945, I was hired by B.F. Goodrich Ltd. and left Beatrice and the three boys, William, Ross, and Earl in Nobel and spent the winter of 1945-1946 rooming in Kitchener. On June 15^th, 1946, I bought our home at 15 Spring Street West in Waterloo and the family moved from Nobel. We lived 31 years in our home in Waterloo. Our moving routine had ended.

Harold was married February 12^th, 1949 to a near neighbor, Audrey Martin, 82 Dorset Street, Waterloo. They lived several years at 145 Albert Street, Waterloo before buying their home at 309 Glenridge Drive, Waterloo. Our first grandchild, David, was born February 17^th, 1953. Erin was born October 17, 1966.

William graduated from K.C.I. in 1948 and was employed by Bell Telephone for four years and by Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. at Chalk River for eight years. He returned to Waterloo in 1960 and entered University of Waterloo, graduating in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He took one year of graduate study and tried teaching school in London, but decided it was not his choice of work. He applied for and secured a position with the federal government as a personnel supervisor. He worked in Toronto for a few years, and then on to Ottawa where he is at present. On May 17^th, 1968 he married Gillian Parker of Peterborough, England. Elizabeth was born to them June 11, 1969 and Andrew on February 6^th, 1971. They own their home at 14 Raftus Square, Nepean, Ottawa.

Ross graduated from K.C.I. at grade 12 and worked for Hanover Transport and Canadian Blower & Forge Ltd., then at Waterloo City Hall, where he is at present Assistant Treasurer and Tax Collector. He was married April 11^th, 1959 to Margaret Simpson of Waterloo. Stephen was born Sept 11^th 1959 and Michael on Jan 13^th, 1963.

Earl graduated from K.C.I. in 1957 and enrolled at Waterloo College for two years, then on to University of Western Ontario in London, graduating in 1961 in Business Administration. He applied for and obtained employment as a Personnel Supervisor with the Ontario Civil Service in Queens Park, Toronto. He was married to Linda Taylor, of Toronto, July 8^th, 1966 and lived at several locations in Toronto and have now bought their home at 42 Rumsey Road, East York, Toronto. Jonathon was born December 2^nd, 1968, and Cameron May 10^th, 1970.

I was retired from B.F. Goodrich Canada Ltd, on March 31^st, 1958. I was employed for two years with E.R. Nafziger Ltd., Waterloo at office work until the end of 1959, the on to part time work for the city of Waterloo until January 1963.

Beatrice was not well from 1972, cardiac failure in 1973 and diabetic disorder. She was in K-W Hospital from April 1977 and passed away June 7^th, 1977 and was laid to rest in Parkview Cemetery in Waterloo. I sold our home in Waterloo and have been residing since July 19^th, 1977 at Millwood Manor in Kitchener.

My present activities include memberships in Branch 530 Royal Canadian Legion, Waterloo; United Rubber Workers Retirement Club, Kitchener; K-W & Dist. Canadian Council of Retirees; Marmo Travel Club, Kitchener; Rockway Gardens Senior Citizens, Kitchener; Senior Citizens of Ontario; Ontario P.C. Association; Highland Road United Church, Kitchener; Confederation Club, Kitchener; and the Waterloo North P.C. Association.

I must include a resume of the other members of my immediate family: Ellen Jane (Nell) was married in 1907 to Alexander Bow. Nine children were born; Wilmer and Janet have passed away; Graydon and Arthur are married and live in Sundridge, Ontario; Gladys, who did not marry, is in Smith Falls; David is married and living in Quesnel, B.C.; Beatrice married Gordon Brownbill and lives in North Bay, Ontario; Robert is married and living in Seattle, Wash., U.S.A.; Nell passed away in 1928. The Bow Family in Canada is described on a separate page by Andy Brownbill and early letters from Alex Bow to his cousin Emma Bow in Australia are also copied).

Alexander served in the First World War and was wounded at Passchendaele. He married Catherine McGillis and lived in North Bay. One son, Donald, lives in North Bay, Ontario. Alex passed away several years ago.

William married Elleta Mock of Owen Sound and lived on a farm at Eagle Lake until moving to Owen  Sound in 1942.

They had two sons. Beverley is a doctor in Owen Sound, and Barry a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston. William passed away January 31^st, 1981. The family of William McKee is described in a separate page.

Rachel married William Geden in 1929. They had fours sons. Edward lives in Sudbury, Ontario, Larry in North Bay, Philip in Toronto, and Dennis, an artist, in England. Rachel was killed in a car accident some years ago.

Margaret Elizabeth (Bessie) was married to Albert Minor.

They had four sons, Jack, living in Prince George, B.C., Wallace, living in their old homestead at South River, Laurie living at Freelton, Ontario, and James living at Thunder Bay, Ontario. Also, one daughter married to Wilfred McLaren and living on a farm near South River, Ontario. Bessie is 79 years of age and living near the old homestead.

Click on this link for a two page family summary written by David McKee in 1981. – Family Summary – David McKee, 1981

---

This family record (to 1981) has been entered into our Genealogy Section, and in the future our genealogy record and this page will be updated with current information. For example, Ross McKee recently celebrated his 80th birthday. and we have some family pictures from his party (click on pictures to enlarge)!