1925 Biography - John W McGehee

John Webb McGehee, M. D., is a physician and surgeon whose professional skill and personal popularity have been the potent forces in his upbuilding of a substantial and representative practice in the Capital City of Baton Rouge, where he maintains his offices at 509-510 Roumain Building.

Dr. J. Webb McGehee was born at Greensboro, Hale County, Alabama, November 14, 1875, and is a son of the late Edward L. McGehee, M. D., a representative of one of the old and influential families of the State of Mississippi, his birth having occurred at Woodville, that state, in 1851, and his father, Charles Goodrich McGehee, having there passed his entire life, his birth having there occurred in 1810 and his death in 1901. Charles G. McGehee loot continued as one of the extensive planters and representative citizens of his native county, and in Mississippi, likewise his wife, whose maiden name was Stella McNair, passed her entire life. He was a son of Judge Edward McGehee, who was a yeoman when he came from Arkansas and established his residence at Woodville, Mississippi, where became the owner of a large landed estate and long an extensive planter. In making the over journey from Arkansas he and his young wife on horseback, and his slaves were transported by boat. He served as judge of early courts in Woodville district of Mississippi, and had the distinction of constructing the second railroad to be built in the entire United States, this pioneer rail road having been built as a medium for the transportation of his Cotton from Woodville, Mississippi, to Bayou Sara, Louisiana, the nearest available market shipping point. He erected the Edward McGehee College for Girls at Woodville, Mississippi. The Agricultural School of Woodville is located on the grounds formerly occupied by the old buildings (the old school house). Judge McGehee also donated most of the money which went in to the building of the Carondelet Methodist Episcopal Church, South, now occupied by the Scottish Rite Masons. Judge McGehee once remarked to a friend: "I give my money away by the shovel full and the Lord gives it back by the barrel." He was one of the venerable citizens of Woodville at the time of his death.

Dr. Edward L. McGehee gained his preliminary education at Woodville, and later was graduated from the old Southern University at Greensboro, Alabama. In 1874 he was graduated from the medical department of Tulane University at New Orleans, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was for thirty years engaged in the successful practice of his profession in New Orleans. Upon retiring from general practice he established a tuberculosis hospital at Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish, and this he conducted during the last few years of his life, his death having there occurred in 1919. The Doctor was a thoroughgoing advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and in the line of his profession he attained much of prominence and distinction, as is indicated by the fact that he served as president of the Mississippi State Medical Society and also of the Louisiana State Medical Society. He was a Knight Templar Mason, and he and his wife were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South. In the World war period Doctor McGehee served as a member of the district exemption board for Louisiana, with headquarters in the City of Baton Rouge. His wife, whose maiden name was Anna Overton Webb, was born at Greensboro, Alabama, in 1846, and her death occurred in 1913, at Hammond, Louisiana.

In a private school at Woodville. Mississippi, Dr. J. Webb McGehee received his earlier education, and thereafter he was for four years a student in the Southern Methodist University at Greensboro, Alabama, in the preparatory and academic departments. From this institution he received a special diploma in languages. In preparation for the profession dignified by the character and services of his honored father he entered the medical department of Tulane University, where he completed the Prescribed curriculum and was graduated in 1900, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was the founder, and a charter member of the Sigma Alpha epsilon fraternity at Tulane University, and among his associates in establishing this chapter were J. D. Lily and John D. W. Dix. He was a member of the la-Iota Chapter before attending Tulane. After his graduation he fortified himself by the clinical experience he gained in one year of service as an interne in the Shreveport Hospital, and by a service of one year, previous to his work at Shreveport. As an externe in the New Orleans Charity Hospital, under distinguished Doctor Schumpert. Thereafter was for two years established in general practice Greensboro, Alabama, and he then removed to St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, where, for sixteen years he was chief surgeon for the On Cypress Company. His contract with this company and the incidental importance of its operations caring upon national industrialism in the World Period, prevented his service in the Medical Corps of the United States Army in that period, though he volunteered jot such service. Since 1920 Doctor McGehee has been established in general practice in the City of Baton Rouge. He is an active member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society, the Louisiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and his pronounced civic loyalty and progressiveness find expression through his membership in the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. He is a democrat, and he and his wife are zealous members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in their home city, he being a member of the Board of Stewards of this church. The basic Masonic affiliation of Doctor McGehee is with Capital Lodge No. 399. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is worshipful master at the time of this writing, in 1924, and in the Scottish Rite Consistory at New Orleans he has received the thirty-second degree, besides being there a knight commander of the Court of Honor and a Noble of Jerusalem Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He owns and occupies one of the many attractive homes of the capital city, the same being situated at the corner of Wistaria Street and Roseland Terrace.

October 9, 1907, recorded the marriage of Doctor McGehee and Miss Elizabeth Tillery, daughter of the late William Tillery, who was a representative merchant and planter and whose death occurred at Greensburg, Louisiana, where his widow, Mrs. Sallie (Davis) Tillery, still maintains her home. Mrs. McGehee is a graduate of the Louisiana State Normal College at Natchitoches. Doctor and Mrs. McGehee have three children, whose names and respective years of birth are here recorded John Webb, Jr., 1909; Elizabeth, 1911 and Laura, 1916.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 100-101.