The McGee-Wilcox Family 1853-1864 of Douglas County, Oregon
by Pat Wilcox-Kennedy
Medford, OR
On Tuesday, 15 March 1859, at 4:30 in the morning, the steamer Brother Jonathan arrived from San Francisco bringing the news of the admission of Oregon as a state of the Union. The bill for admission of the state had passed Congress and received the signature of the President Buchanan, on the 11th of February, 29 days before the news reached Portland. Oregon was then the 33rd state to be added to the growing family of states.
Before this, the Oregon Territory worked on many questions of statehood by the constitution and its self-support. In Laws of the Territory Of Oregon, enacted during the tenth regular session of the legislative assembly, begun, 6 December 1858, and concluded 22 January 1859 in the eighty-second year of the independence of the United States. Listed in the book was member of the legislature, house of representatives, one “A. E. McGee, Douglas.”
A. E. McGee of Douglas County, Oregon is an ancestor to the many McGee-Wilcox relatives who are still living in Oregon. A person almost needs to hold up both hands, to count the generations. And another great item for us McGee-Wilcox relatives to pop the buttons on our shirts, is the land that A. E. McGee’s brother, William D. McGee, homestead and bought with his Missouri gold in 1864, and this land is still owned by the family. I come down from the William D. McGee and his wife, Jane Caroline Nelson, line and my great-grandchildren are the seventh generation being born and living in Oregon. I guess we can really celebrate the 150th Birthday of Oregon!
Abraham Endsley McGee, also known as A. E. McGee, was born 16 July 1817 in what is now Guilford county, North Carolina. His death was 3 December 1867, Portland, Oregon and he is buried in the Masonic Cemetery, Oakland, Douglas county, Oregon. He married Margaret Bellis, the 2nd of December 1841 in Ray county, Missouri. The date of their arrival to Oregon Territory by wagon train over the Oregon Trail, was 25 August 1853 and they settled in Douglas county. Their Oregon Donation Land Claim number #178. Not having any children of their own, they were in many ways parents to a number of children that they helped along the way of their lives.
Abraham Endsley McGee and William D. McGee and others of their family left the area of what is now Guilford county, North Carolina, in the year of ca 1830, for Ray county, Missouri. It was a very long trip by wagon and after their arrival, they were soon land owners, who raised corn, tobacco and many other things to make a living in the good old Missouri soil. Soon after Abraham Endsley McGee came to the Oregon Territory in 1853, he started writing letters to his family back in Ray county, Missouri, to move to Oregon Territory. He found a farm for sale, close to his farm in the Oakland, Oregon area and wrote to his brother, William D. McGee, that it was a good farm for him to own. But that he would need to bring over $3000.00 in gold to purchase the farm, due to the Civil War and confederate paper money was worthless.
The 1864 Oregon Trail wagon trip to Oregon from Missouri, with the hidden gold in the wagon was a long drawn out trip, with no bad side events, in all a good trip for the family. That is, once they had picked up William D. McGee, who had gone ahead by foot, to friends farms and by hiding in corn fields in Kansas to escape the trying times of things in the area due to the Civial War. Many of William D McGee’s children and his siblings, also came at this time to Oregon and settled. The wagon train spent their last night of the trip in the Sutherlin, Oregon area and when they entered Oakland—- a great number of the towns people were waving and there to greet them. And it was said, that the oxen were in great health and their fur-hides just glistened in the sun shine.
It is a wonderful feeling to know my family history, so much of the oral stories have been passed down through the generations and I have found many new records, by researching, old family letters, reading the maps and many books and the great joy of gathering more family history.
In memory of Abraham Endsley McGee, who was in the Oregon Legislature in the years of 1858 to 1859, when the Oregon Territory legislature, was working and placing their votes about the road to statehood, which was a long and rocky road. Because of the children that he and his wife did not have…… we of the McGee-Wilcox family are so proud to be the many later generations of his family……we can call him our Uncle, Great Uncle, Great-Great Uncle and Great-Great-Great Uncle Abraham Endsley McGee.
