Tom T. McGee
Canadian, Hemphill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Sept. 13, 1849 - Nov. 24, 1894) Came to Canadian about 1884. Was foreman on PO Ranch prior to election as first sheriff of Hemphill County, 1887 - year city of Canadian was founded. Nov. 23, 1894, in gun fight with 6 men attacking large shipment of money at Wells, Fargo & Co., he was mortally wounded, and he died the next day. His widow went to England as a volunteer civilian worker in World War I; died there. Ashes were returned here for burial. Recorded - 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tom T. McGee came to the Panhandle around 1884 and was working as a ranch foreman when he was elected the first sheriff of Hemphill County in 1887, the year Canadian was founded. In November 1894 he was mortally wounded in a gunfight defending a large money shipment against six armed men at the Wells, Fargo & Co. office. In a poignant coda, his widow later volunteered in England during World War I and died there, her ashes returned home for burial.
Why it matters
McGee's death defending a Wells Fargo shipment is a vivid piece of the frontier lawman's legend, capturing the violence and civic order-building of the closing Western frontier.
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Themes & tags
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When Thomas T. McGee, the first sheriff of Canadian, was laid to rest on a hill east of town in 1894, graves already dotted the ground dating back to 1883—the informal beginnings of a frontier burying place. His widow Mary bought the land, and it passed through the years as the McGee Cemetery before the Young family renamed it Edith Ford Memorial Cemetery in 1933. Home to thirteen of the county's first eighteen judges, it reads as a founders' roll for Hemphill County.
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