Mckee Brothers Energy Solutions

James J. McKee Sr., founded a local ice company in the year 1900. As the business expanded he was fortunate to have three sons, Charlie, Jim and Ray, who each joined the business as they reached their teens. Together, except for their tours of duty in the Second World War, they served the ice needs of the Cumberland/Lincoln area.The demand for ice in the late forties was replaced by a “new technology”, electric refrigeration. McKee Brothers became a major supplier of electric refrigerators well into the early fifties. An even more important direction for the Company was chose during this period. McKee Brothers decided to enter the fuel oil business. Very quickly McKee Brothers established themselves as a major oil heating installation contractor, installing a substantial amount of the oil fired heating equipment in the area during that period.When James J. McKee Sr. died in 1959, he left the business in the experienced hands of the second generation. The Company’s first acquisition was Plante Oil in Manville. The following year, 1962, Charlie McKee died, but the decision to continue with a plan of growth was brought home with the purchase of LaRochelle Oil also of Manville.