Minnie McGee had a difficult life none the less. Minnie McGee was born in Anderson county South Carolina on 27 April 1867, and was named Elizabeth Ann McGee. Sometime after her birth she was given the nickname Minnie. Her parents were Julius Franklin McGee and Martha "Mattie" Jones. Her childhood must have been difficult because her father suffered from what we would now say was Post Traumatic Stress Disease. Julius was born on 6 July 1841 and joined the Confederate Army at about 20 years of age. He was a private in the 7th Infantry regiment.
The 7th Infantry Regiment of South Carolina existed between 15 April 1861 and 9 April 1865. They fought in the following battles: at Manassas, VA, Sharpsburg, MD, Gettysburg, PA, at Chickamauga, GA( so while Ma's grandfather was 14 heard this battle from his home in Walker County George, Da's great Grandfather Julius was fighting in that battle and was 22 years old), at Wilderness, VA, at North Anna River, Va., at Petersburg, VA, at Atlanta, GA. and at Petersburg, VA. The 7th infantry was known as "The Bloody Seventh". Julius Franklin McGee was in F company.
He married Martha Jones( known as Mattie Jones) after the war. Mattie was born 16 December 1848 in Anderson county South Carolina. Her parents were William J. Jones and Elizabeth Dean. Minnie McGee was their first child. Mattie and Julius would have six children- four boys and two girls. Their last child being born around 1881. He would be admitted to South Carolina Mental Hospital after the birth of this last child. The family legend was that his brothers signed him into the hospital. The law at that time stated that the person who signed a person into the state hospital would have to be the person who signed that person out. No one signed him out and he died at 51 years of age on 4 June 1893. Sometime after he entered this hospital, Mattie, who was basically a widow, was raising six children on her own, and working a farm. Minnie McGee was approximately 15 years old when her father was hospitalized. Minnie McGee would marry Lucius Todd at about age 19 years old. Mattie, to the horror ( I am guessing this) of her daughter Minnie McGee, had an affair with a black man who lived close by and with the last name of DuBose. She had a biracial baby by this man and this child was sent to Elberton, Georgia about 30 miles away in a town where her brother lived. Minnie refused to speak to her mother Mattie ever again. Minnie died on 1 July 1933 at the age of 66. Mattie died a year later at the age of 86. Her obituary was glowing in reporting her life so the people of the community forgave Mattie even if her daughter Minnie McGee never did.
This missing baby, I have tried to trace, but not knowing when this child was born and what sex that child was has made it nearly impossible. Still whenever an person of African American shows up connected to me via DNA, I ask them have you ever heard this story. So far no one has heard of that story. One gentleman in Oregon told me that he had been adopted and had no way of knowing. Still there are relatives out there that I probably will never find.
I can't say that Minnie McGee Todd was loved. She may have been tough in her religion, and definitely unbending and unforgiving at least to her mother Mattie, who fell from grace and probably knew the cost of such failings, was in the end the better loved woman. Maybe Minnie McGee had been close to her father and felt the betrayal by her mother deeply. I am sure that Julius was at times very sane and caring. Maybe her hate of alcohol came from Julius drinking too much to cope. Whatever the cause, life harden Minnie McGee and thus protected her from more pain. I would like to think that with Lucius she found some happiness.
One last footnote to this story, I have to say that I have to say thank you Minnie McGee Todd because it was her funeral that my mother and father met again because they did not see each other after their meeting as babies. They were 18 years old. Ma told the story that there was something needed at the country store and she was asked to ride in the car to go pick it up by a dashing young man by the name of Joe Todd, and that is how their courtship began.