MUSKINGUM COUNTY OHIO BIO: MCGINNISS, Samuel (published 1892)
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From the 
The Ohio Biographies Project
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~usbios/Ohio/mnpg.html
a part of
The U.S. Biographies Project
http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/usbios/usbiog.html

  Samuel McGinniss is a successful farmer and stockraiser of Muskingum county, 
Ohio, but was 
born in Chester county, Penn., in 1821, to Johnson and Jane (McMullin) 
McGinniss, natives of 
this country but of Scotch-Irish descent. The father was an early settler of 
Pennsylvania, belonging 
to one of the pioneer families of the state, and was born in 1772. In 1798, in 
company with a 
brother, he passed through this section on his way to Kentucky, following the 
Zane trail from 
Pennsylvania. After remaining in Kentucky for a short time he returned to 
Pennsylvania, and was 
there married, in 1808. In 1828 he came to Muskingum county and settled on the 
farm on which the 
subject of this sketch is now residing, where he died, in October, 1840. His 
second marriage was 
consummated in 1825, Miss Deborah Curle becoming his wife, and both his 
marriages were 
celebrated in Pennsylvania. By his first wife he became the father of seven 
children, only two of 
whom are now living: The subject of this sketch, and his sister, Mrs. James 
Fountain, of Henry, Ill. 
His second marriage was blessed in the birth of two children: Elizabeth Holcomb, 
of Perry county, 
Ohio, and a son, who was killed at Missionary Ridge, Tenn., in 1863, after 
having served from the 
commencement of the war. Major Fountain, of Illinois, his nephew, was present 
when he received 
his death wound. Samuel McGinness came with his father to this state in 1828, 
building a cabin in 
the woods, and was educated in the old log schoolhouses of pioneer days. The 
settlers were 
compelled to go many miles to mill, and sawmills were very scare indeed. Samuel 
McGinness 
was married, in 1848, to Miss Sophia Morris, who was born in Pennsylvania in 
December, 1823, 
and came to this county in 1832. Her father settled one mile north of where Mr. 
McGinness now 
resides. His name was Thomas Morris and his wife was Mary Everall. Of a family 
of five children 
born to them four are now living: Thomas (who resides in Iowa); Sophia (wife of 
Mr. McGinness); 
Richard (died in Illinois); Elizabeth (wife of Levi Price, resides at Bradford, 
Ohio), and Charles (in 
the employ of the I.M. Ry, in Texas. In 1865 Mr. Morris and his family removed 
to Illinois and 
settled in Tazewell county, where the father died, in 1867, and his widow in 
1885, at the ripe old 
age of ninety years. Mr. and Mrs. McGinness are the parents of the following 
children: Charles J. 
(deceased); Mary E. (wife of J. L. Dozer); Lizzie A. (at home); William T. 
(married, and a 
resident of Kansas); Louis H. (of this county); Alfred (married and a resident 
of a farm), and 
Edwin at home. In 1863 Mr. McGinnis was drafted into the army, but was 
furloughed, and 
afterward joined a military company known as the one hundred days' men, but was 
again 
furloughed, and received his discharge at the close of the war. Mr. McGinness 
was an active 
republican up to 1885, since which time he has been a member of the prohibition 
party. His first 
presidential vote was case for Henry Clay, in 1844; his last, as a republican, 
for James G. Blaine, 
in 1884, and for Fisk, in 1888. During this time he has never been an office 
seeker, and has only 
served as land appraiser. He is one of the leading farmers of his section, and 
is the owner of fine 
farm within three miles of Zanesville, on which he raises corn, wheat, hay, 
etc., and also some fine 
stock. He, and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of 
Zanesville, and he has 
always been a patron of education. In 1888 he became a member of the present 
Pioneer and 
Historical society, and has been its treasurer since its organization. He was a 
charter member of 
the first Sabbath school in District No. 1, Wayne township, which as organized 
in a brick house in 
1834, and which was also used as a schoolhouse. This school, both literary and 
Sabbath, has been 
continued ever since, and Mr. McGinness has been in constant attendance in the 
Sabbath-school 
department. Hie is also a member of the county alliance, and is president of the 
township alliance.

Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio: Chicago, 
1892: The 
Goodspeed Publishing Co.