PERCY W. McGHEE, city clerk of El Paso, who has made a creditable record in business and official circles and has also been a co-operant factor in many measures for intellectual and moral progress in the community, was born in Waco, Texas, June 15, 1860, and in his life has manifested the enterprising spirit of the southwest that has led to the rapid and substantial development of this section of the country. His father, John W. McGhee, was a native of Alabama and came to Texas in an early day, settling in Waco, where he died.
Percy W. McGhee was reared and educated in the schools of Waco and pursued his studies with the end in view of entering a clerical and business life. Going to Austin, he spent four years there and in 1896 came to El Paso, where he has since made his home. For several years he was bookkeeper of the Payne-Badger Company and subsequently for the White Oaks Fuel Company, filling the latter position at the time that he was elected by the city council in May, 1905, to the position of city clerk of El Paso. His long experience in work of this kind has qualified him in high degree for the labors attendant upon the office.
For three years Mr. McGhee was president of the Young Men’s Christian Association of El Paso and it was while he was filling that position that the work of soliciting subscriptions for the purpose of a new Y. M. C. A. building was begun–a work that has been continued until the present splendid structure valued at fifty thousand dollars was erected. Mr. McGhee is now vice-president of the association and he is an elder in the First Presbyterian church of El Paso, taking a most helpful part in the variour [sic] church activities.
Mr. McGhee was married in Waco to Miss Mary C. Carter, a daughter of E. H. Carter, of that city, who was for many years connected with the land department of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad Company. They have two children, Beatrice and Percy, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. McGhee both have many warm friends in El Paso and enjoy a large measure the high regard of all with whom they have come in contact. A life permeated by high principles and a recognition of the purposes of life, Mr. McGhee has so labored that his work has been a tangible element in the moral development of El Paso and he brings the same principles into his every-day life and his official services.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 507.