| 4. |  John William McGhee was born in Mar 1863 in Russell County, Virginia, USA (son of William McGhee and Julia Ann Newberry); died on 1 April 1931 in Red Ash, Russell, Virginia, USA; was buried in Newberry Cemetery, Horton Ridge Virginia. Other Events:
- Census 1870: 1870, New Garden, Russell, Virginia
- Census 1880: 1880, New Garden, Russell, Virginia, USA
- Witness: Jul 1897, Russell County, Virginia; Witness in the Divorce of Charles and Amedia Richardson.
- Census 1910: 1910, New Garden, Russell, Virginia, USA
- Witness: Aug 1915, Tazewell County, Virginia; Witness in his daughter Mary's divorce. Mentions a restaurant he ran with Mary's than husband.
- Census 1920: 1920, Maiden Springs District, Tazewell, Virginia
Notes:
Witness:
John McGhee another witness of lawful age after being duly sworn in.
Question: Please state your age and place of residence.
John: I am 32 years of age and live in Russell County, Virginia.
Question: Please state whether or not you are acquainted with the parties in this suit, Charley Richardson and Almeda Richardson.
John: I am acquainted with both parties to this suit.
Question: Please state if a short time before the defendant left the community, if you were at their house i the absence of the plaintiff and saw her drunk and drinking liquor and if so state her conduct and language and manner you saw. Also state if she at that time tried to get you to fix arrangements with any person to poison the plaintiff and have him killed. State what she said about it and if she wanted him dead.
John: I was out there one Sunday and was at the shop below the home, and she called me to the house and she wanted me to find out where I could find out where Charley Richardson, her husband was going away to see another woman, and she would get a man to ??? him and kill him. And I said Almedia, I would not do that. She says god damn him, I want him killed. She said she did not intend to live with him unless he did better.
Question: Please state her conduct that day.
John: She acted as if she was drinking, she used talk unbecoming a lady. She was cursing, black guarding, etc.
And further this despondent says not. John W. McGhee
Full case can be found here:
https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=167-1898-030#img
Died:
Killed in a gun battle at Red Ash. The shooting refers to John's second wife, name unknown.
Deputy Sheriff Kills Wild Man
Unfortunate Shooting Affair at Raven Wednesday in Which Officer is Forced to Resort to Force-Exonerated of Blame. (By Edward Hand) Raven, Va. April 2 -
John McGee, aged about 45 years, a raving maniac, inspired by pangs of jealousy, ran amuck on Coal Creek with a .45 army colts revolver late Wednesday, seriously wounding his estranged wife, shooting his sister-in-law and killing his wife's lover before a 30-30 bullet from a high power rifle, in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Vince McGraw, brought the mad man's life to an end.
William Abshire, the dead lover of McGee's wife, leaving a wife and several children, was killed while sitting parked in an automobile with Mrs. McGee and her aged sister, who was the step-mother of Abshire, and Mrs. McGee and her sister, Mrs. James Abshire were wounded.
The trouble is said to have started several months ago when Henry Abshire also married, another brother of the dead lover, ran away with Mrs. McGee, living with her for some time, returning to her husband for a short time only, in which time McGee bought and deeded a new Ford Sedan to her only to have her leave him again with William Abshire, taking the automobile with her, which McGee tried to regain by going and taking the car some ten days previous which resulted in more trouble.
Last Friday Deputy Sheriff J.B. Altizer place a levy on the car but left it in the possession of Mrs. McGee. It was in this car that the trio had been riding, and after leaving the state highway at about a distance of thirty yards their path was blocked by one of Mullins Lumber Company's trucks loaded with logs which were being unloaded and while thus parked, McGee descended from the cab of the truck and approached the trio in the car, and without speaking, opened the door and began firing, wounding the two women and killing the man, then remarking to the truck men that after getting one more he was going to kill himself, at which remark Mr. Mullins, the mill owner, asked him not to do such an act but to go on and give himself up to an officer and he would come clear at trial, but the man gone mad with jealousy, started walking down the railroad, swinging the pistol from side to side and after walking through the coal camp of Premier Red Ash to a point about a half mile below, he encountered Deputy McGraw, who had been summoned from Raven to arrest the maniac, but concealing his pistol behind him, McGee got the drop on the officer at a distance of about twenty feet, telling him if he came another step closer he would kill him in his tracks.
After McGraw saw that the man was mad and intended to resume his killing, he pleaded with the man not to resist arrest nor kill any one else and sparred with the man until his son Walter McGee, could be summoned from the mines to try and get his father to consent to their terms, but upon arriving the son was met with the same threat that the officer received.
Then keeping the officer under cover the maniac headed for the woods. McGraw then dispatched a man to his home in Raven, a distance of three miles, to get his high powered rifle. He deputized two men, Fred Underwood and P.O. Palmer, to assist him in trailing the murderer.
At a point near the top of the mountain and close to the home of Henry Abshire, the other intended victim, the deputies exchanged a volley of shots with McGee, who turned and fled down the mountain and came out on the railroad in the lower end of Red Ash No. 2 camp, and evidently started for the home of his son Walter, but got in the wrong yard and found the door barred, then emptying his gun at the trio of officers who were coming down a slate dump, the man ran around the house and under the back porch to reload again firing at the officers at which time McGraw shot him through the head from a distance of 1,500 feet.
During the running fight about 150 spectators had gathered to witness the climax, one stray bullet from the officers gun plowed through the side of a house of John Davis and buried itself in the floor.
Mrs. McGee is a patient in the Mattie Williams hospital suffering with a bullet wound in the abdomen, her sister received a glancing shot along her hip, while Abshire was shot through the heart and remained sitting upright with both hands on the steering wheel. The shooting started at the mill of the Mullins Lumber Co's mill and lasted up the mountains and back to Red Ash. The officer came clear in a court, composed the magistrates and N. Clarence Smith, Commonwealths Attorney, at Richlands last night.
Note: WE APOLOGIZE In writing the head for the article from Raven last week regarding the John McGee shooting, we used the words, "Deputy Sheriff Kills Wild Man." The heading written just a few minutes before press time, was ill advised, and we regret that we used the terms there applied. A number of relatives of the unfortunate man are among the best people of Raven and vicinity.
Story from Audrey McGee Helbert:
John caught his second wife, Cynthia with another man in a car and shot them both. The man in the car with his wife died. Cynthia did not die. Vince McGraw was the law man at the time and lived below Powell Palmer. Vince deputized Powell and a posse to go after John. After the shooting, John went to his son Walters to hide. Vince and the posse caught up to John and Vince shot and killed him. Clarence, Powell's son-in-law, did not talk to Powell for about 9 years because of this.
Buried:
No stone, apparently buried beside his son Dewey Lee McGhee
John married Geneva Anderson on 20 Jan 1886 in Dickenson County, Virginia. Geneva (daughter of Charles H. Anderson and Matilda Colley) was born on 7 Aug 1870 in Dickenson County, Virginia; died on 5 Feb 1930 in Raven, Tazewell County, Virginia; was buried in Newberry Cemetery, Horton Ridge, Russell County, Virginia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
|
1931 - 2002 (71 years)
Julia Ann Newberry was born in Dec 1841 in Franklin County, Virginia, USA (daughter of John A. Newberry and Elizabeth Cochran); died in Jan 1923 in Laurel, Kentucky, United States. 
