Simpson County, Mississippi

City of Magee, Mississippi

submitted by and photos by Gerald & Tammy Westmoreland

The first settlers in the area were Arthur Mangum and Phil Magee, who came into the area around 1820. Pioneers from Virginia and the Carolinas followed. The town of Magee was originally named Mangum, after Arthur Mangum; it kept this name until 1859.

In 1840, Willis Magee built a grist mill on Little Goodwater Creek, inside the present city limits. He started the first and only postal service in the area in 1855. Robert Solomon Magee was the first postmaster in Magee and the city of Magee was named after him.

Richard Farthing came to Magee in 1859 when he was in the leather tanning business. He bought 80 acres of land and also built a tanyard and used water from the mill pond to tan his leather. The population of Magee in 1919 was 786. There were approximately 23 businesses in the area at the time.

Magee was officially incorporated as a town in 1900 with R.P. Vinson as the first mayor, who served from 1900 to 1907.

Windham's Restaurant is located in Magee, and was established in 1963, locally known as "Zip's". In 2015, the Zip Burger was voted the best hamburger in Mississippi.

In January of 2022 the city of Magee was featured in an episode of the Discovery Channel's reality TV series Dirty Jobs

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Magee is located in Simpson County on U.S. Hwy 49 about 42 miles south of Jackson, 45 miles north of Hattiesburg, and 12 miles south of the Simpson County seat of Mendenhall.