OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

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specially qualified to pass on the relative merits of different improvements suggested in the methods now used in operating mines. He is independent in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has devoted himself closely to his particular line of business, and has discharged every duty of his different official positions in a satisfactory and honorable manner. WILLIAM MCKEE, the efficient alderman of the Fourth ward, Johnstown, this county, is a son of Thomas and Jane (Logan) McKee, and was born in Shade township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, April 12, 1822. His grandfather, Thomas McKee, was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, and served in the Revolutionary war.     Thomas McKee, father of the gentleman whose names heads this memoir, was born and reared in Huntingdon county, and for a number of years followed the occupation of a miller in connection with farming in his native county. In 1814 he removed to Cambria county and settled on a farm near Johnstown, and followed the combined occupations of miller and farmer the rest of his life. He was a member of the Presbyterian church of Johnstown, and died in March, 1826, at his home in what is now Upper Yoder township, this county. He served in the War of 1812. His marriage with Jane Logan resulted in the birth of ten children, of whom William McKee, our subject, is the youngest and the only one now living.     In his youth he received a very limited education, attending the old subscription schools only about one and a half years. However, through perseverance, by close observation of human events and a judicious course of reading Mr. McKee has acquired a good practical education.

He began life on his own account very early, and for three months drove a team of oxen in a brick-yard in Johnstown. He was next employed as a clerk in the grocery store of William C. Hayes & Co., Johnstown, where he remained three years. He then secured a similar position in the grocery store of Jacob Fronheiser, of Johnstown, in whose employ he remained five years. During 1846 and 1847 he was engaged in supplying the following furnaces with iron ore: Cambria, Indiana, Saltsburgh, Woodward and Ralston, and from 1867 to 1887 was employed in one of the offices of the Cambria Iron company. At the close of that period of service Mr. McKee formed a partnership with Casper Burgraff, and under the firm name of Burgraff & McKee opened a grocery store in Johnstown; after a year and a half they dissolved partnership, and Mr. McKee engaged in the grocery business for himself.     In 1860 he was elected justice of the peace of the Second ward of Johnstown, and in 1861 was elected its burgess. However, he resigned the latter office and offered his services to his country. He enlisted August 22, 1862, in company K, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, and was commissioned first lieutenant. The most important engagement in which he participated was the battle of Fredricksburg. After nine months' active service, his term of enlistment having expired, he returned to Johnstown in May, 1863. From the latter date until 1889 he was engaged in the grocery business. In 1892, he was elected alderman, and has occupied that office very acceptably ever since, being at present alderman of the Fourth ward, Johnstown.     Mr. McKee has been twice married. In 1846 he was united in marriage with Miss

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