Elijah Milton McGee (May 10, 1819 – February 11, 1873) was a Democratic Kansas City Mayor in 1870 and a developer whose family name is applied to many streets in Kansas City.

Biography

McGee was born in

Shelby County, Kentucky Shelby County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,065. Its county seat is Shelbyville. The county was established in 1792 and named for Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of Kentuck ...

, on May 10, 1819. His family moved to Kansas City,

Clay County, Missouri Clay County is located in the U.S. state of Missouri and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 253,335, making it the fifth-most populous county in Missouri. Its county seat is Lib ...

, and then to

Jackson County, Missouri Jackson County is located in the western portion of the U.S. state of Missouri, on the border with Kansas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 717,204. making it the second-most populous county in the state (af ...

, where they bought a half

section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

of land of what is now

Downtown Kansas City Downtown Kansas City is the central business district (CBD) of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area which contains 3.8% of the area's employment. It is between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; ...

. When McGee was 12, he ran away from home to Texas. He returned to Kansas City in 1841. He made a fortune in the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

and used the money to build the Southern House hotel at 16th and Grand. The hotel would become a hotbed of southern sympathizers in the

Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...

war. In 1854, he helped start the ''

Kansas City Journal-Post The ''Kansas City Journal-Post'' was a newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1854 to 1942. It was the oldest newspaper in the city when it went out of business. History It started as a weekly, ''The Kansas City Enterprise,'' on September 23, ...

''. McGee became mayor of Kansas city from 1870 to 1871, and died on February 11, 1873.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGee, Elijah M. 1819 births 1873 deaths 19th-century mayors of places in Missouri People from Shelby County, Kentucky Mayors of Kansas City, Missouri Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Kansas City, Missouri) People from Clay County, Missouri