AMOS McGEE

Sacramento County

Biographies

AMOS McGEE

AMOS McGEE--In the life record of Amos McGee there is a creditable and interesting military chapter. A veteran of the Civil War, he has been a resident of Orangevale for the past twenty-two years, where he owns a beautiful orchard and vineyard of fifteen acres. He was born on November 21, 1841, in New Brunswick, Canada, the eldest son of John McGee, also a native of New Brunswick, who was a tanner by trade. John McGee later moved his family to Ontario, Canada, and there Amos received his education. In 1855 the family removed to Morrison County, Minn., where they were pioneers, clearing the forest for a home place. The frontiersmen were annoyed by the depredations of the Indians in 1862 and 1863, and at the age of twenty years Amos McGee enlisted in Company I, 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, under Col. Stephen Miller; however, Colonel Miller was elected governor of Minnesota in 1862, and so Col. William R. Marshall was put in charge of Company I. The fall months of 1862 and 1863 were spent in pursuit of the Sioux Indians through the Dakotas under Col. H. H. Sibley, and the company covered over 2,500 miles. Company I, of which Mr. McGee was a member, was on guard duty when the hanging of thirty-eight convicted Sioux Indians occurred on December 26, 1862, at Mankato, Minn. In the spring of 1864 Company I was sent to Memphis, Tenn., and took part in the battle of Tupelo, in which Mr. McGee received a wound in the head, and the loss in the company was sixty-two men. The company was afterwards in the battle at Nashville, Tenn., and participated in the capture of Hood and some 4,000 prisoners on December 16, 1864, with a loss of sixty-four men. Then they went into camp at Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, remaining there for three weeks, after which they were ordered to march to New Orleans. Later they were at Mobile Bay and old Spanish Fort; and the remainder of the time Mr. McGee spent at Montgomery and Selma doing guard duty. He was mustered out at Fort Snelling, Minn., on August 16, 1865. Mr. McGee then engaged in farming and homesteaded a tract of land near St. Cloud, where he spent thirty-eight years of his active career; he also owned a farm in Benton County for twenty years. He was postmaster at Rice, Minn., and resigned from this position when he decided to remove to California.

On November 5, 1881, Mr. McGee was united in marriage with Miss Ida Sutliff, a native of Minnesota; and seven children have been born to them. Harriet A. is now Mrs. Smith, residing in Marysville, and has three children. George A., a graduate of the Bible Institute in Los Angeles, Cal., is now a missionary in Belgian Congo, South Africa. Mary Ida, a graduate of the Chico Normal and Theological Seminary at San Anselmo, is now a teacher and missionary at Woodstock College, Mussoore, India, at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains. Blain is a rancher at Orangevale. W. Stewart was in the naval reserve in the World War, and is now engaged in ranching on the home place. Ulysses and Anson are deceased. Mr. McGee has been a trustee in the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, both in Minnesota and in California. He is a charter member and past commander of Phil. Sheridan Post, No. 157, G. A. R., of Royalton, Minn., and at present time is a member of Sumner Post, No. 3, G. A. R., at Sacramento. In politics he is a staunch Republican. On November 26, 1901, Mr. McGee arrived in Orangevale, where he purchased a home place of fifteen acres, which he has developed to orchard and vineyard. When he located in Orangevale, there were but six homes in the town; and he has witnessed the remarkable growth and advancement of this community and has taken an active part in its development.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 696-699. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.