Peter McKinney and Mary Shorts

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Husband Peter McKinney ¹

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           Born: Abt 1758 - eastern Pennsylvania
     Christened: 
           Died: 1849 - ? Butler Co, PA 2
         Buried: 

       Marriage: 1791 - Braddock's Field, Westmoreland Co, PA 3

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Wife Mary Shorts ³

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           Born: Abt 1776
     Christened: 
           Died: 1839 - ? Butler Co, PA 2
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 F Elizabeth McKinney ²

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           Born: 23 Mar 1792 - Butler Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 
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2 M Richard McKinney ²

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           Born: 
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           Died: while young
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Did Not Marry

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3 M Robert McKinney ²

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4 M Peter McKinney ²

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           Born: 
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5 F Jane McKinney ^{2 4}

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           Born: 
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         Spouse: Alexander Purviance (      -      ) 4

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6 M William S. McKinney ²

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7 M James McKinney ²

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           Born: 
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8 M Thomas McKinney ²

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           Born: 
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9 F Sarah McKinney ²

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           Born: 
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10 M Richard McKinney ²

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11 M John M. McKinney ²

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           Born: 
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           Died: Aft 1883
         Buried: 

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12 F Mary McKinney ²

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Did Not Marry

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13 M C. A. McKinney ⁵

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1883
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Margaret D. [Unk] (      -      ) 5

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General Notes: Husband - Peter McKinney

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He was born in the eastern part of Pennsylvania and was one of the first white men to penetrate the wilds of what became Butler County in the western part of the state. The "Mc" in his name was probably a prefix bestowed during his soldier days, as his pension papers were always made out to Peter Kinney. He was of a bold, adventurous nature, and was attracted into the wilderness by a fondness for hunting. He was left an orphan at an early age by the death of his father, and, when a boy, was bound out to a man named Turnbull. He served through the Revolutionary war as a drummer and fifer, and, after its close, was seven years in the service during the Indian troubles. In 1791 he married and, the following year, came with his wife to the Connoquenessing Valley. Indians were almost his only neighbors, and wild game was so abundant everywhere that he seemed to be living in a veritable hunter's paradise.
McKinney built his first cabin on the farm later occupied by Fred Dambach, in Forward Township, where he took up a 400-acre tract. He afterward built a cabin on the farm where his son, C. A. McKinney, later resided, in the southern part of Connoquenessing Township, where he also settled 300 acres. He traded 100 acres of land to Barnet Gilliland for a Merino sheep, and sold another hundred for a sorrel horse.
He was widely known throughout Butler County, as his house in the village called after his name, "Petersville," was for many years a tavern, and he the landlord. He was a man of small size, and very active in his movements. He worked many years at shoemaking. During the last twenty-one years of his life, he was blind. The children of Peter and Mary McKinney were thirteen in number; all of them lived to mature years except two. [HBC 1883, 183]

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General Notes: Wife - Mary Shorts

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She was as well fitted by nature for pioneer life as was her husband. She made frequent trips to Pittsburgh to obtain groceries, often going and returning on foot, following the faintly marked Indian trails through miles of uninhabited forests.

1 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 29, 183.

2 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 184.

3 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 183.

4 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 488.

5 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 1442.