McGinniss, Joseph (1850-1921)

MCGINNISS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 17:20:49

Joseph McGinniss
Mar 12, 1850 - Jan 13, 1921

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.540)
JOSEPH McGINNIS was born in Greene Co, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1850, son of John McGINNIS JR. also a native of that county. His grandfather, John McGINNIS SR. was born in London, England. He was a saddle-maker at which trade he worked in London for 7 years. John McGINNIS JR married Elizabeth HOFFMAN, a native of Greene Co, Pennsylvania, a descendant of German ancestry. They reared ten children, seven sons and three daughters, Joseph being the seventh born. His parents passed their lives and died in their native county, the father at the age of 62 years and the mother at 76. The latter was a member of the Baptist Church and the children were reared in that faith. Their father was a farmer all his life. In politics he was a Republican.
At the age of six years, Joseph McGINNIS went with his parents to Ritchie County, West Virginia, where he remained until he was 19. Then he came to Iowa and first settled in the eastern part of the state. In 1872 he came to Pottawattamie County and bought his present farm in Section 16, Wright Township. At that time, it was wild land and he was one of the earliest settlers in the neighborhood. He at once went to work to improve his place, the present flourishing condition of his farm being the result of years of labor and well directed efforts. Mr. McGinnis erected a comfortable frame house on a natural building site and surrounded it by a grove and orchard of two acres. He also has other buildings and farm improvements. A branch of Walnut Creek flows through his premises, furnishing an abundant supply of water for stock purposes. The most of the grain raised on the farm he feeds to his stock.
Mr. McGinnis was married March 31, 1878, to Miss Roxanna BRIDGES of Madison County, Iowa. She was born in Des Moines and was reared there and in Madison County. Her parents, Lawson and Malinda BRIDGES, both natives of Rush County, Indiana, now reside in Madison County, Iowa. Mr. Bridges was born in 1822 and Mrs. Bridges in 1829. They moved first to Burlington, Iowa, next to Pleasant Grove, then to Des Moines, and in 1869 to Madison County. Mr. and Mrs. McGINNIS have two children: Hattie, born February 11, 1879; and Joseph, July 19, 1885. They lost two children: David, the second child who died at the age of 7 years; and an infant daughter not named. Mr. McGinnis' political views are in accordance with Republican principles. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and both are Sabbath-school workers. He ranks among the representative citizens of Pottawattamie County.

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.96, Garner Twp. NOTE: listed as Meginness, but should be McGinniss)
Farmer, P. O. Council Bluffs, was born in Lancaster County. Penn., iu 1837, son of Benjamin and Sarah Meginness, natives of Pennsylvania; he died in 1868. she in 1850. Mr. Meginness attended the common schools, and afterward went to the Academy at Jersey Shore, Penn. He has three brothers farming in Pottawattamie County. Iowa; one in California in the same occupation, and one in Pennsylvania as chief editor of the Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin. Mr. Meginness came to Council Bluffs in the fall of 1846; crossed over into Nebraska and stayed in what is now Florence, till the spring of 1848. then came back to the Iowa side, remaining till 1853. and then returning to Pennsylvania, where he remained four years. In 1863, he enlisted in the Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry, and was under Steele's command in Arkansas; he was captured April 30, 1864, at Jenkin's Ferry, Saline River, while he lay wounded on the field, after Steele's retreat; he was subsequently taken to Tyler, Texas, and mustered out with paroled prisoners in February, 1865. In 1858, in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Mr. Meginness was married to Mrs. (Nixon) Debolt, daughter of William Nixon. They have one son and three daughters. Mr. Meginness came to this place in the spring of 1868, and purchased an unimproved farm; he now has 450 acres, about one-half of which is under cultivation; he raises stock extensively; he is a plasterer by trade, but has been engaged in farming since 1859. Mr. Meginness owes liis success in life to his own energy and perseverance; he is a Republican politics.