GEORGE BUTTERFIELD McKEE
Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES: BUTTERFIELD, HUBBARD, GUMMER, SMITH, TOLAND, MOORE, ROBERTS,
Santa Clara County and this section of California is largely indebted
to the efforts of George B. McKee for early pioneer development. A
veteran not only in point of long residence and his pioneer association
with the building of the County, but a path-breaker in the industrial
and commercial worlds, he belongs to that highly respected class of
California pioneers, ever of interest to the student of what was, what
is, and what is to be. He was born at Ottawa, Ill., on July 27, 1838.
the son of Lyman McKee, who was married in Watertown, N. Y., to Miss
Melinda Butterfield. Grandfather Zacharia Butterfield was a New
Englander who came out to New York State and was one of three that took
up the land now the site of Watertown, hence was one of the founders of
that thriving city; he was also engaged in stock-raising and dairying,
in which he was very successful. Soon after their marriage, Lyman McKee
and his wife moved to Otta, Ill., where he was engaged in farming
until his demise, when George Butterfield McKee was but a small
lad-leaving a widow and four children.
After the death of Lyman McKee his widow, with her four sons, moved
back to Watertown, N. Y .• and there she continued to reside until she
decided to come to California. One son. Frank F., had preceded her,
having crossed the plains in 1853, com
ing in the Ward and Moody horse-train from Milwaukee to San Jose.
Mr. Moody returned East the same fall and was married to a cousin of
Mr. McKee, and with his bride and our subject's mother left for
California via Panama in December, 1853.
Mrs. Melinda McKee, on her arrrival, bought a residence at 234 South
Second Street where she resided until her death in 1868. She was the
mother of four children: Frank F. passed away in Tulare County; Albert
and Russell both passed away in San Jose, and George Butterfield, the
subject of this review. His people were stock and dairymen and from a
youth he assisted them during the summers, obtaining the experience
and learning habits of industry and thrift that have been so valuable
to him in later years. He obtained his early education in the
public schools of Wtertown, N. Y. At the age of fifteen, in 1853, he
carne out to
Milwaukee, Wis, and the next spring he joined the MoodyWinchell
train destined for the land of gold and sunshine. Leaving Milwaukee in
April, 1854, they proceeded westward across the plans after crossing
the Mississippi at Rock Island, Ill., and the Missouri at Council
Bluffs, Iowa, making their way up the Platte and its north fork through
'Wyoming and Utah, coming by the Sublette cut-off into
California,
arriving in San Jose in October, 1854. They left Wilwaukee with ten
men, but at Council Bluffs, Iowa, they joined the Streeter and
Hendricks train of fortyy men, making them fifty men strong and well
armed and thus this formidable army came through without being molested
by the Indians. Mr. McKee found here only a small Spanish town,
and
the opportunities for obtaining something to do were limited; a few
wagons were hauling quicksilver from the New Almaden mines through San
Jose to Alviso, and a few ox-teams were hauling lumber from the
redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
George B. soon left for Stockton
and entered the employ of the Adams Express Company, as messenger boy,
but a month later the company was taken over by the Wells Fargo. He
remained with them but a short time, then struck out for the Kern River
mines, where he mined at Greenhorn Gulch and Keysville, remaining until
the fall of 1856, when he made his way to Nevada County and there
engaged in mining at Moore's Flat on the middle fork of the Yuba River,
remaining there for about a year. Success had attended his efforts,
thus enabling him to invest in a dairy which yielded a good income. In
1861 he was elected county assessor of Nevada County, and he took up
his residence in Nevada City. Being re-elected to the office, he
served two terms with credit and satisfaction to the citizens. For a
short time, with a Mr. Pratt, Mr. McKee operated a store at Zirs
Station, on the line of the building of the Central Pacific Railroad,
but inside of four months, he found conditions un-satisfactory so he
sold out and returned to Grass Valley, where he mined "for a
·year.
Then he gave up mining and returned to San Jose in 1868. While
building his home he went fo Henning's store for paint, and finding the
proprietor very busy, he found what he wanted in the way of paint from
time to time, keeping a record of it on Mr. Henning's books, and when
he had finished his house and came to settle his bill, Mr. Henning
offered to sell him a half-interest in the business, and the firm
became known as Henning and McKee, located pn First Street.
Thus Mr. McKee began his operations in a field in which he has
since become so singularly successful and has been so honorably
identified. Eighteen months later, he purchased Mr. Henning's interest
and was the sole proprietor for about eighteen months, when he took as
a partner Alfred De Rockebrune under the firm name of George B. McKee
& Company and this partnership continued until the death of Mr. De
Rockebrune, when Mr. McKee purchased the interest and since then has
been the sole proprietor, the establishment carrying a large and
complete stock of paints, oils and wall-paper, as well as building the
large plant for the manufacture of mixed paints.
About 1882, he purchased the old court house and jail site on the
corner of San Fernando and South Second Streets, and he was the only
man in California that owned a court house and jail in his own name.
Here he built his permanent brick building in 1892 and later built the
paint factory on the jail site. This property is 471/2 x 137 1/2
fronting
on South Second Street with 45 feet at the rear of the building
fronting on San Fernando Street with a depth of 137 1/2feet. He also
owns 58 feet 'on Third near San Fernando Street adjoining the above
property, this being the old jail site on which he constructed his
paint factory. Finding a considerable demand for ready mixed paints,
Mr. McKee experimented and began the manufacture of paints and his
Balata Paints are now well known all over the Coast. Thus he has built
up the largest business of the kind in Santa Clara County .
In 1902,
Mr. McKee incorporated his business as the Geo. B. McKee Company, of
which he is president and owner. Mr. McKee is a stockholder in the San
Jose Water Company and is a director and was its president for many
years until he resigned when he went on his trip to the Orient. He is
also a stockholder and director of many years in the First National
Bank of San Jose, and for thirty years he has been president of the
Nucleus Building & Loan Association of San Jose.
Mr. McKee has been twice married; his first wife was Miss Mary
Hubbard, a native of Wisconsin, and she passed on in 1884, the mother
of two children; Hubbard was killed in an automobile accident, leaving
three children; Mrs. Georgia Gummer of Stockton has two children. Mr.
McKee's second wife was Mrs. Lydia Smith Toland, a native of Decatur,
Ill., a daughter of E. O. Smith, a pioneer of San Jose. Mrs. McKee is
actively identified in all civic and social affairs and is particular1y
interested in benevolent charitable societies. She is a cultured woman
and presides graciously over her large and beautiful home, which was
erected in 1892 on the site of the old McKee home, thus Mr. McKee has
resided on this same location since 1868.
In 1913, Mr. McKee, accompanied by his wife, his niece, Miss Moore, and
a Miss Roberts, made a tour of the Orient, visiting Honolulu; thence to
Japan, taking in the important cities in that country and on to China,
visiting ·Shanghai, Hongkong and other important cities; thence
to
Singapore and on to Colombo, Ceylon, thence through India from the
extreme South to the North and back to Calcutta and on to Rangoon in
Burma; thence back to Singapore and on to the Island of Java; thence
to Australia and New Zealand, and from there to the Fiji, Tonga and
Samoa Islands, after which they returned via Honolulu to San
Francisco after a most de.lightful trip of seven
months, the party not having experienced a day's sickness during the
trip.
Mr. McKee has been a very active and prominent Mason, having been made
a Mason in Nevada Lodge, F. & A. M., of Nevada City, where he also
was made a member of the Royal Arch Chapter and knighted in the
Commandery. On coming to San Jose, he became a member of Friendship
Lodge No. 210, F. & A. M., Howard Chapter, R. A. M., of which he is
past high priest and now the only living charter member of San Jose
Commandery No. 10, of which he is past eminent commander, as well as
being a past grand commander of the Grand Commandery of California,
serving in that eminent position in 1901, when he took the Grand
Commandery of California to the triennial conclave of Knights Templar,
held in Louisville, Ky. He has had the pleasure of also visiting other
conclaves, in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Los
Angeles, and two in San Francisco. Mr. McKee is also a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason, being a charter member of San Jose
Consistory, and for many years he has been the treasurer of all the
Masonic bodies in San Jose of which he was a member, having been
treasurer of the Blue Lodge for thirty-three years. With his wife, he
is a member of the O. E. S., of which he is past patron and Mrs McKww
is past matron. He is also a life member of Islam Temple, A. A. O. N.
M. S., in San Francisco, his membership being No. 922. In 1921 Mr.
McKee was made a knight Commander of the Court of Honor.
Mrs. McKee has been president of the Ladies' Benevolent Society in San
Jose for twenty-two years, a charitable institution for the care of
children, and is doing a noble work in caring for the 'waifs; and is
also prominent in civic and club circles. Mr. McKee was the president
of the first Board of Trade, and· since then has been' a
supporter of
the local Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, as well as all
movements for boosting San Jose, in the growth of which he is very
loyal and proud. He has served acceptably as city councilman and mayor
of San Jose, and has also been a member of the board of police and fire
commissioners. Deeply interested in the cause of education, he has
given of his time and served faithfully as a member of the board of
school trustees of this growing city. While a Republican in national
politics, Mr. McKee supports all local move-ments in a broad,
nonpartisan manner. Not only among the oldest residents of San Jose,
Mr. McKee has been in business steadily in San Jose longer than any
other business man in the city. He has truly been a factor in the
development, not only of the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County,
but of the commonwealth of California. It is indeed inter-esting to
chronicle the life history of such a useful, unselfish and enterprising
citizen, who, in his liberal and kind-hearted way, has always given
freely of his time and means towards enterprises that have for their
aim the improvement of the city and county and to enhance the comfort
and raise the social and mora] conditions of its people. It is to men
of the type of Mr. McKee that California today owes much of its present
greatness and prosperity; men who were not afraid to work, and in their
optimism saw the great future awaiting the Golden State in developing
its great natural resources.
Transcribed cferoben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 419
HUBBARD McKEE
Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES: BUTTERFIELD, DRENNER, GRIMLEY
A worthy representative of a pioneer family, Hubbard McKee (familiarly
called Hubb McKee) was a steady, clean-cut and enterprising business
man, who was born in San Jose on February 28, 1873, a son of George B.
and Mary McKee, pioneers of Santa Clara County. His father was born at
Ottawa, Ill., on July 27, 1838, the son of Lyman McKee, who was married
in Watertown, N. Y., to Miss Melinda Butterfield. His maternal
great-grandfather, Zacharia Butterfield, was a New Englander, who came
out to New York State and was one of three that took up the land now
the site of Watertown, hence was one of the founders of that thriving
city. He was engaged in stock raising and dairying. George B. McKee was
educated in the public schools of Watertown, N. Y., and in 1833 removed
to Milwaukee, Wis., and the following spring joined the Moody-Winchel
train destined for California, arriving in San Jose in October, 1854;
he has always been most prominent in civic and business circles and has
aided greatly in the steady development and progress of his locality.
Hubbard McKee was reared in San Jose and educated in the public schools
of San Jose and Santa Clara College. After graduation he entered his
father's store, beginning at the bottom and working up through the
various departments in both the paint factory and. the store. He was
greatly interested in the business and in time was able to relieve his
father of much of its care and oversight. When his father made a seven
months trip to the Orient, he had charge of the business, and it was
soon after his father's return that he met with the accident which
resulted in his death on July 19, 1914. -A description of the accident
which caused his death was printed in the San Jose Mercury of July 22,
1914: "There is ,something ineffably pathetic in the tragic end of the
late Hubbard McKee. He was known as a man of unusual tenderness, and
his friends were not surprised to learn that he had given his seat to
an injured man picked up by the roadside and that he himself had stood
behind while the driver rushed with all speed to the hospital. It was
at a sudden curve of the road. that the unselfish McKee was thrown from
his precarious hold to his death, and that he, in the prosecution of an
act noble in the highest degree, should forfeit his own life,
distinguishes this' from the average automobile accident. Those who
knew the late Hubbard McKee knew a true man; his impulses were
generous, his sympathies tender, indeed, since his untimely passing
many stories are told showing the genuineness of his manhood, his
thoughtfulness for others, his willingness to sacrifice, when that was
necessary. To the men in his employ he was a friend rather than master,
while in his dealings with the public, he erred only to his own
disadvantage. There was nothing petty in the man; indeed it was foreign
to his nature, and yet he was a quiet, unobtrusive citizen, devoted to
his home, his parents and his city. Hubbard McKee could not be other
than brave and generous, for he came of that splendid old pioneer stock
which adorned the early history of California and the surviving members
of which command such universal respect today. The name of George B.
McKee is a synonym for integrity in business, for "aggressiveness on
the side of right and for love of state and country. The son was a
replica of the father, a quiet citizen immersed in his own affairs, but
ever ready to contribute his means and ability to a deserving cause.
What a contrast is presented in the heroic act of this man in picking
up a stranger by the wayside to the speed-fiend striking down the
innocent pedestrian and passing on without even learning his name or
the extent of his injuries."
The marriage of Mr. McKee occurred in San Jose on January 31, 1899, and
united him with Miss Mary Grimley, a native of Port Jervis, N. Y., a
daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Drennen) Grimley, who brought her to
Santa Clara County when she was five years of age and here she attended
school at Mayfield, as well as Notre Dame College. Their 'union, a very
happy one, was blessed with three children: George Butterfield. second,
educated at Washburn School, San Jose, is now secretary of the Geo. B.
McKee Co.; Margaret Mary, a graduate of San Jose high school, is also
with the Geo. B. McKee Co.; Frank Hubbard is at present a student at
the William Warren Military Academy, Menlo Park. Mrs. McKee was a true
and loving wife, and since her husband's untimely end has been very
zealous in her care of their children, being unselfishly devoted to
their comfort and pleasures. Hubbard McKee was liberal, brave and
kindhearted, always ready to do a good turn to any deserving person and
everyone who knew him loved him, for he was always helping those in
need, for he never found a man down, but he would render him timely aid.