John Clee was born on May 31, 1824 at Toddington, in the County o5 Gloucester, England, and is the second son of John and Martha (Browning) Clec. His father was born at Ludlow, in the County of Shropshire, England, on March 28, 1795, in which county his ancestors lived for many generations, and whose family name was given to a mountainous range of country, called the Clee Hills. Some members of the family were in professional life, and the elder Mr. Clee was a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church for over forty years, and until the time of his death, at Cheltenham, England, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Martha Clee, his wife, was born at Kodborough, in the County of Gloucester, on October 18, 1799, her parents and ancestors being engaged in agricultural pursuits. For seventy years she was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. She died at Cheltenham, England, on April 3, 1886, at the age of eighty-seven.

John Cite, the subject of this sketch, was educated in private schools of England, and in his twenty-sixth year started in business for himself, engaging in mercantile pursuits. In 1850 he was married to Hannah Fry, daughter of James Fry, a carver, gilder and picture frame manufacturer, in the city of Cheltenham, England. They had a family of four sons and one daughter, of whom only one, a son named Walter Wi1liam Clee is living. For over thirty years Mr. Clee was engaged in a general business in the town of Trenton. Michigan. He now controls two large llour nulls, one at Trenton and the other at Detroit, and is also engaged in the manufacture of earth paint materials, in the city of Wyandotte, Michigan.

In politics Mr. Clee was originally a Whig, of the Clay school, and has been a Republican ever since the organization of that party. Although physically incapacitated to take part in the late Civil War, he nevertheless gave liberal financial support to the Union cause. He has long been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and for over forty years has been affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Clee is a man of democratic tastes and methods and of a genial disposition. Possess- ing strong business instincts, his early entrance into mercantile life has resulted in a most flattering success. He is in every sense of the word a self-made man and his life illustrates the fact that industry and perseverance coupled with honesty and economy, will bring a substantial and gratifying reward.

Source: History of Detroit and Wayne Co 1890 by Silas Farmer