Ritchie County, West Virginia          Biography of Benjamin F. McGINNIS

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 58

BENJAMIN F. McGINNIS has been one of the busy pro-
fessional and business men of Pennsboro for a number of
years. He was an attorney by education and practiced law for
a number of years, but for the past five years his chief duty
has been as cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of
Pennsboro. This is one of the older banking institutions of
Ritchie County, beginning business in 1898.

Mr. McGinnis was born on a farm in Ritchie County in
1883, son of Benjamin and Alice (McCullough) McGinnis.
His father was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1835,
had a common school education, in 1852 came to West Vir-
ginia and after his marriage settled on a farm in Ritchie
County, near Ellenboro. His wife was born in Doddridge
County, West Virginia, and is now living in the village of
Ellenboro. She is an active member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church. Benjamin McGinnis was a Union soldier
throughout the four years of the Civil war, and was an active
member of the Grand Army Post. He took a prominent part
in republican politics, was elected county assessor in 1868,
was chosen a member of the West Virginia Legislature in
1872, in 1884 was elected a member of the County Court,
and in 1902 was again elected to the Legislature. He died in
1914. There were three children: Benjamin F.; Miss Sadie
E.; and John W., a graduate of Marshall College Normal
School at Huntington and a farmer in Ritchie County.

Benjamin F. McGinnis spent his early life on the farm near
Ellenboro, attended school there, and in 1908 graduated from
West Virginia University Law School. In the meantime he
had taught two years in country districts of his home county.
Mr. McGinnis had a successful general practice as a lawyer at
Pennsboro until business interests crowded him out of the
profession. During 1915-16 he built the McGinnis Hotel at
Pennsboro, and in 1917, about the time America entered the
war with Germany, became identified with the management
of the Farmers and Merchants Bank as cashier. He is also a
director of the bank and a director of the First National Bank
of Pennsboro. Mr. McGinnis is a republican, a member of the
School Board at Pennsboro, a Knight Templar and thirty-
second degree Scottish Rite Mason, being a member of Wheel-
ing Consistory No. 1, also a member of Odell S. Long Chapter,
R. A. M., of which he is a Past High Priest, and belongs to
Nemesis Shrine, A. A. 0. N. M. S., of Parkersburg, West
Virginia. He and Mrs. McGinnis are members of the Meth-
odist Church, and he is a trustee of the church. Mr. McGinnis
married Miss X. A. Price, of Morgantown, a graduate of the
high school of that city. They have four children: Frederick
D., now in high school, Benjamin A., Virginia E. and Mary
Louise.