A 20Th Century Life: Travels Through the Years

By James McGee

The author recounts his life growing up in a small California town in the 1940s, serving in the Army and in the U.S. Foreign Service, on to Harvard University and becoming company President. Along the way he tells delightful and humorous stories about growing up, meeting and wedding the love of his life and his travels in 81 countries.

He has exprienced more of the world than most of us and the reader travels with the author as he experiences life and explores our world. His often-adventurous life and his thought-provoking reflections on life and history, on love and grief -- and the powerful epilogue -- provide an interesting reading experience.

The author is a gifted writer who conveys the joy -- and the anguish -- of life recounted with humility and gratitude. His other books are: A Journey Through Grief: Notes from a Foreign Country (ISBN: 1-4140-0283-1), A Voice of the Old West: Annie Beatrice McGee (ISBN: 1-4208-2013-3) and A Branch of a Tree: A McGee Family in History (ISBN: 978-1-4275-3126-7).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 28, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462802142

James McGee

James McGee was born into an army family. He was educated in Gibraltar, Germany and Belfast. His career has encompassed banking, bookselling and thirteen years in the airline business. He has also presented book reviews for BBC local radio and several independent stations. In addition to the successful Hawkwood series, he has also written several thrillers. He lives in Somerset.

Book preview

Copyright © 2008 by James McGee.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

49819

CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

I

ANTECEDENTS

1

Scots-Irish Ancestry

2

American Ancestry, The First Generation Hugh McGee, 1792-1838

3

The Second Generation: Westward Movement and Fighting the Civil War Edward McGee, 1819-1899

4

The Third Generation: Saving a Nation and Developing a State

James Edward McGee, 1842-1931

5

The Fourth Generation: On to the Pacific

6

The Fifth Generation: Approaching

the Present

James Elmer McGee, 1903-1962

II

A TWENTIETH CENTURY LIFE

7

The Early Years: A Small Town Life and Last Rites

The 1940’s

8

High School Years: Pleasant Memories, McCarthyism and Butch

The 1950’s

9

College Years: Expanding Horizons

1954-1956

10

Wanderjahr: An Innocent Abroad

1956-1957

11

College Years (Again): UCLA and

Peggy McNeill

1957-1959

12

Army Years: A Reluctant Warrior

1960-1964

13

Marriage, Family and Career

The 1960’s

14

Harvard University, Overseas Travel and Attaining a Goal

The 1970’s

15

More Travel and Empty Nesters

The 1980’s

16

California and the Entrepreneurial Years

The 1990’s

17

Retirement and Personal Anguish:

The Best of Times,The Worst of Times

The 2000’s

III

Epilogue

18

The End: A Meditation

19

End Notes

1. Bloodlines

2. Remembrance of Cocoa

3. Postscript

APPENDIX

TRAVELS THROUGH THE 20TH CENTURY

DEDICATION

This book is for Katy and Jim of whom I am a proud parent.

It is also for Peg, my late wife, without whom the pages

of this life story would have been impossible to write.

PREFACE

Who’ll buy my memories

of things that used to be?

Willie Nelson

The world is a book and

those who do not travel

read only one page.

St. Augustine

396-430

The life which is unexamined

is not worth living.

Socrates

470-399

INTRODUCTION

To attempt to recapture a life in a reasonable number of pages strikes me as a conceit. Memories are forgotten, or become selective, and it is probably delusional to expect that others might have an interest in the details of someone else’s life as they live their own lives. But this is an attempt to provide a look at a 20th century life and the people and experiences that shaped it.

Any memoir takes on the character of a memory dump, especially as I have included here lines I have written elsewhere. I have asked myself, why do I want to write of my life? Maybe I have taken the time to write these memories because the urge to keep recollection alive beyond its natural span seems to be a pervasive human impulse: one need only look at the grand monuments in cemeteries to grasp this—the need to say to posterity: I was here. Here I am.

Or, maybe I have written this for Katy and Jim in case they might want to know more of the lives of their parents especially since I know so little of the lives of my own parents.

Or, perhaps I have simply chosen to write my story as a project in retirement, which is traditionally considered a time to reflect upon and sum up one’s life.

My life has included neither fame nor notoriety and although we all live under the same sun, all lives are lived differently. These pages are the story of one life lived in the 20th century. In the words of the song, Regrets, I’ve had a few . . . but there are parts of my life of which I am proud:

-   Received Direct Field Commission in U.S. Army from enlisted status

-   U. S. Foreign Service Officer

-   First McGee of my line to attain an advanced academic degree

-   Graduate of UCLA (BA), Wayne State University (MA) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business

-   Youngest General Manager in a Fortune 60 Corporation

-   Corporate President

-   U.S. Patent holder

-   Entrepreneur who started own company

-   Traveled in 81 countries and all 50 U.S. States

-   Multi-lingual

-   Author of four published books

-   Husband of 40 years and father of two children

As I think about my life, I think it was only in post-war 20th century America that we could begin to know the opportunity to shape our lives not harnessed to a farm plow or to a factory machine. We had been given the freedom to do new and different things and I believe the life I led mirrors that opportunity.

In writing the pages that follow, I echo the words of William Faulkner in his story, The Jail:

"Listen, stranger

This was myself,

This was I."

I

ANTECEDENTS

1

Scots-Irish Ancestry

The McGee family name is derived from the Irish, or Celtic, name of MacAodha, which means Son of Hugh. Hugh means fire and the name allegedly derives from a pagan god. The name MacAodha has been transliterated in different ways: McGee, Magee, McGhee, Maghie, MacGee and McKay.

Some trace the McGee name back to 285 with descent from a King Milesius in what is now Spain. This is based on the oral story-telling tradition and is probably mythic. A more solidly grounded source dates the name to 500 when it appeared in County Tyrone in what is now Northern Ireland or Ulster.

The McGee clan migrated eastward from County Tyrone over an unknown period and held lands in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Ulster. Island Magee, is a peninsula on the east side of Lough Larne, about 20 miles northeast of Belfast, which took its name from the clan.

What is now Scotland lay but 12 miles across the Irish Sea and many Irish, then known as Scotti, moved across the sea to settle the land that was later to bear their name. Members of the McGee family sailed to Scotland at an unknown time.

The McGee’s may have been one of the settler families of the Kingdom of Dal Riata established in the late 500’s when migrants moved from Antrim to what was termed North Antrim in Scotland. There they occupied the mainland area known as Argyll and the southern Hebrides Islands.

The Kingdom of Dal Riata essentially created a single cultural unit on both sides of the northern Irish Sea and the first recorded use of the name MacAodha there was in 619. Various Dal Riata kings who bore the name Aodha (or variant thereof) led wars with the native Picts of Scotland who sought to expel the newcomers. In about 800 the Dal Riata King, Constantine MacAodha, succeeded in uniting the various tribes in southeast Scotland into a single entity. After centuries of warring, the Picts were vanquished in 843 by the Dal Riata King, Kenneth MacAlpin, who is considered today to be the first king of a united Scotland. There is no way of tracing with certainty whether a direct relationship exists between my family and the MacAodha kings.

In the 9th century Norsemen (Vikings) started to make continuing raids on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Later, Norse settlers went to the area. The Vikings settled the islands and coastal areas of eastern Scotland but were unsuccessful in setting up permanent colonies in Ulster although they founded Dublin, south of Ulster. The coming of the Vikings dimmed the light of Dal Riata and the kingdom vanished from history as their lands fell under Norse control.

Islay (pronounced eye-la) is the southernmost of the Hebrides Islands where there was an important family known as McGee’s of the Rhinns. (Rhinns means peninsula and refers to the southwestern part of Islay, the part of the island closest to Ireland. The McGee name in Islay history has various spellings). These McGee’s may have settled in Islay as part of the Kingdom of Dal Riata.

There is a historical account that a McGee family sailed from Islay to what is now Galloway in southwest Scotland where they founded the town of Balmaghie (McGee’s Town) in 915. One can surmise that a family chief decided to make the migration having tired of Viking raids and pillage on the exposed Rhinns of Islay. There is another historical account that McGee’s Town was established by an Irish chief of my name who crossed over from Antrim in Ulster.

In the 10th century the MacDonald’s (Clan Donald) established themselves in the western Scottish islands as Lords of the Isles with their capital on Islay. There are frequent historic references to the McGee’s serving as officiars (administrators or governors) for the MacDonald’s in the Rhinns and they served on the Council of the Lordship. A Scottish history writes, The MacGee family was the most important clan in Islay under the Lords.

The McGee’s of the Rhinns can be historically traced back to 1050 and the oldest Gaelic charter on record in the Archives (General Register House) of Scotland at Edinburgh is a deed recorded to Brian Vicar McGee, chief of the family of the Rhinns, and which dates to 1408.

In 1493 James IV of Scotland conquered the separate power of the Lordship of the Isles in order to incorporate the western islands into his kingdom. He forced the surrender of the MacDonald’s who emigrated back to Antrim where they were joined by the leading gentlemen of Islay including the Magee’s (sic) a leading family of the Rhinns of Islay. Those who returned to Ireland at this time became known as the Antrim Scots.

Various historical deeds and records show that many of the McGee clan remained on Islay which may suggest that only the Councillor to the Lords and his immediate family left the island while others of the family stayed. If the McGee’s were part of the Kingdom of Dal Riata who had settled on Islay I find it ironic that almost 1000 years later they returned to their ancestral home of County Antrim.

The main commercial activity in Islay was the growing of cereal crops, particularly barley, and in Galloway wheat, rye and oats were grown going back to the Roman occupation. The primary crop of Island Magee in Ulster was also wheat. This is noted since the first two generations of McGee’s in America were wheat farmers.

There are a number of historical references to the McGee’s of Balmaghie over the centuries and in 1620 Alexander Magee from Scotland was awarded 280 acres in Antrim. This land grant would have been part of the Ulster Plantation. The Ulster Plantation resulted from the desire of the Protestant King James to supplant the troublesome native Catholic Irish with Scottish and English Protestants. (Protestantism had supplanted Catholicism as Scotland’s official religion in 1560).

Historians report that between 30,000 and 50,000 people crossed the Irish Sea to Ulster during the Plantation (1610-1640) and the first Presbyterian sermon preached in Ireland was on Island Magee. One historian has written, The Ulster Plantation took on the character of a Scottish occupation of the North of Ireland. In effect, the Scots were returning to the home of their ancestors and they became known as the Ulster Scots.

The native Irish were Catholic and the new immigrants from Scotland and England were Protestant. Followers of the two faiths loathed each other and were willing to believe rumors of plots against them. Trust did not exist between the two groups as the Scots were living on land formerly farmed by the Irish. In the Ulster Rebellion of 1641 the native Irish made an effort to drive out the alien Protestants. One of the events in this rebellion was the Massacre of Island Magee on 8 January 1642. There are differing versions of this massacre in which the the English garrison of Carrickfergus, and Protestants who had taken refuge in the fort there, set out on a midnight assault and slaughtered the Catholic men, women and children of the peninsula . . . Another source reports that a significant minority of the earlier (Catholic) population of Island Magee converted to Protestantism . . . (since) there were vast rewards for turning Protestant.

Given the above statements it is possible that members of the McGee family who had remained on Island Magee or who had come from Islay converted to Protestantism at this time but it is generally accepted by historians that my Protestant ancestors returned to Island Magee from Scotland during the Plantation.

In the early 18th century, conditions of life in Ulster began to deteriorate with cattle disease and harvest failures causing famine. These conditions caused many of the settlers to emigrate across the Atlantic Ocean to America. One history book notes that about 2,000 Ulster Protestants a year emigrated to North America starting in 1717.

Since the first McGee of my line came to America a century later, it is probable that the family was successful and did not feel the need to migrate from a desperate situation. One history book states that the later migrants from Ulster had so far risen from the ranks that they were, by any standards, middle class . . .

But migrate they did and this will be discussed in the next chapter.

2

American Ancestry, The First Generation Hugh McGee, 1792-1838

From the Old World to the New

The flow of Ulster Protestant immigrants to America which had been at about 2,000 a year in 1717 became a flow of about 8,000 immigrants a year a century later as they sought greater opportunities for themselves and their families and the freedom to practice their Presbyterian faith. (This contrasts with the 200,000/year—primarily Catholic—Irish immigrants in the 1840’s and 1850’s as they fled the potato famine).

In their Ulster homeland they were known as the Antrim Scots or the Ulster Scots. In America they became the Scotch-Irish.

The large majority of the Scotch-Irish made their entry to America through the ports of Philadelphia or Chester, Pennsylvania or New Castle, Delaware and then moved onward to southwest Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas. Other major ports of entry were New York and Boston.

My first American ancestor probably arrived at either of these northern ports since his destination was western New York State. If he landed in Boston, It was made abundantly clear to them that they were unwelcome . . . since the policy of the New England colonies was clearly one of exclusion of all who differed from them in religion and national background. Accordingly, those who landed in Boston moved west.

Since immigrants tended to travel as extended family or kin groups or neighbors and they settled in areas where others of their nationality settled it can be assumed that Ulster Protestants had located in western New York. As my first ancestor arrived before immigration records or ship’s rosters were kept there will be some mystery about his ports of embarkation and disembarkation as well as the precise year of his arrival. (The recording of immigrants and, consequently, the keeping of ship passenger lists did not start until 1820).

Many McGee migrants came from the towns of Portmuck on the northeast coast of Island Magee or Carnspindle on Lough Larne on the west side of Island Magee. If either of these places were his home he probably left Ulster from the port of Larne since it is the port nearest to Island Magee and from where there were frequent sailings to the New World or possibly he left from the port of Belfast not far away.

It is worth quoting from a history book (Albion’s Seed, David Fischer, Oxford, 1989) to describe the conditions endured by these migrants:

The majority of Scots-Irish were paying passengers of the middle class. The cost of a passage to America was high enough to keep the poorest people at home. (Nonetheless) they traveled to their destination in uncomfortable rat infested ships. Usually only five, ten or maybe thirty passengers suffered through the trip together.

The author further notes that the Scotch-Irish, unlike the native Irish who would follow them, seldom came to America in bondage or as indentured servants.

A report prepared for Congress in 1820 described immigrant travel thusly:

The accommodations were minimal at best, degrading at worst . . . conditions are disgusting and demoralizing . . . passengers were subject to the often uncaring, if not downright unscrupulous, masters and crews of these ships: hunger, lack of privacy and generally uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions . . . berths are in two tiers and consist of an iron framework containing a mattress, a pillow and a blanket. This berth, 6 feet long and 2 feet wide had to accommodate the traveler and all his or her luggage as well as provide sleeping facilities. No place was provided to store or clean eating utensils which most passengers had to provide for themselves and food was often sold to the passengers by the steward for his own profit . . . the only water available for washing was cold sea water . . .

These trans-Atlantic journeys, which lasted about two months, had a death rate of about 30% in the typical crossing. Those descended from these early immigrants are descended from tough people, indeed.

The end of the War of 1812-1815 brought a resumption of immigration to America and the majority of the immigrants came to farm.

Hugh McGee was born in Ulster in 1792 and probably came to America in 1816 when he was 24 years of age. He settled in LeRay Township, Jefferson County, New York to farm. LeRay derived its name from James LeRay de Chaumont, a native of France with whose family Benjamin Franklin had stayed while he attempted to persuade the French to join the rebel cause. Following the war LeRay came to the U.S. to seek repayment of funds advanced the Continental Congress by his family. He ended up owning a tract of about 600,000 acres in northwest New York State and he is known locally as The Father of the North Country.

In addition to Jefferson County being the probable location of kin, McGee may have chosen to settle here because of fertile soils particularly adapted to grains . . . and liberal payment terms granted settlers by LeRay according to a local history. The author further notes that, Immigrants who settled the area were predominantly practitioners of the Protestant faith. He describes LeRay as very little different from other North Country towns, being comprised of a schoolhouse, church, and mill or store. The town served a set of farms that lie within an hour’s walk of the center . . . A Presbyterian church was erected in 1817 with 30 families attending. In 1820, LeRay had added a post office and schoolhouse and comprised 40 houses.

The census of 1820 shows no other McGee’s in Jefferson County so it is likely that Hugh McGee traveled with his wife’s relatives. He was married when he left Ireland and Edward, his first son and my great-great-grandfather, was born in Pamelia, New York, adjacent to LeRay, in 1819. I wonder if his mother gave birth at her relatives? Hugh and his wife became naturalized American citizens in the period 1820-1825.

Wheat was the principal agricultural crop of the North Country as it was of Island Magee in Ulster and it is likely that McGee farmed this crop since in the census his occupation is given as agriculture. A special New York state census in 1825 shows the family as having two boys and two girls but only the name of the head of household is given. I have been unable to locate information about the remainder of the family other than the first-born son, Edward.

There are no existing land records in Jefferson County that show the purchase of land by Hugh McGee. This may suggest that he rented property although I learned on a visit to the area in 2006 that records were frequently destroyed in fires or otherwise lost. Records were reconstructed starting from the then—current owner.

Hugh McGee died 27 September 1838 at 46 years of age and his resting place is unknown since the Army purchased the town of LeRay in 1941 to become Fort Drum. Any cemetery within the large Army base has been destroyed or is off limits, much to the public chagrin of local historians.

3

The Second Generation: Westward Movement and Fighting the Civil War Edward McGee, 1819-1899

Edward McGee, my great-great-grandfather, was the first-born child of Hugh McGee. He was born 29 August 1819 in Pamelia, New York, a town adjacent to LeRay, the McGee’s home.

In the period 1835-1837 Edward traveled about 17 miles northwest of LeRay to the town of Clayton in Jefferson County, either with his family or when he became independent. Clayton was primarily a wheat growing area and census records show that Edward was a farmer there. Growing wheat was probably Edward’s occupation as it had been his father’s.

A local history describes a town that had only 30 inhabitants in 1830 that had grown to a population of 426 in 1835.

As noted in the preceding chapter, Edward’s father, Hugh, died on 27 September 1838 when he was 46 years of age and his son, Edward, was 19.

On 24 May 1840 Edward McGee married Rebecca Graves when he was 21 and she was 18 years of age. Both of Rebecca’s parents were natives of NY and had moved to Jefferson County in 1815. The arrival of her forebears to America has been dated to 1630 with the arrival of Samuel Graves as part of a Puritan group led by John Winthrop who was to become the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Graves family lineage is impressive with several Yankee Clipper Captains and a member who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill at the start of the American Revolution. Rebecca’s great-grandfather was killed while fighting in the French and Indian Wars. Rebecca’s mother was a member of a large Dutch family who had immigrated to the Hudson River Valley in the years 1710-1750.

On 31 October 1842, their first child, James Edward McGee, was born when the father was 23 years of age and the mother 20 years. Other siblings joined James Edward but as he was to become my great-grandfather, I will not discuss his brothers and sisters here, although there is an extended discussion in a family history I have written. (A Branch of a Tree, Xlibris, 2007. ISBN: 978-1-4257-3126-7)

On 21 April 1852 Edward purchased 120 acres of land in Clayton for $120. The McGee property is located about three miles north of Clayton and less than one mile east of the shores of the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands area. Records show that the McGee’s had lived and farmed the property since at least 1847, probably renting the land.

On 7 September 1852 Edward and Rebecca sold their property in Clayton to Rebecca’s brother, John Henry Graves, for $200. The farm was to remain in the Graves family until its sale in 1940.

In 2006 I visited Clayton and sought out the McGee property. The still-existing two-story McGee house has been modified but the original two-story section is almost square and is not unlike such farm dwellings seen elsewhere around the country. The current owner kindly invited me into the house and I saw what I assumed might have been the McGee’s parlor. I am sure they would have recognized the room. The farm is now used primarily for beef raising and some grain although, as noted, Edward was a grain farmer.

Following the sale of their farm, the family relocated to Beechwood, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin in 1852. This was only 18 years after the first permanent settlement in Sheboygan and four years after Wisconsin became a state. Two of Rebecca’s brothers, had moved from Jefferson County to Wisconsin in about 1849 and it was probably their letters that motivated the move by the McGee’s.

Several history books on the development of Wisconsin have noted,

"In 1850, the population of Wisconsin was 305,000 of whom 103,000 (or almost 38% of the population) were from New York

Transplanted Yankees were numerous (in Wisconsin) . . . the soil was among the nation’s richest.

In the census of 1860, 2,868 inhabitants of Sheboygan County were from New York.

Encouraging this headlong rush was the rising price of farm products and the low cost of virgin, fertile, agricultural land further west.

Many of the new migrants to Sheboygan County journeyed to Buffalo, NY via the Erie Canal and then boarded vessels that sailed the Great Lakes to Sheboygan. Those migrants who had accumulated possessions (such as the McGee’s) moved west by covered wagon with supplies and belongings, around the south side of the Great Lakes. Bringing possessions with them would ease their start in their new homes in the wilderness.

A marvelous local history book (Historic Sheboygan County, Gustave Buchen, Sheboygan County Historical Society, 1976) provides the following description of the move west by wagon train:

People from the same neighborhood usually traveled together in one wagon train for mutual help and company on the long tedious trip . . . Two yokes of oxen drew the wagons. In the wagons the women and younger children found room among the food supplies, tools, implements and household goods, while the men and older boys trudged along beside the conveyance, goading the oxen or herding loose livestock before them . . . Progress was slow. The roads were bad. Frequent stops had to be made to rest the animals. The distance traveled each day averaged 15 miles. When night came, the travelers camped at the roadside selecting a place where wood and water were plentiful and the grass good for the livestock. Here they would kindle a fire and cook their meals . . .

Assuming the McGee’s traveled at the average rate of 15 miles/day, and if they traveled every day, it means that they spent about 62 days traveling the approximately 920 miles between Clayton, NY and Wisconsin. Various sources have indicated that settlers preferred to travel after the summer crops had been harvested. This would have made their arrival in Wisconsin in early November and I expect their first winter was spent with Graves relatives in either Sheboygan or Dodge County. Staying with relatives that first winter would also have given Edward an opportunity to determine where he wanted to settle.

In 1853, Sheboygan County had 1,790 dwellings, 581 farms and 30 manufactories and on 4 September 1853 Edward bought a farm of approximately 100 acres for $300. He purchased an additional 20 acres for $30 on 30 April 1856.

An 1862 plat map shows that the McGee property was not the largest in the township but it was larger than most. The property included the approximately 3-acre Lake Beechwood.

The history quoted above provides an informative description of what faced the McGee’s and other migrants upon their arrival.

"Their long journey finally ended, the newcomer’s first task was to find a suitable location for a home.

To provide shelter, the pioneer proceeded to clear a small space in the wilderness and erected a log cabin for himself and his family. Until the cabin was ready for occupancy he lived temporarily with some hospitable neighbor or in a frail camp hastily constructed out of poles, brush and leaves. When felled trees had been chopped into the right lengths, the logs were rolled to the site selected and laid horizontally, one upon another, and notched at the ends so that they would fit well together. To fill up the chinks, moss or three-cornered wooden strips were wedged between the logs and covered with mortar or clay. After the walls were erected, openings were cut through the logs for door, windows, fireplace and chimney . . . Most cabins were built with gable roofs . . . Floors were made of rough uneven planks, 2 1/2 to 3 inches in thickness . . . At one end of the house and often taking up the entire end was a large brick or stone fireplace that did triple duty for cooking, heating and lighting . . . The average cabin was seldom larger than 18 by 24 feet and was a one-room affair with a windowless loft directly under the roof where the children usually slept . . . Three-legged stools were a necessity as four legs could not all touch the uneven floor at the same time . . . Early cabins were smoke-grimed, drafty and badly ventilated."

Beechwood derives its name from beech trees in the area and it is conceivable that the McGee’s first home was made of beech logs.

The local historian notes that in the life of the pioneer,

Bears prowled in the wild berry patches. Hungry wolves skulked in the woods or along the trails. In the dead of winter they sometimes came in packs to the doorways and had to be frightened away by throwing fire-brands among them. There was always the hazard of getting caught in a storm or lost in the woods.

Farms along the Lake Michigan area of WI were predominantly devoted to wheat and it is likely that this is the path Edward McGee followed based on his probable New York farming experience. By the mid-1850’s wheat production in the U.S. had shifted from New York and Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana as the top-ranking wheat producing states. Wheat was the most important crop in Sheboygan County.

Wheat grows best on new, unworn land, and the crop yield on the McGee farm in New York may have started to decline since crop rotation was not then practiced. This may have encouraged their move west.

The previously quoted local history notes that each farm was initially a self-sufficient economic unit, producing practically everything it consumed.

The first spring the settlers struggled to get crops into the ground to supply them with food during the coming winter, living meanwhile on such products of the forest as roots, fruits and nuts and on what wild game they could procure.

Later, as crops were harvested and the farmers entered the money economy the original log cabin was likely to be torn down and a commodious frame dwelling built.

The country farm life of the McGee’s probably met the following description:

Farm life offered many opportunities for shared work and social support, whether between kinfolk or neighbors. The building of schools, the raising of barns, fire fighting, road maintenance, weddings, birthings, sicknesses, funerals, hog killing—there was always some reason to call on the neighbors. There would also have been many occasions for casual exchange of tools or labor.

The Civil War had started with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April 1861 and among those responding to the Union cause was Edward and Rebecca’s son, James Edward, who, on 15 September 1861, enlisted in the Tenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry at the age of 18. (See Chapter 4).

Eleven months later, on 21 August 1862 Edward enlisted as a Private in the Twenty Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Edward was 43 years old at the time of his enlistment (age 45 was the limit) and I have wondered what would have motivated Edward to enlist at his, for that time, advanced age, leaving behind his pregnant wife and six children on the farm?

As a first generation American, Edward might have had strongly-felt patriotic feelings and wanted to defend the values of the country. There is, I believe, in my branch of the family a DNA strand that tends toward idealism. I have seen it in myself, I recognized it in my Dad and that idealistic gene may have caused Edward and his son to deem it only proper to help in setting the world a’right.

Perhaps he volunteered because it was a tradition and practice in Wisconsin that all (white) men between 18 and 45 served in the state militia (today’s National Guard) and joining in the Civil War was a natural extension of that obligation. On 2 July 1862 President Lincoln had called for 300,000 volunteers for the Union Army to serve for a three-year period. Perhaps Edward felt honor-bound to respond to that call. Perhaps he felt some guilt at his son’s taking up arms and he only farmed. Perhaps, as in so much of the history of mankind, war is a more exciting alternative to slopping pigs and harvesting grain on an isolated farmstead. Perhaps Edward volunteered for the war in response to a genetic race-memory in the Scots and the Irish that fighting was a natural thing to do.

Or it may have been that he joined up for a regular Army paycheck, since in 1861-62, Wisconsin fell into an economic depression and the need for a reliable and consistent income may provide a logical, practical, answer as to why he chose to enlist. This conjecture gains credibility when his military records indicate that he received a $25 enlistment bonus and pay of $13/month.

We’ll not know the reasons why Edward chose to enlist but we do know some of the actions of his unit. For an older man, he participated in battles which are minor when compared to others of the war and for the generalist these battles are but footnotes in the history of the Civil War. But there is no battle in which one participates himself that is minor whether or not it occupies a place of prominence in the history books.

Among the battles in which Edward participated was the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, 4 June-4 July 1863 in which one of the early units to join in the siege was his 27th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry which arrived from Tennessee on 4 June.

Following the Union victory at Vicksburg, the 27th was sent to Arkansas to participate in the Campaign for Little Rock and en route they fought the Battle at Bayou Fourche on 10 September 1863.

On 15 January 1865 Edward was promoted to Corporal and on 7 February the 27th Wisconsin was ordered to move from Arkansas to participate in the Campaign against Mobile, Alabama, 17 March-12 April 1865. Edward’s 27th Wisconsin was among the units participating in the ground assault on Mobile and he fought at the Battle of Spanish Fort, 27 March-8 April 1865 and the Battle of Fort Blakely, 2-9 April 1865, The Last Major Battle of the Civil War. It is a matter of irony that although the combatants did not know it, General Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Confederacy earlier that day at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Following the victory and occupation of Mobile, the 27th Wisconsin was relocated to Brownsville, Texas to become part of 25,000 troops under General Sheridan who were sent to protect against French troops stationed just across the border in Matamoros, Mexico. The French troops were there to protect Maximilian, archduke of Austria, who had been installed as Emperor of Mexico by Napoleon when the U.S. was distracted by the Civil War. The French withdrew in the face of U.S. resolve to defend the Monroe Doctrine with battle-tested U.S. troops and shortly afterward the Mexicans executed Maximilian.

Having completed its term of duty, the 27th was mustered out in Brownsville, Texas on 29 August 1865 after having suffered 259 casualties or 26% of its full-strength head-count of 1,000 men. Of all Wisconsin enlistees, the state lost one in eight men or 12%. Edward McGee’s unit lost one in four. Thus, although the fighting that the unit engaged in was minor in the history books, it was nonetheless bloody for the combatants.

On 29 August 1865 Edward received an Honorable Discharge with rank of Corporal after 3 years and one week of Union service and he returned to Wisconsin.

Edward was preceded home by the return of his son from the war almost 11 months earlier. I wonder if they spoke about their respective experiences in battle or if they had both seen more of war than they had wanted to and chose not to talk of it? I wonder how difficult it might have been for James E. to return to the subservient role of a son after his war experiences? I wonder how the mother, Rebecca, dealt with the uncertainty and anguish of having both a husband and a son at risk on the battlefields? I wonder how she managed the farm with the small children and the absence of the men? I wonder whether she was willing to accept the traditionally subordinate female role after their return? I suspect that Edward returned to a farm that was different from the farm he left. But, then, I suppose that he, too, was a different man from the man who had left to join the war.

The McGee family sold their property in Beechwood on 1 March 1867 for $1,580 and migrated to Buffalo Township in Marquette County, Wisconsin, approximately 55 miles west of Beechwood.

In 2006, I visited Beechwood and found a small, unincorporated, farm hamlet with three stores, two of them taverns, and a Volunteer Fire Department building. The McGee property has no original buildings remaining. Where the 1862 plat map shows the McGee residence, a two-story farmhouse now stands that was erected in the 1890’s, 30 years after the family’s departure.

In Buffalo, Edward purchased 320 acres of land on 19 March 1867 for $1,600. It is not known why the family made this move but I suspect that it was to find more fertile soil since Edward’s occupation continued to be recorded as a farmer. Given the size of his acreage he was probably still engaged in wheat farming.

In 2006 I visited the area and learned that the McGee farm was located about four miles south of the county seat of Montello. Any early buildings, including the McGee house, have disappeared over the years.

On 25 March 1876 the McGee’s sold their land in Buffalo for $3,600 and relocated to Lamartine, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin about 40 miles east of their home in Buffalo and midway between Buffalo and Beechwood. Lamartine is about seven miles southwest of the county seat, Fond du Lac. In 1885, Lamartine had a population of 200 and there the McGee’s purchased 61 acres of land.

The size of the Lamartine property suggests that Edward had changed from grain farming to dairying. Dairy farming is certainly more labor-intensive than is wheat farming, after all the cows have to be milked daily whereas wheat is only harvested once, but dairy farming was probably also more profitable and provided more consistent income as they supplied the growing cheese-making industry of the state.

On 30 September 1898 the McGee’s purchased a house and two lots in the Graves Addition of the village of Coloma Station, Waushara County, Wisconsin, which is about 60 miles northwest of Lamartine. Their son, William, rented the farm in Lamartine from his parents. The purchase in Coloma was made when Edward was 79 years of age and only three months prior to his death.

In 2006 I visited Lamartine to see if there were any remnants of the McGee’s century-long holding of the land. There are not. Lamartine, an unincorporated area, had seven businesses and a hotel when the McGee’s lived there. Today there is but one commercial building, a bar and grill, and Lamartine probably has a smaller population now than when the McGee’s were resident. There are several dairy farms in the area but many of the former farms have been subdivided into large lots, which are now graced with homes of those who work in Fond du Lac. This was the fate of the McGee property where any older buildings have disappeared. Now there is a large and attractive, recently built, home set well back from the road and fronted by a large expanse of grass on the former McGee property.

The purchase of the Coloma property may have been a speculative purchase from a Graves relative who was developing the area or perhaps their move to Coloma Station was simply to allow Edward a respite from farming because of his age. A daughter and son-in-law owned a very large property in Coloma and the presence there of six grandchildren may also have been a motive for the move.

Edward died of heart failure on 1 January 1899 at 80 years of age in Coloma Station. His obituary appeared in The Hancock News of 13 January 1899 and indicates that he and Rebecca had had 11 children, seven of whom were living.

He leaves, besides his children, an aged wife, twenty-five grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren . . . At one time he was a professor of religion but later became indifferent to religious subjects until his last sickness when he asked the prayer of Christians and was heard to pray himself.

I believe the use of the phrase, professor of religion in Edward’s obituary does not refer to an academic pursuit but, rather, is used as in religious believer or one who professes faith. For some reason it was important for Rebecca to include this comment about religion in Edward’s obituary. I wonder if it reflects a devout belief that stretches back to her Puritan heritage? Perhaps Edward was vocal in his opinions and Rebecca wanted to assure their neighbors that her fallen away husband had returned to Christian faith in his last hours?

The probate records showed that Edward’s 61 acres in Lamartine had a value of $3,000, the property in Coloma Station was valued at $300 and there was personal property of $1,000 and bank savings of $300. Following Edward’s death, Rebecca moved back to Lamartine to live at the farm with her son William. The property remained in the McGee family (or its heirs) for 120 years until its sale in 1996.

On 19 April 1907 Rebecca Graves McGee died at age 85 in Lamartine and was interred with her husband in the cemetery in Coloma. Regrettably, no obituary has been found to provide additional information.

Edward and Rebecca are buried together in Hillside Cemetery in Coloma not far from their property. They lie under an imposing granite funeral monument over four feet high, which contains their names and dates of birth and death as well as a weatherworn statement, which is indecipherable.

Edward’s military records show his height at 5’8" and with blue eyes. From the single known picture of Edward and Rebecca, it appears that she was the same height as her husband.

At a comparatively advanced age, Edward volunteered his life in the cause of helping form a more perfect Union. Rebecca possessed the true grit of the pioneer to raise her children in frontier conditions and endured the untimely deaths of five of them. Together, Edward and Rebecca’s lives mirrored the development of the country as they participated in the westward expansion and the taming of the frontier

On a visit to Coloma in 2006 I found a small hamlet of 460 inhabitants that cannot appear much different than it did when Edward and Rebecca were resident. Regrettably, the Graves Addition has undergone substantial change and there are no original houses remaining. A house that was under construction at the time of my visit occupies the McGee properties.

I had followed their lives on paper and in 2006 I followed their lives physically from Pamelia and Clayton in New York to Beechwood, Buffalo and Lamartine in Wisconsin and on to their final resting place in the small village of Coloma. I was disappointed to find only two material remains of their lives: their first house in Clayton, New York and their final resting place in Coloma, Wisconsin. These are, as it were, the Alpha and Omega of their lives.

missing image file

Edward McGee, Rebecca Graves McGee 1898

4

The Third Generation: Saving a Nation and Developing a State

James Edward McGee, 1842-1931

The first-born child of Edward and Rebecca McGee was James Edward, born 31 October 1842 in Dexter Township, Jefferson County, New York. One of Rebecca’s sisters lived in Dexter, which is not far from the McGee home in Clayton. This suggests that Rebecca did her lying in at her sister’s. James Edward was to become my great grandfather.

James Edward moved from New York to Wisconsin with his family in 1852 when he was ten years old. What might one learn of his life, and that of his siblings, on the farm?

Children did all the lighter work on the farm-and often not so light at that- such as feeding stock, fetching water, getting in wood, driving the team, cooling milk, turning the churn, the feed cutter and innumerable other tasks. There was little encouragement of play. Such a training, however, had the merit of developing habits of industriousness, self-reliance and daring . . . Schooling was considered of secondary importance. School terms were commonly four months and seldom over six months long and held during the winter months when farm work eased up a bit.

This description of children’s lives in the 19th century supports a statement I once read that childhood was invented in the 20th century. Prior to then, children were considered—as they still are today in the developing world—as economic units.

But even in spite of the chores that farm children were required to perform this may have been a pleasant time for James Edward, the oldest of the McGee children, since with their own lake he probably went swimming and fishing and in the time-honored manner of ten-year old boys everywhere, he probably also put to sea in a raft or boat which he paddled around the lake. We will see in his later personal exploits that the youthful years of James Edward were to prepare him to successfully complete a rich life.

In September 1861, at age 18, he enlisted in the Tenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry just five months after the start of the Civil War caused by the bombardment of Fort Sumter by the South.

The young James McGee fought in several of the most bloody battles of the western theater of the war including the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, 8 October 1862. This battle for Kentucky in the small farming hamlet of Perryville was the largest and bloodiest fought in that state. The unit history of the 10th Wisconsin reports that it "held its position with empty guns for 20 minutes until the battery which it had been ordered to support was placed in a safe position. Of the division’s 276 men engaged, 146 became casualties or a casualty rate of 52% (!).

Of this action by the division, the Commanding General wrote:

For this gallant conduct these brave men are entitled to the gratitude of their country and I thank them here as I did on the field of battle.

There were 60,000 Union and 68,000 Confederate soldiers or 128,000 combatants. Almost 6 per cent of the combatants, or about 7,600 men including two Union generals lost their lives in this encounter. The Union victory provided a morale boost for the North as the Confederates were prevented from bringing Kentucky into the Confederacy.

Just prior to the Battle of Perryville, James had written a sweet letter to his mother, a portion of which read:

 . . . Sorry that pa did not come here and enlist (in my unit) so if he had of been sick I could have seen to him a little . . .

Following the battle of Perryville and a week’s rest, the 10th Wisconsin then marched to Nashville, Tennessee from 17 October to 7 November. On 26 December they started their march to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. For the move, his military records show that McGee had been assigned as a teamster in an ammunition train. As a farm boy he certainly knew his way around animals and this Army assignment could have been where he learned the freight business that later occupied his life. He would not have been the first young man to learn his life’s occupation while in the Army.

James Edward and the 10th Wisconsin then fought in several skirmishes before the Battle of Stones River, Tennessee also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro, 30 December1862-2 January 1863. This Union effort to drive the Confederates from Tennessee was successful but it was among the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. There were 78,000 combatants and almost one-third of them, or 26,000, were casualties.

On 23 January 1863 Jim McGee was promoted to Corporal, suggesting that he distinguished himself in this fight.

James’ unit was on duty in Murfreesboro until mid June when the Campaign of Middle Tennessee (also known as the Tullahoma Campaign) started and his unit participated in several battles as they pushed west and south before reaching Chickamauga, Georgia. There they fought the Battle of Chickamauga, 19-20 September 1863. This battle was an effort by the Confederates to retake Chattanooga, a major railroad junction that had been captured by the Union.

Confusion in orders during the haze of battle led to a repositioning of Union troops, which left a gap in the lines. The Confederates crashed through, splitting the Union forces and several units were lost. The 10th Wisconsin was cut off from the main army and 12 officers and 111 enlisted Volunteers were captured, including Jim McGee.

This was the last Confederate victory in the western theater but accomplished little since the Union retained Chattanooga. 132,000 troops (60,000 Union and 72,000 Confederate) participated in the battle and almost 27% became casualties, or about 35,000 men, at what became known as the River of Death.

The Chickamauga captives were sent first to Richmond, Virginia then further south to Danville, Virginia and then on to the infamous Andersonville, Georgia prison camp.

From the time of his capture until 12 December 1863 McGee was at the Belle Isle prison camp in Richmond. Belle Isle is an island in the James River and was the largest camp for enlisted Union captives until the camp at Andersonville, Georgia was built. Most of the Southern prison camps were exposed to the elements and except for a few tents this was true of Belle Isle where there were 10,000 prisoners crowding the site as winter approached.

In December 1863 prisoners were moved south about 120 miles from Richmond to Danville. They walked in the bitter cold of December and there is a historical account of a group of 3,000 POW’s walking to the Danville prison at that time and it is probable that James McGee was among them:

(The) procession of prisoners was halted for the night in a broad field across the road from the Carter mansion known as Oakland. Widow Lucy Neale Carter took pity on the famished Northerners and directed her slaves to work far into the night baking cornbread in an open fireplace in the large brick kitchen to the rear of the house . . .

The Danville prison consisted of six tobacco warehouses, which had been stripped of all furnishings. There was only limited light and even more limited food available to the 4,000 prisoners. One in each five POW’s died at this location.

The Confederate Army Inspector General wrote:

The prisons at this post are in a very bad condition, dirty, filled with vermin and with little or no ventilation . . . The prisoners have almost no clothing, no blankets and . . . mortality is caused by insufficiency of food. This state of things is truly horrible.

McGee was at this location for six months until May 1864 when he, and fellow POW’s, were placed in a Confederate transit en route to the notorious prison camp at Andersonville.

Andersonville prison is synonymous with POW suffering. The site was essentially a walled swamp between Macon and Americus, Georgia in which no effort was made by the weakening Confederacy to provide even minimal housing, food, clothing or medical care. The prisoners essentially lived in the open in shelters, which only their ingenuity could provide. There was a stream called Stockade Branch, which flowed through the prison, and was the only source of water, which swiftly became fouled. The camp was intended to hold 13,000 prisoners, 32,000 were present and, no surprise, the mortality rate was about 30% or 13,000 men who died of disease, malnutrition, poor sanitation or exposure to the elements.

McGee escaped from the prison transport in South Carolina on 17 May 1864 while en route to Andersonville.

One can only wonder if word of the appalling conditions in which POW’s were kept at Andersonville had reached the Union captives and caused McGee to risk all in his escape? Or were the conditions he experienced at Richmond and Danville sufficient to cause him to make the escape? Or was he driven by a sense of shame at having been captured? Every army considers it an obligation of its captured personnel to attempt an escape from their captors and many did. Was this his motivation? In any event—however his opportunity appeared—he grabbed it, and was on his own in the Confederacy.

I have wondered how he might have made his escape from the prisoner’s train. This is conjecture but it may have happened this way. Danville, Virginia is on the border of Virginia and North Carolina. After the Yankee prisoners were loaded into boxcars on the tracks of the North Carolina Railroad Company, their train transited North Carolina via Greensboro and Charlotte. There would have been frequent stops en route while the prisoner train was halted to allow other rail traffic to proceed and for the steam locomotive to take on water. After crossing the border into South Carolina the train joined the tracks of the South Carolina Railroad Company in the town of Chester. I expect that in the rail town of Chester, about 45 miles north of Columbia, the locomotive was probably changed to those belonging to the South Carolina Railroad Company.

In Chester, there would have been a wait in a rail yard until a replacement locomotive arrived. I speculate that the doors of the boxcars were cracked so that the prisoners might get some fresh air in what must have been a foul atmosphere or perhaps small groups were let out for latrine use. Perhaps in an inattentive moment by a guard who may have been distracted, McGee grabbed his opportunity and was on the run.

The archives of neither the Chester nor Columbia newspapers report a mass escape by Union prisoners. This indicates that only a handful of prisoners escaped—or maybe even only McGee. There is, therefore, no record of where the escape occurred but my hunch is that it happened north of Columbia rather than after having transited this large city and proceeding deeper into the Confederacy.

On 18 June1864 McGee reached Union lines at Strawberry Plains, Tennessee (near Knoxville).

Thirty days had passed from the date of his escape until his reaching Union lines. One can only wonder what it was like for a young Yank to wander through the rural Confederacy in search of his side. Was he able to dispose of his Yankee blue uniform or did he even have one left after his experiences in the camps? Where did he obtain civilian clothes? Was he harassed by pitchforks and hunting rifles by white Southerners and chased by dogs—or did he experience the kindness of strangers? It was unlikely that slaves helped him for they would pay the price meted out by their masters if their assistance was discovered. It is, however, possible that slaves overlooked his presence even if they did not actively help him.

Garden crops were starting to come in at that time of the year, which might have allowed some foraging, but how did he find enough to eat? How did he know in which direction to walk? There were no road signs on the dirt roads and, traditionally, at this point in our history most people did not travel more than 10 miles from their home. How did he get directions? Did he feign a southern accent when he spoke with others? How did he avoid discovery—a lone young man, a stranger, an enemy—wandering through the rural southern countryside? Presumably he moved during the day which, although dangerous, would allow him to spot, and avoid, problems. I cannot conceive that he would travel in the dark night on unmarked dirt farm roads with unseen obstacles. These are all questions to which there will be no answers for us.

After six months of captivity and lack of food he was probably not in great physical shape but somehow he managed to travel about 220 miles, meaning he walked between 7 and 10 miles a day. His ability to survive in enemy territory speaks to an inner strength and resourcefulness and an ability to improvise his way through obstacles that stood him well in the rest of his life.

After returning to Union lines, McGee was hospitalized for scurvy, which partially answers the question of how he ate (he didn’t eat much) but doesn’t answer the question of how he managed to walk 220 miles in that condition. Scurvy is defined as: a disease marked by spongy gums, loosening of the teeth and bleeding of the skin and mucous membranes caused by a lack of ascorbic acid. (Vitamin C). I cannot imagine how one walks 220 miles when bleeding from the skin and nose. We will see later in his life that this was one tough man with a strong will.

After his return to Union lines, and a surprisingly short recuperation period, Jim McGee was transported to rejoin the 10th Wisconsin, in Marietta, Georgia, north of Atlanta. Here he participated in the Battle of Peach Tree Creek on 20 July 1864 about a month after his return from captivity. This battle was one of the several skirmishes of The Atlanta Campaign, and was a Union victory leading to the fall of Atlanta.

This event marked the end of the enlistment period of the 10th Wisconsin, which returned to its home state in October 1864. The unit had a numerical strength of 916 men. During the war, the 10th Wisconsin suffered 244 casualties or 27% of its head-count. As noted in discussion of the Civil War experiences of his father, Wisconsin lost about one of each eight soldiers (or 12%) who served in the war. As the 10th Wisconsin lost one in each four soldiers, it is evidence that James E. McGee, and his unit, were at the sharp end of the lance of war.

Jim McGee received an Honorable Discharge with the rank of Corporal on 3 November 1864 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after service of 3 years, 2 months.

I wonder if Jim McGee felt himself lucky to have survived the bloody battles of this terrible conflict? In a war with over a million casualties (625,000 dead, 476,000 wounded) with the battle tactics used by both sides, skill was not as much a prerequisite for survival as was luck. There were more casualties in the Civil War than in all other U.S. wars combined!

It must have been difficult to return to the quiet life of a farmer in a quiet corner of Wisconsin after the excitement of wartime battles and I can imagine that having survived war and captivity it may have been difficult for Jim McGee to return to the role of a subservient son and the settled life of a farmer. I suppose that his battlefield experiences had matured him far beyond the three chronological years he had spent in the Army.

Because his father would remain in the Army for eleven months following James Edward’s discharge, he probably returned to assist at the farm. But I imagine that when the family moved from Beechwood to Buffalo in 1867, when he was 25, he may have left the family farm and worked elsewhere, possibly as a teamster and possibly in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, where opportunities would have been greater.

In 1870, however, he left Wisconsin and struck out for the west to build a new life. Many a man had contracted Gold Fever since the California Gold Rush of 1848 and it would not