1925 Biography - F McGee
F. M. McGee was born in Graves County, Ky., in 1833 and was brought to Illinois when a child. The father, Benjamin F. was a native of Sumner County, Tenn., his father, James, came to this country from the southern part of Scotland, his wife was of Irish ancestry. They came early to the colonies and settled first near Charlestown, S. C. and later came to Tenn., where he died. Benjamin F. was married in Tennessee to Nancy Armstrong, they moved from Tennessee to Kentucky and later to Illinois, settling in that part of Johnson County which is now Pulaski County, which at that time was the most improved section in the state. Benjamin F. drew up the petition to make Pulaski a separate county. Francis was one of a family of twelve children all of whom reached maturity. He attended subscription schools in the community, also a school at Centerville, Iowa. He worked on a farm until grown, was a flat boatman on the river, this was a common and lucrative business in pioneer days. Men had timber cut into cord wood and logs and loaded it on fiat boats, floated it down the Ohio to the Mississippi and thence to New Orleans where there was a ready sale for the wood for fuel and the logs for lumber. Francis was a man of varied occupations, a farmer, a teacher and at one time peddler for a Jew for which he received $7 per month, also a merchant at Caledonia, Ill. In the spring of 1865 he started a mercantile business at Reynoldsburg, this county. While living there he was elected to the State Legislature. He moved his business to New Burnside in 1875 and continued it there until his death which occurred in 1896. He was a Mason and a Methodist, He married Mrs. Elizabeth (Peterson) Weaver and had Ardana, William, Ella and Benjamin F. Ardana married Dr. W. R. Littell and had one son, Guy who lives in Chicago; William died leaving no family, Ella never married, and Benjamin F. married and has one child, Elizabeth, he is a prominent business man of New York City.
Extracted 08 Feb 2017 by Norma Hass from 1925 A History of Johnson County, Illinois, by Mrs. P. T. Chapman, page 414.
