A family history⁽¹⁾ on another branch of the family begins with a Captain MacFee⁽²⁾ who is said to have fought in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 with his sons Donald and George. It lists four of Donald MacFee's children, George, John, Peter and Phoebe. The history follows descendants of George and Peter who migrated to Maryland, saying that John and Phoebe are "said to have come to America to settle in the south." Donald's son, George, also had a son John whose descendants are not followed. Either of these John's may be the John Fee who settled in Pennsylvania, by probable age, the son of George is more likely.

John Fee was born about 1730 in northern Ireland. It not certain whether he married his wife, Sarah Stuart, there, before the voyage, or here in America. It is even possible that they met on the voyage, being married at sea or shortly after their arrival. John Fee may be the Johan David Fees who arrived on the `Eastern Branch' from Rotterdam and Portsmouth, England, 3 October 1753⁽³⁾. [English names were frequently germanized by shipmasters, many of whom were German.]

Neither is it certain whether their son, John, was born in Ireland shortly before leaving or in this country after they arrived. It is certain that within a year or so of their arrival in America, this immigrant Presbyterian couple were busy establishing their home and farm on the Juanita River in what was then Cumberland County in lower central Pennsylvania⁽⁴⁾.

By the time of the Revolution, they were well-established at the mouth of the Raystown Branch of the Juanita River and are listed in that vicinity in the 1790 census. John Fee was among the many inhabitants of the area that signed a petition in February of 1779 requesting stores of flour and other goods. John Fee, Sr., died about 1800⁽⁵⁾. His wife, Sarah, died about 1813, aged about 83. Both are believed to be buried there in the Fee family cemetery near the little town of Mill Creek.

John and Sarah had at least one son, named John after his father, to whom they left their land in Huntingdon County. Until his father's death, John was known as John Fee, Jr. In later years it was he who was known as John Fee, Sr. There is some uncertainty as to whether he was born about 1759 or 1762 and whether it was before or after John and Sarah emigrated to America. It can be truthfully stated that he was born about 1760⁽⁶⁾, shortly before or after the voyage to America.

John was in his late teens when the Revolutionary War broke out. He served as a private and a scout with the Pennsylvania militia, becoming known as Colonel in later life because of connections with the local militia. Throughout the war, his parents remained in relative safety in two area forts, Carmichael's and Prigmore's.

When the Revolution broke out, the Bedford and Huntingdon County area furnished two companies, a greater proportion of one company being recruited in what now constitutes Huntingdon and Blair Counties. In his later years, John applied for a pension for his wartime service. His application states that he entered `into the service of his country' in January of 1777 and marched to Philadelphia where he was enrolled in Captain Thomas Clugage's company. They then marched with John Piper's regiment through Jersey to a place where a party of British had fortified themselves. John states that he was one of twenty men selected to attack them about the break of day. The venture was successful with the party taking and carrying away about 400 head of cattle, 29 horses, and a number of sheep which they carried off to our army in Princeton.

After a period of about three months, this tour of duty was up and John and the others from his neighborhood were discharged, reaching home the last of March or first of April. In his application, John goes on to say:

"Soon after, in the course of the same spring a large party of Tories to the number of about 90 started off to join the Indians at Kittaning [sp?] with the intention of bringing them in to murder the inhabitants of the frontier. That as soon as the alarm of this attempt was raised a party of the militia the number about 150 was gathered together... and marched across the Alleghany mountains and halted at the waters of the Susquehanna [sp?] when they sent out spies five of whom were shot by the Indians. That your petitioner was one of said party during the whole of said campaign and returned with the company to Huntingdon having spent two to three weeks in said tour and suffered much and endured many privatations their provisions having run out on the way."

The pension applications goes on to mention several other such excursions some of which John can no longer remember in detail. He does mention turning out and marching in a scout down a river "at the time of the massacre of Mr. Eaton... another up the Raystown branch when Mr. Elder was taken and John Plummer was killed whom he assisted to bury" and in another with Captain Shaver to a valley where they discovered and took "several stands of arms secreted by the Tories." Several other times are mentioned when various individuals were killed as when the Donnelly's were massacred. Another time they marched to the foot of the Alleghanies when it was reported "a party of Indians were lurking." As John puts it, he was "called out at every alarm during that eventful period."

It was probably just after the war when he married Patience Kelly, born 16^th July 1760 in Maryland. Patience died sometime before 1790, after bearing him four daughters and one son, David. On the 16^th of June in 1791, the widowed John married Jane, daughter of George Jackson. Jane was born 19 February 1769 in Pennsylvania and died in 1858 in Fairfield, Iowa, where her son George had moved about 1855.

John's daughters by his first wife, Patience, were Sarah [married Robert Hampton]; Mary [married John Wright]; Rachel [married first to Thomas Beatty, second to Joseph Williams] and Lydia [married Jacob Van deVanter]. His only son by Patience was our David Fee.

John had only two children by his second wife, Jane, both sons, John and George. One source states that Jane Jackson Fee had two sons who both served in the War of 1812, only one of them surviving. George, born about 1795, is known to have lived. He married Mary Porter and did not die until 1880. As nothing has been found on John and he is not named in his father's will, the statement about one of them dying in the War of 1812 may be correct.

The History of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, details some of the early history of Henderson Township where John lived and raised his family. This history mentions that both of John's sons, John and George, served in the War of 1812. It says little more about the son John but a good bit more about George, as if John had died or left the area. It does state that John was a son of the first wife but guardianship records⁽⁷⁾ indicate this is not possible. At no point does the history mention David, although we are certain of his existence due to his father's will.

John, as his father probably did before him, kept a public house on the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. It was a good location as it was the main freight road between the two cities. In 1789, he is listed as one of the members of the Presbyterian Church in Huntingdon. He was named as overseer of the poor in Henderson Township in 1797.

John Fee died on the 22^nd of August, 1845, in Huntingdon County. He is buried near his parents at Mill Creek. His will, written 6 February 1838, names his wife, Jane, and his son, George, as executors. The will was probated in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, on 27 March 1846 and recorded in Will Book 4, on page 464. The next day, his wife, Jane, renounced the role of executrix, leaving the whole of such duty to her son George.⁽⁸⁾

In his will, John provided well for his wife, leaving her "all household furniture & all my personal estate & $30 annually from my real estate & 2 cows & 2 piggs, 10 bushels of wheat & 5 bushels of corn yearly & a privlage of 2 rooms in the house, a privlege in the springhouse & garret & gardian & in the orchard (all of which to be taken in lieu of dower)."⁽⁹⁾

He leaves one dollar to each of his three daughters⁽¹⁰⁾, Lydia, Sally and Rachel. He had probably provided adequate dowers at their marriages. To his son George he left the "plantation I now live on."

The bequest of interest to the Fee families of southeast Kentucky is the bequest to "my son & George's half brother David Fee $150 in 5 years after my decease." It is not known if David ever received this bequest.

John and Patience Kelly Fee's son, David, was born between 1780 and 1790 in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. He was at the most ten years old at his mother's death and his father's remarriage. About a hundred years later, in 1898, a great-grandson⁽¹¹⁾ in an interview with John Jay Dickey⁽¹²⁾ said that David fled his native Pennsylvania because of "trouble with a schoolteacher." He goes on to state that

"the trouble with the schoolteacher grew out of the following circumstances - He was attending school and the teacher told his younger brother to trim his fingernails. The boy did not obey whereupon the teacher began to break them off with a paddle. When the blood began to flow, my great grandfather struck the teacher over the head with a chair. The young man fled and never knew whether the teacher lived or died."

Assuming the tale to be correct, it seems then that David, incensed by the teacher's treatment of one of his young half-brothers, George or John, took violent action and then fled the possible consequences. It would certainly explain why David, apparently without any connections to the area, suddenly appears in southwest Virginia.

David appears first in Lee County, Virginia, about 1809. Now in his early twenties, he probably worked as a farm laborer and possibly taught school. On the 18^th of April, in 1810, he was indicted in Lee County for illegal gaming. Some of his descendants say that gambling runs in the Fee blood, certainly many later incidents involving his descendants would indicate so. When he did not appear at the September term of the Lee County Circuit Court, he was fined $20. The following April, in 1811, he was apparently jailed over the offense and then released when he signed a one year peace bond, pledging all his property.

On 12 September 1810, in Lee County, Virginia, John Flanary, minister of the gospel⁽¹³⁾, married David Fee and Lucy Noe. Lucy, born about 1793, was the daughter of John Noe and his wife whose name is believed to have been Charlotte⁽¹⁴⁾. At first, David and Lucy remained in Virginia where their first child, Jane, was born about 1811.

The next fall, in September of 1812, David enlisted in the militia company captained by Daniel Garrard. This company was a part of Lieutenant Colonel William Jennings' Regiment. David was appointed as a Sergeant and served his tour of duty without any known incident. According to the pension file, most of his time was spent in Canada. He was discharged at Cincinnati, Ohio. His widow, Lucy, applied for and received 80 acres of bounty land and a pension of eight dollars a month.

After the war, David and Lucy, along with her father and several of her brothers, moved across the mountains to what was then Knox County, in that part which became Harlan County in 1819⁽¹⁵⁾. Here, the rest of their children were born.

David did not own any land for many years and probably worked as a farm laborer, farmed rented land and taught school. He was apparently relatively well-educated and as the qualifications for teaching at the time amounted to the standards of whomever was hiring, it is not surprising that William Cornett, born about 1814, told John Jay Dickey⁽¹⁶⁾ that David Fee was "one of the best teachers he ever went to".

A teacher's pay was small, often little more than room and board or possibly the use of a cabin and a piece of land to farm. His widow's pension papers imply that at one time, David kept a school on Martins Fork and that they had the use of a cabin and a portion of land on George Brittain's property. The county court orders for the first ten years of Harlan's existence have long since disappeared but beginning in 1829, we find frequent notations in the order book as to David Fee serving on a jury, overseeing the road work, collecting taxes, and so forth.

Although it appears that David would turn his hand to most anything to earn a living, he does not appear to be particularly a saving man. It is not until 1840 that he owned any land and that was a grant in county orders of cheap mountain land⁽¹⁷⁾

. Like many others, he sometimes borrowed money as is indicated in the following mortgage⁽¹⁸⁾ from David Fee to Dickinson M^cFarlane & Co.:

Where as I am indebted to Dickinson McFarlan & Co in the sum of fifty dollars due by note due on the 21^st Jany 1831 and wishing to secure said debt to the said Dickinson McFarlen and Company do here by sell deliver and convey to the said Dickinson M^cFarlan and Co. the following specias of property to wit four cows and calves, four feather beds and furniture, four yearlings and twenty one head of hogs all of which I convey to the said Dickinson M^cFarlen & co to secure the said sum of fifty dollars by the said Dickinson M^cFarlan & co. waiting with the undersigned for the said debt until the 15^th day of November as aforesaid then John Jones is appointed trustee to sell said property on the premises of the undersigned by advertising at three of the most public places in the neighbourhood for three months previous to the day of sale.

Given under my hand this 27^th day of May 1831

David Fee {seal}

Witness
William `X' Jones
[his mark]

Between July of 1840 and May of 1842, David finally acquired land, obtaining grants in county orders for a total of 250 acres on Slators Fork of Catrons Creek. Here he established his final home and, according to his descendants, a fine apple orchard. David and his family were probably aware of the existence of coal on their land but it was not until just after their son John's death, in 1911, that the real value of the property became apparent. The Yancey mines cover most of what was once the property of David Fee.

David died the 26^th January 1847⁽¹⁹⁾ in Harlan County, Kentucky. He is believed to be buried in a cemetery located on the head of Slators Fork known as the `Old Dave Fee cemetery' but most of the graves in the small family burial ground are unmarked or marked with plain stones without names.

In 1850, Lucy, now 57 years old, is keeping house for her two sons, George and Abner. George would shortly marry, have two sons and die in 1852. Abner, then only seventeen, also married in a few years and established his own home. By 1860, Lucy had made her home with her daughter, Jane, and Jane's husband, Stephen Farmer. It is not known whether Lucy lived long enough to know of another son's death, Hiram, in the Civil War, but she apparently died sometime between the 1860 and 1870 census.

According to census and other records, Lucy Noe Fee, was illiterate. This would be surprising in the wife of a schoolteacher nowadays but it was not at all uncommon in the 1800's for it was thought unnecessary for a woman, or even a man, to read or write.

David and Lucy Noe Fee had ten children⁽²⁰⁾: