Butte County
Biographies
SAMUEL McKEE
SAMUEL
McKEE.--A citizen proud of his Irish birth,
prouder still of the land of his adoption, and most proud of the state in which
his prosperity, as an enterprising, exceptionally capable and successful
rancher has been won, is Samuel McKee–or plain “Sam” McKee, as everyone calls
him--who has lived five miles northwest of Biggs since 1882, owns five hundred
acres, and has always been a wheat farmer. He was born in County Antrim,
Ireland, in March, 1852, the son of Samuel McKee, also a native of that
county. His mother, Eliza Martin before her marriage, met Mr. McKee in Ireland,
and there they were married, after which they came to the United States and for
two or three years resided in New York State. After a while, Mr. McKee said
good-bye to his wife and came West to California,
sitting around the Horn and landing in San Francisco in 1849, from which port
he set out for Calaveras County to search for gold. Luckier than most of those
who ventured all in that hazardous pursuit, Mr. McKee made his stake and
returned to New York. But even the attractions of the metropolis of America
could not hold him, and he again crossed the ocean, to return to Ireland; and
in Erin’s green isle he and his wife continued to live until their deaths.
It thus happened that the child Samuel, the
third-born in the family, first saw the light in Ireland, where he grew up on
his father’s farm and attended the public schools. In 1870, however, when he
was eighteen years of age, he sailed from Liverpool with his brothers, Robert
and John, landed at New York, and came across the continent by the Union
Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, traveling on one of their first through
trains, and arriving in San Francisco in May. After their arrival, each brother
struck out for himself, accepting whatever his hands found to do. Sam McKee
worked in the lumber yard at Stockton for about a year, and then engaged with
the Sonora Stage Company, which ran a stage from Stockton to Tuolumne County,
working up to be stable boss and being stationed for a while at King’s Ferry,
Stanislaus County. During three years of staging, he shifted from one place to
another, seeing pioneer life, and finally returning to San Joaquin County,
where he farmed. In 1882, he came to Butte County and settled in West Biggs
precinct, and here he remained until the fall of 1917, when he sold the ranch
and made his home in Biggs.
From his first venture on Butte County
soil, Mr. McKee farmed to wheat, and in one single year he has sown as high as
sixteen hundred acres. About twenty-five years ago, his brother Matthew joined
him, and both farmed their land to grain. This brother later rented all of Mr.
McKee’s land, which he sowed to wheat. When the season is right, the ranch
produces just as much wheat per acre as ever. Their highest yield was fifteen
sacks per acre, and each sack was one hundred forty pounds in weight.
Mr. McKee is a naturalized American
citizen. He is an active Republican, whose counsel is frequently sought by
party leaders, and a public-spirited citizen, always ready to place his
property and purse at the call of projects making for the public good and the
improvement of local trade and general financial conditions. He helped organize
the Bank at Biggs, and for the past five or six years has been a director; and
he has also helped, about five years ago, to organize the Bank at Butte City.
He is conservative in his methods, but his conservatism is of the type that
makes for safe and substantial modes of operation, and in the end contributes
to spell a community’s success.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
06 April 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 866-867, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies