Daniel White MEGEE

  General Notes:

" Born Aug. 24, 1823, Monroe Co., Miss. Lived in Tennessee with his parents (1825-1837), returned with them to northern Mississippi abt 1837. Married Mahala L. Dunbar, daugher of Adonijah and Nancy Dunbar, of Virginia, at Ripley, Miss., -----, 1848; made an exploratory trip to Arkansas shortly thereafter (probably in company with his brother-in-law, William Dunbar); returned to Tippah Co., Miss., prior to the birth of his eldest son, William Washington, Nov. 21, 1850. He was living near his wife's parents from 1850 to 1856; daughter, Sarah E., born 1854; wife, Mahala, died prior to 1856; remarried 1856 to Martha Jane Hurley (born in Tenn. fo N. Car. parents); migrated to Baxter Co., Ark., the following year. Daniel took with him his seven-year-old son, William but had to leave his little daughter, Sarah, with her maternal grandparents (Dunbar); he never saw her again.
Daniel remained near Gassville, Ark., until 1862-1863, when he moved up into adjoining Ozark Co., Mo., and settled on a farm near Isabella, a few miles northeast of the junction of Little North Fork with the White River, where he continued to live during the rest of his active life. Two children were born here to Daniel and Martha Jane.
In 1864 Daniel enlisted (at age 42!) in Co. "I", 46th Regt., Missouri Infantry, serving in the Union Army until the end of the War. His regiment was stationed at Springfield, Mo., during this period as a deterrent to border raids and bushwhackers which were then prevalent in that region. There is no record of engagements or skirmishes during Daniel's service. His honorable discharge, dated May 12, 1865, describes him as "five feet nine inches tall, black hair and blue eyes." For this service, during which he contracted a lung ailment, he was granted a small pension after 1890, which assured him a degree of financial independence in his old age.
Daniel died July 18, 1914, at the home of his eldest son, William, with whom he had lived since about 1900; and was buried beside his second wife, Martha Jane (died 1895), in the cemetery at Isabella. He had live to be almost ninety-one years old, most all of which long life had been spent in frontier regions. Daniel was the living link between the antebellum days of Old Mississippi and the post-Civil War generations. We are indebted to him for much of our ancestral history.

Daniel married Martha Jane HURLEY. (Martha Jane HURLEY was born in , , Tennessee, United States ² and died in 1895 in Isabella, Baxter County, Arkansas, United States ².)

Daniel next married Mahala L. DUNBAR, daughter of Adonijah DUNBAR and NANCY, about 1848 in Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi, United States.¹ (Mahala L. DUNBAR died before 1856 ².)