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Three Generations of Business Enterprise in a Midwestern City: The McGees of Kansas City*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

R. Richard Wohl
R. Richard Wohl
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

Some historians of Kansas City claim, with an arresting simplicity, that the principal reason for that city's growth and prosperity is to be found in the enterprise of its citizens. And, although enterprise is by no means a self-explanatory notion, it seems a compellingly obvious way to account for the circumstances of the city's formative years. Much of that history can be written around a series of crises of decision, urgent moments when poor judgment, or the faulty execution of policy, might have plunged the city into obscurity or downright decadence. Yet such was the city's good fortune, we are told, that at precisely these times brilliant leadership seems always to have been forthcoming, and enterprising men—usually businessmen—can be discerned standing in the storm center pointing the way to safety and success.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1956 , pp. 514 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1956

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References

1 Case, Theodore S. (ed.), History of Kansas City, Missouri (Syracuse: 1888), pp. 55, 58Google Scholar. The whole of this work is saturated with this theme; the passages cited merely state the position in a brief and general form. For a more modern instance see Haskell, Henry C. and Fowler, Richard B., City of the Future, a Narrative History of Kansas City, 1850–1950 (Kansas City, Mo., Frank Glenn Publishing Co., 1950), p. 5.Google Scholar

2 Notes of Miss Nellie McGee Johnson on the McGee family, unpublished MS. in archives of the Native Sons of Kansas City. (Cited hereafter as NSA archives.)

3 Westbrook, Henriette J., “The Chouteaus and Their Commercial Enterprises,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, XI (1933), 786–797Google Scholar. A map of the various posts in the whole of the Chouteau trading area faces p. 790. For the sake of convenience, I will hereafter refer to the original site of present-day Kansas City as “Chouteau's Landing,” although the two areas by no means overlap.

4 For a description of the character of the French settlement, see Miller, William H., The History of Kansas City (Kansas City, 1881), pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

5 Conard, Howard L., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri (New York: Southern History Co., 1901), IV, 260.Google Scholar

6 Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, IV, 260–261.

7 For McGee's land purchases between 1828 and 1829 see The History of Jackson County, Missouri (Kansas City, 1881), pp. 380–381Google Scholar. McGee's land holdings at the end of his life are recorded in James Hyatt McGee Estate, Inventory of Real Estate, Jane 16, 1840, filed in Probate Court Records, Drawer M-2, Probate Court, Jackson County, Independence, Missouri.

8 For McGee's various enterprises see Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, IV, 260–261.

For McGee's possible moneylending activities see List of Notes and Cash, which forms part of the inventory of his estate filed with the Jackson County Probate Court.

9 Miller, The History of Kansas City, p. 28.

10 The main legal records including copies of depositions, affidavits, and court proceedings have been compiled in a printed record of the Prudhomme title to the land in question, entitled Old Town (Now City) of Kansas (n. p., n. d.) filed in NSA Archives.

11 Miller, The History of Kansas City, p. 29. W. B. Evans, who is listed as having bought two lots, was James H. McGee's son-in-law.

12 The final settlement of the estate, together with the official valuation of each share, is given in a verdict of proceedings in chancery in the Jackson County Circuit Court; see Book P, 341 ff., in the Recorder's Office, Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri. The various papers relating to the administration of the estate, annual accountings, the appointment of executors, and the like are in Probate Records of the James Hyatt McGee Estate in the Office of the Clerk of the Probate Court, Jackson County Courthouse, Independence, Missouri. A list of the relevant documents can be found in that office's General Index, Book. 2, p. 65. During the period in which the estate was being settled, one of the McGee children, Angelina, died. Her share of the estate was divided into thirds and Allen B. H. McGee received one of those nominal shares (one eightieth, or approximately twelve and one-half acres). In a strict sense, therefore, he shared in the estate inadvertently, as it were.

13 In a petition of the heirs of the McGee Estate requesting the executors divide the property, Allen B. H. McGee together with his sister Amelia are excluded as heirs because they received equivalent shares during their father's lifetime. This petition is dated March 8, 1845, and can be found in the probate records of the James H. McGee Estate in the Jackson County Courthouse, Independence, Missouri.

14 For a synoptic view of Allen B. H. McGee's business career, see The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Self-Made Men, Missouri Volume (New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, 1878), pp. 317–318Google Scholar; and Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, IV, 260–261.

15 See his extensive obituaries in Kansas City Star, October 6, 7, 1903.

16 Autobiographical Sketch of Col. E. M. McGee to 1843, filed in NSA Archives.

17 Kansas City Star, November 20, 1904.

18 An extensive description of McGee's Addition can be found in the contemporary account by Spalding, C. C, Annals of Kansas City (Kansas City, 1858), pp. 38–42Google Scholar. The population estimates are given by the same author and are to be found on page 24.

19 On McGee's Southern sympathies see Craik, Elmer LeRoy, “Southern Interest in Territorial Kansas, 1854–1858,” Kansas Historical Society Collections, XV (1919–1922), 402, 404Google Scholar; and John H. Rice, “Capt. Charles A. Hamelton,” ibid., VII (1901–1902), 466–467, which describes McGee's activities in Georgia where he was engaged in enlisting sympathy for the Southern cause in Kansas. On his change of attitude see Sam N. Weed, “The Pioneers of Kansas,” ibid., III (1881–1884), 430.

20 On McGee's post-bellum business career see The History of Jackson County, Missouri, pp. 414, 416, 475, 476, 480, 491–492, 493. 496.

21 Kansas City Star, November 20, 1904.

22 This is stated in a news item that reproduces his will to explain why it is that, at his death, his estate amounted to only $4,000. Kansas City Journal, October 14, 1903.

23 On Allen B. H. McGee II see Kansas City Star, May 14, 1934.