Biography - J. PARK McGEE, M. D.

J. Park McGee, M. D., a prominent and well known citizen of Brushy Fork, and closely identified with the material interests of the county, was born January 5, 1847, in Clark county, Indiana, and is a son of William Park McGee, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish extraction. He was a saddler by trade, and a son of Robert McGee, who was an early settler in Pennsylvania. The Park family are a very prominent family of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and the old homestead still belongs to John Park, of the third generation from Isabella Park. Our subject's mother, whose maiden name was Tamar Tom, was born in the oil regions, on the Allegheny river in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. His father was born on the Monongahela river, in Washington county, the same state. The Doctor's grandmother, Isabella Park McGee, was a daughter of John Park and sister of Hugh Park. William Park McGee (father) learned his trade in Pittsburg, emigrated about the year 1820, on a flat-boat to Louisville, Kentucky, but settled across the river in New Charlestown, Clark county, Indiana, where he farmed and followed his trade. He died April 27, 1862, and is buried in Owen Creek cemetery.

J. Park McGee was reared in Clark county, and was principally educated in Wabash College, taking an irregular course with the object in view of preparing himself for his profession, remaining in this college three years. He subsequently read medicine with Dr. Work, of Charlestown, entered the Eclectic College of Cincinnati and was graduated in 1872. He afterward took one course of lectures in the Rush Medical College of Chicago, and had a complimentary degree conferred upon him by the faculty of this well-known institution in 1887. He was elected to the Legislature from the Republican district composed of Douglas, Coles and Cumberland counties, in 1884, 1888 and 1892. He was elected as a Democrat and at each re-election carried the district by increased majorities. He assisted in passing the bill to legalize dissecting, and for so doing Rush Medical College conferred upon him a complimentary degree. During the first term he was chairman of the sanitary committee, and member of appropriation, education, insurance, revenue and railroads committees. Dr. McGee is one of the pioneer silver men of the state, as proclaimed in the Chicago platform of 1896, and was a delegate who took a prominent part in the state convention at Springfield in 1895, the first silver state convention ever held. The Doctor located at Brushy Fork in 1874, and has practiced his profession there ever since. In 1864 he joined Company K, One Hundred Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry, and served to the expiration of his term of enlistment, and he has a certificate of thanks from President Lincoln for services rendered his country. He owns two hundred and fifty acres of land; is a Knight Templar in Masonry, and has never been married. He will visit the Paris Fair this year and make a tour of Europe. Dr. McGee's life has been a busy one and during all the years of his residence in the township the time has been fully taken up in what he conceived to be his public and private duty. He is a man of unquestionable integrity, honesty in his business transactions, and generous in his disposition, with a wide charity for mankind.

Extracted 25 May 2019 by Norma Hass from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, published in 1900, pages 185-186.

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