William T. Magee Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 1043-1044

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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WILLIAM T. MAGEE, an agriculturist who has attained to a degree of 
success in his chosen calling, has his residence upon his fine farm in 
Prairie Center township, Spink county, and has been an interested 
witness of the growth and development of that region from a wilderness 
to its present state of civilization and advancement. 

Mr. Magee was born in Oneida county, New York, in 1832. His parents and 
grandparents were natives of Massachusetts and were of Scotch-Irish 
lineage. The father was born in Franklin county, Massachusetts, and was 
a wagon maker by trade. He conducted a factory at Amherst, 
Massachusetts, but moved to New York, where our subject was born and 
reared. He attended school in his native village of Durhamville, on the 
Erie canal, but the facilities were meager and his education was more 
or less neglected. At the age of fifteen years he accompanied his 
parents to the wilds of Wisconsin, where they located on a farm. There 
were no railroads and no schools, and the nearest market was Milwaukee, 
a distance of from ninety to one hundred miles, and to this point they 
were compelled to haul their wheat to dispose of it. In that region our 
subject grew to manhood and in about the year 1856 he went to Minnesota 
and took up government land. He began farming and had to haul his wheat 
to Winona and there accept anything he could get for it. He soon began 
to prosper, and, having purchased the first threshing machine to be 
brought into Olmsted county, he engaged in threshing during a part of 
the year. He built some of the first frame residences in the county. 
His farm consisted of two hundred and sixty acres, an of which was 
under cultivation except thirty acres of timber lands. He then sold his 
land and engaged in the machine business in Eyota, Minnesota, 
continuing five years. 

In the spring of 1880 Mr. Magee went to Dakota and located land in 
section 7, Prairie Center township, Spink county. He built two small 
shanties, 10 x 12 feet, and afterward put them together for a house. He 
owned three horses, a wagon, two cows and a few farming utensils, 
including a breaking plow. From these beginnings he has developed his 
present fine estate, consisting of five hundred and sixty acres, with 
various and substantial improvements, including a barn, 36x40 feet, 
with basement; a granary with a capacity of four thousand bushels; well 
of never failing water, with windmill, pump, etc. One hundred acres of 
his land are developed to pasture and while he makes a specialty of 
grain growing he has also given a share of his attention to the raising 
of fine horses. 

Mr. Magee was married to Miss Ellen Murrey, a native of Ireland. Mrs. 
Magee died in 1891. Our subject has but one child living, a son. Mr. 
Magee is a Populist in political sentiment, and takes a prominent part 
in local public affairs. He has held the office of township supervisor, 
and has been elected school director each successive year since the 
organization of the school, with the exception of one year. He is at 
present serving as justice of the peace. He has been chosen to 
represent his party in several county conventions. 

Mr. Magee has many interesting stories of the early days of Spink 
county, and many of his reminiscences are worthy a permanent place in 
the annals of his county and state. He endured the many hardships of 
pioneer life in the Dakotas, and he and his son narrowly escaped with 
their lives during the great blizzard of January 12, 1888. They had 
made a trip to Frankfort, and on their way home spent four or five 
hours in that awful storm.