Thomas J. McKie, M.D. Surgeon South Carolina 10th Infantry Regiment The author and compiler of this history inquired of Dr. McKie about Robert M. McKie, of Tennessee; to this inquiry he replied:

"In tracing this family which came from the South of Scotland and settled in Virginia, probably no great way from Charlottesville, and afterwards to Horse Creek, below Hamburg, in this State, it has always been the rule to ask how it is spelled. If "McKie" be the way, further inquiry may be made, otherwise not. Some of this family removed to Alabama, some to Mississippi, and possibly afterwards to Texas, but none to Tennessee that we know of. The Revolutionary ancestor left Horse Creek and went to Augusta with his family for protection during hostilities, while he, Daniel McKie, was in the field with the partisans of his section. The tradition is that he was a fearless fighter, though once captured by the Tories and condemned to die on the gallows extemporized by placing a grape vine over a swinging limb on a neighboring tree and around his neck, mounted on his horse, which was to be whipped out from under him. Fortunately, another gang came up with one in authority who knew the prisoner, and ordered him cut down and released. They had been friends before hostilities. After the cessation of hostilities this patriot left Augusta and settled on Steven's Creek, five miles west of Martintown, where some of his descendants still live."

You will excuse this mention, as the family has since filled a very humble place in the history of Edgefield, being tillers of the soil, fond of retirement - almost to seclusion - and never seeking place or preferment, and often shunning both. The name is little known beyond the limits of their immediate neghborhood. Thomas J. McKie, M. D., was surgeon of the Tenth Regiment South carolina Volunteers. True, these lands are, and have been, in their possession during three generations; but that seems to be a peculiar characteristic with the inhabitants of this strip of country.