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Subject: [MOMONROE] J.J. McGee 1884 History profile
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 08:01:00 EST

In the profile of J.J. McGee found on p. 574-575 of the 1884 History of
Monroe and Shelby Counties, Missouri:

Mr. McGee has a fine farm of nearly 400 acres in Jackson township, handsomely
improved, including a commodious and tastily constructed dwelling and other
comfortable buildings and has been a resident of what is now Monroe county
for the past sixty years. He is one of the sterling citizens of the county,
esteemed and respected wherever his upright character and good name are
known. He is a native of Kentucky, born in Mercer county, November 20, 1819.
His grandfather McGee was a pioneer settler of Kentucky from Virginia, a
friend and associate of the Boones and Clarks and others who first blazed the
way for civilization into the then wilderness of the Blue Grass State. John
McGee, Mr. McGee's father, was born and reared in Kentucky and was there
married to Miss Jane C. Curry. In 1822 they removed to Missouri with their
family of children and first located in Howard county, near Fayette, but two
years afterwards they came to what is now Monroe county, or rather a part of
them did, for the father and one of the children never lived to make their
home in this county. There were practiclaly no roads then and the prairie
grass, not uncommonly as high as a man's head on haorseback, covered all the
prairies, only broken now and then by the trail of the Indian and an
occassional pioneer's wagon track or the tread of wolves or deer, or other
wild animals. It was in the fall when the family started from Howard to
Monroe county, and the grass, heavy and dry, was almost as quick to burn as
powder. Mr. McGee, the subject of this sketch, was then a child four years of
age. His father and an older sister were quite a distance behind the wagon
driving their cattle, and the latter fell considerably behind, indeed,
entirly out of sight. All of a sudden a fire came flying across the prairie
with the speed of the wind, and the roar and crackle of cannon and musketry,
traveling faster than any horse could run and taking a course by which it
caught the father and daughter--it was impossible for them to escape. The
flames that enveloped her, suffered himself to be so severely burned before
he gave his own burning clothes any attention that both were burned to death,
or so badly burned that they died within ten or twelve days afterwards.
Medical attention was impossible, for there was not a doctor within 40 miles,
and those that could be had, even beyond that distance, were scarcely ever
found at home, for their practice covered so wide a region that they were
almost constantly absent. The suffering of the father and daughter was
intense, too terrible indeed, to be imagined, much less described. Such was
the sad experience of the subject of this sketch on first coming to what is
now Monroe county. Heaven grant that when the shadowy curtains of death shall
be drawn about him, and his spirit shall take its leave from the county in
which he has so long lived, its flight may be happier than his coming was.
His mother was left with a large family of children, of whom he was the
eldest, and he, with her help and prayers, went to work to provide the family
a home and support them as best he could. Their lot was a hard one, but they
proved equal to it, and in keeping with the noble heart that he had young
McGee courageously went to work and succeeded in bringing up the children in
comparative comfort. He lived to see them all married and settled in life and
then himself was married to Miss Catherine E. Helm. She lived to brighten his
home for many years, but at last was taken from him by the Grim Harvester of
all. She left him five children: Alonzo T., Melissa, wife of George Neugent;
William J., Mattie J. and Hettie E. In 1873 Mr. McGee was married to Miss
Polly A. Vaughan, who now presides over his comfortable home.

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