The McGee family and their descendants are well represented in this part of Texas and especially in Bowie County.  A Major Thomas McGee (1760-1822) was born in Ireland and emigrated to North Carolina when he was young.  (It is said that the McGee family moved to Ireland from Scotland to escape religious persecution).  He married an Amey Williams (1771-1843).  They had nine children.

One son Joel Robert McGee (1805-1869) married Margaret (Peggy) Moore (1813-1864) and they moved to Rome, Floyd County, Ga in about 1836 and then on to this area in about 1856.  Peggy was a twin.  The folks that remained in North Carolina told that one twin stayed  in North Carolina and one married and died on the way to Texas.  They were surprised to hear that she had survived the trip to Texas and lived a number of years afterwards.  In North Carolina, Major Thomas McGee and his wife were buried on their farm in the Charlotte area, as was the custom then, and their graves were marked with field rocks.  Subsequent owners had hauled away the rocks and their grave sites are lost forever.

A brother to Joel Robert was Thomas McGee Jr (1799-1864).  He married Louisa Abernathy (1808-___).  They had seven children, three of which moved to Bowie County.  One was Thomas Turner McGee (1836-1914).  He was a soldier in the Civil War and was surrendered with Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.  Being a farmer he hurried home in order to start planting his crops.  When he got home he found the farm had been stripped of all livestock and no horses or mules were to be had.  He told his son, John Albert McGee (1879-1958), that he made a pretty fair cotton crop that year by pulling the plow himself while a teen aged nephew, Felix Beatty (1854-1933) guided it.

Thomas Turner McGee married Margaret Gabrella Underwood (1851-1923) on January 1, 1873.  They had eleven children.  Eight were born in Charlotte, North Carolina area and the rest in Bowie County.  They moved to New Boston in about 1887.  They rented a box car for the move and shared it with the Neal family who were moving here also.  Essie McGee Old told that her mother always blamed the McGee's that preceded them to Bowie County for writing glowing accounts of life in Bowie County that influenced Thomas Turner McGee into moving to Bowie County.  She regretted leaving her family in North Carolina, but made trips back to visit.  Thomas Turner McGee never returned to North Carolina, although many of the North Carolina relatives visited Bowie County. 

All of the children came to Texas with Thomas Turner & Margaret Gabrella Underwood McGee.  Most of the sons became farmers as they grew up and the ones that wanted to farm were given 40 acres of land by Thomas Turner. 
 1. Charlie Haywood McGee (1873-1935) married Jessie Mae Butler (1878-1924).  They had six children.  After her death he married Effie Hornbuckle. 
      They had two children. 
 2. John Albert McGee married Estella Barrineau (1884-1972).  He was a farmer.  They had two children.  
 3. James Conner McGee (1883-1961) was a farmer and later a carpenter.  He married Ella Bloodworth.  They had one son. 
 4. Edward Lander McGee was a farmer and for a number of years he was the night watchman for New Boston.  He married Lillian A Boatright (1883-1947). 
     They had four children.
 5. Joseph Floyd McGee (18891-1980) was a lifelong farmer.  He married Gladys Watson (1891-1978).  They had no children
 6. Hugh Blair McGee (1889-1967) worked in the lumber business.  He married Minnie Ola Ayers (1894-1963).  They had two sons
 7. Nannie Robertson McGee (1881-1936) married Charlie Hill.  They had four children
 8. Eliza (Ida) Jane McGee (1887-1961) married Jasper Lee Morris (1886-1963).  They had three children
 9. Virgie Deloris McGee (1885-1889) died in childhood
10. Carrie Louise McGee (1875-1956) married Charles C Butler (1874-1956).  They had seven children.  He worked in the lumber business in Arizona
11. Essie Mae McGee, born 1896, married Clifford Marland Old (1892-1983).  He worked many years in road maintenance or road building.  He was a
     Bowie County Commissioner for six years.  They had five children

A sister of Thomas Turner McGee, harriet Ann McGee (1838-1924) married James Connor Wilson in North Carolina.  She was left a widow with two children, William Jack (1873-1880) and David Rocinda (1870-1944).  Harriett and her daughter Dovie came to Bowie County where Dovie married Robert William McCright (1861-1929).  They had six children. 

Another sister, Louisa McGee (1843-1906) also came to Bowie County and married Edward (Ed) Pendleton Elliott (1841-1915).  They had no children.  Ed, however, had children from a previous marriage to a McGee from the Joel Robert McGee line.