Magee, Mississippi

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.[3]

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.[4]

Robert Solomon Magee was the first post master 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.[5] The population of Magee in 1919 was 786. There were approximately 23 businesses in the area at the time.[5]

Magee is approximately 42 miles south of Jackson, 45 miles north of Hattiesburg,[5] and 12 miles south of Mendenhall, the county seat of Simpson County.[6]

Magee's first mayor was R.P. Vinson, who served from 1900 to 1907.[5]

In 2013, First Baptist Church in downtown Magee was seriously damaged by a fire but has been restored.[7]

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.[8][9]

In 2017, the Magee Sportsplex was renamed the Jimmy Clyde Sportsplex in honor of former Magee mayor Jimmy Clyde.[10]

As of 2017, the mayor of Magee is Dale Berry.[11]

The city of Magee was featured in the Discovery Channel reality TV series Dirty Jobs.[12]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.9 square miles (13 km²), all land. Magee is located between Jackson and Hattiesburg on U.S. Highway 49 at the intersection of three Mississippi Highways: 541, 545, and 28. Magee is approximately 155 miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana, and approximately 142 miles north of Mobile, Alabama.[13][14]

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,988 people, 1,465 households, and 933 families residing in the city.

Magee Post Office

Main Street

Prominent area industries include Tyson Foods, Polk's Meat Products, Real Pure Beverage Group, and Howard Industry.

The Simpson County Development Foundation Industrial Park is an ultramodern, 205-acre (0.83 km²) industrial park located on four-lane Highway 49.

The Chamber of Commerce sponsors the annual Homecoming, the Christmas Parade, tree lighting and caroling.

Crazy Day is an annual event on Main Street, traditionally held the third Saturday of the month of September. Locals set up booths to sell products or homemade goods.

Magee is also the home of the former Broadcountry Cinema 3 Theater, opened in 1985 and owned by Butch McCall. The theater was closed in 2010. The theater now serves as the location of Shining Starz ABA Autism Therapy.[18][19]

A new civic center provides space for meetings for civic clubs and other organizations and houses the Magee Chamber of Commerce office.

Magee Public Library, the first public library in Magee, was established in 1935. Maude Turner was librarian. In 1937, the library was named Mims Williams Memorial Library. It is now a member of the Central Mississippi Regional Library System. The new library was built in 1975.

The City of Magee is served by the Simpson County School District.

• Roland Dale, professional football player
• Woody Evans, librarian and writer
• Micah Xavier Johnson, perpetrator of the 2016 Dallas ambush
• John Mangum, professional football player
• Kris Mangum, professional football player
• David Myers, politician
• Dan Monroe Russell Jr., United States federal judge
• Terrill Shaw, professional football player
• Harold Shaw, professional football player
• Prentiss Walker, farmer, businessman and politician
• Joseph Warren, Politician
• Joshua Hayes, professional baseball player