Pictured here is a tribute to my Irish heritage, Jesse Brown McGee and wife, Mary Ann Lowery. Mary Ann’s father was Peter Lowery whose family came to America through South Carolina and settled in the north part of Winston County near the Choctaw County line. Peter married Sarah (Sallie) Davis, daughter of Benjamin Davis. Peter is buried in Salem Cemetery and Sallie is buried at Rural Hill Methodist Cemetery in Western Winston County where she had gone to live with a daughter after Peter’s death. Sallie was 13 when she married Peter and was an invalid for 50 years. She bore children while an invalid.

Jesse’s grandfather was Henry McGee, born in Tyrone Ireland in 1760, son of John McGee also of Tyrone. Henry came to America and settle in Barren County, Kentucky where he died in 1803. His son, John was born in Kentucky in 1790. He was married to Edna Fields of Ireland.

Jesse was one of their twelve children and first marred Margaret Harvey. They had three children before she died in 1825. Jesse then came to Winston County, Mississippi, married Mary Ann Lowery and had eight children. She was the daughter of Peter Lowery, I mentioned earlier.

One of their children was Alice Brown McGee who married my great grandfather D.C. Bennett.

One of the last companies to be organized in Winston County during the Civil War was Captain Drayton Wilson’s company which was composed mostly of older men. Jesse McGee was forty-four when he served in this company.

Their job was to collect food for the Army. The war was nearly over, so they were never called very far from home. Once while home on furlough, Jesse learned his father was sick, so he drove his wagon to John McGee’s home near Old Plattsburg, in the southern part of the county. After getting his father he decide to go back by the way of Louisville. He had left his furlough at home thinking he wouldn’t need it. As soon as they got to Louisville, John Shaw arrested Jesse for furlough violation and put him in jail. Jessie’s father, John McGee, had to drive the rest of the way in a hard rain. When he arrived at Jesse’s home he was so sick the family had to help him from the wagon into the house. That night he developed pneumonia and died within a few days. He was buried at the Old Baptist Cemetery in Louisville in an unmarked grave.

I have heard a few stories about Jesse and determined that he had a very dry sense of humor which I seemed to have inherited. Jesse was a wheelwright.

Can you tell that Jesse and Mary Ann are about to burst out laughing in this picture? Me neither.

_______________
Rick Algood
March 17, 2017