Santa Barbara County Biographies

W. J. McGEE

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


W. J. McGEE, proprietor of the Pioneer Shoe Store of Lompoc, was born at 
Kingston, Canada West, in 1846. As his parents died when he was very young 
he was early apprenticed, and in 1862 began the trade of shoemaker, serving three 
years. In 1865 he went to the vicinity of Rochester, New York, where he worked until 
1866, when he returned to Kingston. In February, 1868, he started for California, by 
water and the Isthmus of Panama. There were 1,300 passengers on board, and except 
being a little crowded they had a comfortable and rapid passage, arriving at San Francisco, 
March, 1868. He then went to Santa Cruz, and in the fall to Watsonville, where he began  
business, and remained until the spring of 1875, when he came to Lompoc, having many 
friends among the colonists. He very soon opened a shoe store and shop and has since 
continued the business. The first store was an old adobe at the Mission, and the first 
church services were held in a grove east of town. Mr. McGee keeps a full line of goods. 

He was married at Kingston, in the spring of 1867, to Miss Jessie Legassick, a native of 
England She had given much attention to music, and was the pioneer music teacher of 
Lompoc, at which she is still engaged. They have three children, two sons and one daughter. 

Mr. McGee was a member of the first Board of Directors of the town, and served 
two years, and was again elected in April, 1890, for four years. He is a stanch Republican, 
and for about ten years has been delegate of the party to the county conventions. 
He owns a nice property on L street, where is located his present residence. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.