Viewing Object

The McKee House was constructed some time after 1914 on land owned by Margaret and Catherine McPhail which they had acquired from Angus McPhail in 1912. The cabin was built in 1938 by Samuel McCleery McKee. The structure is rectangular in shape made of log, one story, crawl space, hip cedar shake root and a full open front verandah. Samuel lived there until his death in 1956, at which time the property was willed to his two daughters. It is believed the daughters sold the property immediately. There was an artesian well off the north east corner of the cabin. The family lived without phone or electricity until after WWII.

Mr. Samuel McLeery McKee was born in County Down, Ireland in 1871 and arrived in Vancouver with his parents Mr. and Mrs. Bob McKee Sr. in 1871. The family established their homestead beside the Hudson's Bay Farm on what is now Sprinkbrook Road in 1873. In 1883, Samuel went to Landsdown in the Okanagan. While in the Vernon district, he married Elizabeth Heard on August 1, 1896. They returned in 1908 to the Hugh Davidson farm on Rawlison Crescent. From 1911 to 1918, Samuel returned to the Okanagan to operate a sawmill for the Kettle Valley railway. On April 26, 1920, Samuel's first wife Elizabeth (nee Heard) died. He remarried Elizabeth Ester Peacock (nee Marshall). From 1918 on, he was engaged in the Langley district in the sawmill and tie cutting business and nearly lost all his money in the 1929 crash. Samuel was an active member of the Delta-Surrey-Langley Pioneer's Association, Milner Crib Club, Oddfellows, Agriculture Association and Farmer's Institute. Samuel McLeery McKee died on August 14, 1956.