DOROTHY HORTON MCGEE:

Dorothy Horton McGee was a local historian for the Long Island, New York communities of Oyster Bay, Roslyn, and Matinecock until her death in 2003. McGee's interest in history extended to preserving her family's legacy. The papers compiled by McGee encompass a period longer than a century, highlighting the family's involvement in a variety of pursuits, especially army service.

Dorothy McGee was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1913. Her father, Hugh Henry McGee (1885-1947), was a graduate of West Point and was briefly an instructor before serving overseas, first in the Philippines and then France during the First World War. After retiring from the army (1919) as a lieutenant colonel, Hugh McGee began a successful career in banking and became president of Bankers Trust in New York. Dorothy McGee made her home across a variety of hamlets on Long Island before settling in Locust Valley.

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The papers appear to be largely Dorothy McGee's efforts to document her family, especially her father Hugh who graduated from West Point and served in the Philippines and in France during WWI. There is also much on the career and communist containment views of her cousin John, a brigadier general in the infantry who served in the Philippines during World War II, including internment in a Japanese P.O.W. camp.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Dorothy Horton McGee Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

Accession Information:

Accession number: 16,057; 16,310

Processing Information:

Processed by: Kit Smemo, June 2005; Meagan Kellom, September 2011.

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Catalog ID number: 990036975250104294

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These papers focus almost exclusively on Hugh McGee's early life, especially his military career. The earliest document is a composition notebook kept by McGee during his time as a student at St. Paul Central High School (1904). Following a year at the University of Notre Dame, McGee was accepted into the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1905. During the course of his study at West Point McGee corresponded regularly with his parents, John Franklin and Elizabeth McGee. These letters and telegrams offer a detailed and insightful look at the life of a cadet in the early 1900s (1905-1909). In 1980 Dorothy compiled her father's West Point records including transcripts and yearbooks (1909). McGee documented his military career (1905-1919) with an extensive scrapbook covering his service in the Philippines during the U.S. administration of the islands, and in France during the First World War. Also included are a host of portraits of McGee as a cadet and officer as well as his burial papers.

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The family correspondence consists of the wealth of letters written and received by McGee family members over nearly a century. This includes the correspondence of George A. McGee, Marguerite McGee and Dorothy Brown, and the letters to Dorothy McGee from Marguerite McGee and John Hugh McGee. Additionally there are a number of letters from the family to military officials attempting to learn of the whereabouts of John Hugh McGee after the fall of the Philippines in the Second World War (1942).

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John Hugh McGee Papers collect the writings of Dorothy McGee's cousin John on his army experiences and thoughts on Cold War strategy. Following his retirement from the U.S. Army, John Hugh McGee wrote voluminously on political and military topics. His manuscripts and essays address a variety of contemporary and historic issues: the World War II Battle of the Coral Sea, the 1977 Panama Canal Zone Treaty, and how to combat Marxism-Leninism.

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McGee family history materials compiles the considerable effort family members undertook to explore their lineage. George McGee did a great deal of work in contacting parishes in the McGees' home county in Ireland, and in conducting interviews with his father and mother, Hugh and Margaret McGee (1922). Family trees, birth certificates, baptismal records, and other such family documents also are included. A set of undated photographs from a trip to Ireland further express the McGee family's efforts to trace their roots.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Communist strategy.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Philippines.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Concentration camps -- Philippines.

Retired military personnel -- Texas.

Persons:

McGee, Hugh Henry, 1885-1944.

McGee, John Hugh, 1908- .

McGee family.

Organizations:

United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 135th.

Occupations:

Soldiers.

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