HARL L. GEE, M. D.  

In thirteen years devoted to the practice of medicine in southern 
Illinois Dr. Gee has made rapid strides in the profession of his 
choice, and is openly recognized as one of the leaders in that 
profession in this section of the state. As a physician Dr. Gee 
enjoys the confidence and esteem of a wide circle of patrons, drawing 
his clientele from all walks in life; while as a man his position is 
no less secure in the hearts of all who have come in contact with him. 

Born March 25, 1874, in Jefferson county, Harl L. Gee is the son of 
Isaac G. Gee, M. D., and the great-grandson of John Sandford Gee, an 
early pioneer of Jefferson county. John Sandford Gee was born on 
January 10, 1777, in Virginia. He married Susan Tudor in 1798, and, 
crossing the mountains in 1803, they settled in Metcalf county, where 
he entered land from the government and engaged in farming, his operations 
in that line being rewarded with a fair degree of success. He also conducted 
a surveying business as a further means of livelihood, and was regarded as 
one of the important pioneers of his time in that section of the country. 
He left one son, William Gee, born October 16, 1810, in the old Kentucky home, 
who in his early manhood married Malinda Billingsby, the marriage occurring 
in 1837. They were the parents of five sons. They were: John A., now of 
Tamaroa, Illinois; I. G., the father of Dr. Harl L. Gee; W. S., of Tarkio, 
Missouri; M. D., of Mountain Grove, Missouri; and Henry M., now deceased. 
In October, 1852, William Gee moved to Illinois and settled in Perry county. 
In 1883 he went to Nebraska, but returned to Illinois in 1886. He and his wife 
were members of the old Paradise Baptist church in Perry county for more than 
forty-eight years, and in dying left the noble heritage of beautiful lives 
well spent in the care and nurture of a family of sons who have reflected 
credit on a good old name. 

Isaac G. Gee, the father of Dr. Harl L. Gee, was born in Simpson county, 
Kentucky, September 19, 1841, and when his parents moved to Illinois he was 
eleven years of age. He worked on the home farm as a boy and as he advanced 
in years taught in the district schools while in his teens. His ambition to 
enter the medical profession was deep-seated, and no slight difficulties were 
sufficient to deter him from his long cherished purpose. He entered the Eclectic 
Medical Institute of Cincinnati and was graduated from that institution in 1865, 
beginning the practice of medicine at Fitzgerald, in Jefferson county. 

In 1892 Dr. Gee settled in Mount Vernon, since when he 
has retired from the activities of professional life and lives in the quiet 
of a semi-retired life. He has many business interests which demand his attention 
and which constitute a sufficient occupation for a man of his years. Dr. Gee 
is a director of the Third National Bank, president of the Waltonville Bank 
and a stockholder in the Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing Company. He has been 
president of the Royal Building & Loan Company, and has served as alderman 
and supervisor of Mount Vernon township. He is a member of the First Baptist 
church of Mount Vernon and is a member of the blue lodge, Royal Arch and Knights 
Templar in Masonry. On December 26, 1867, Dr. Gee was married to Elzina J., 
daughter of J. J. Fitzgerald, a native of Indiana. Five children have been 
born to them: James William, deceased; John Stanton, deceased; Harl L., of 
Mount Vernon; Earl, who died at the age of six years; and Knox, cashier of 
Waltonville Bank. Dr. Harl L. Gee was educated in the Mount Vernon public 
schools and in Shurtleff College. He later entered the medical department of 
the Northwestern University at Chicago in the fall of 1894, studying there 
for three years. He then matriculated in the Washington University of St. Louis, 
graduating therefrom in 1898, with his medical degree of M. D. Dr. Gee began 
the practice of medicine in Mount Vernon, and is fast forging to the front in 
the ranks of his profession in Southern Illinois. His consulting room is a part 
of the finely appointed suite of rooms maintained by six prominent physicians 
of Mount Vernon, and known as the Hospital Consultation Rooms. For over thirteen 
years Dr. Gee has been intimately associated with Dr. Moss Maxey of the Egyptian 
Hospital, in both a professional and fraternal way, through which time the 
association has endured without a rupture. Dr. Gee is a member of the Jefferson 
County, Illinois State and American Medical Associations, and is active and 
prominent in all three. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Knights 
Templar, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and 
a member of the Baptist church, in which religious denomination his forebears 
held membership for many previous generations. 

On November 2, 1899, Dr. Gee was united in marriage with Nebraska Evans, daughter 
of George W. Evans, who conducted a private bank in Mount Vernon for many years, 
which was finally merged with the Third National Bank by purchase. Dr. and Mrs. 
Gee have one child, Martha Evans, now five years of age.






Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith, 
M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED 
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912
Page 1330 - 1331 


Submitted by Robert W. Loman * rwlmn@aol.com