Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 880 - 881

MICHAEL McGINITY. The annals of the lives of some men read more like a romance than sober history, on account of the adventurous turn of their mind, and the circumstances under which they have lived, causing them to roam from place to place, and remain actively engaged in a wild life. Among these is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, who is engaged in carrying on agricultural pursuits on section 11, Delano Township, in this county. With-out enlarging upon the facts, a plain statement of his life and adventures will probably be interesting reading.

            Mr. McGinity was born about the year 1840; his father died while he was quite young. His mother's death took place in Blairsville, Pa., in 1862. He received his education in Westmoreland County, in a country school, and afterward attended a High School at Blairsville, Indiana Co., Pa. In 1857 he was offered and accepted a position as time clerk with Meagher & Co., contractors, who were engaged in building bridges in the State of Iowa. He was qualified for this work as he had received a most excellent common-school education. and had a full knowledge of the methods of book-keeping. When the war of the Rebellion broke out, in 1861, however, he was in the State of Mississippi at work, having for a short time past been employed as watchman on several steamers on the Mississippi River, and had, in the meantime, made several trips on the boats up the Arkansas as far as Little Rock, the capital of the State of that name. At the commencement of hostilities, not feeling any interest in the success of the Confederacy, he started for the loyal States of the North, but when he reached Memphis, Tenn., was detained, and efforts were made to induce him to enlist in the rebel army, to which he gave a steady refusal. He found it extremely difficult to get out of that city, but finally succeeded in accomplishing it, and proceeding on his journey, after a few days spent at St. Louis, arrived at Springfield, Ill. A short time after his arrival there he enlisted in Company A, 1st Missouri Rifles, Indiana Volunteers, Capt. David Bayles, and his company was assigned for duty as the bodyguard of Gen. Nathaniel Lyons, but was at Rolla, Mo., when that General was killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek. Our subject participated in all the hardships and trials of a soldier's life, and received some injuries in the discharge of his duties at Rolla and Cape Girardeau, Mo., but was finally discharged at Nashville, Tenn., in December, 1865, and was in the Quartermaster's department.

            On the cessation of hostilities, the subject of this sketch came, in March, 1866, to Kansas, and was stationed at Ft. Riley, in the Quartermaster's department. In 1867 he was transferred to Ft. Harker, where he was employed in patrol duty for two years. In 1869 he joined another expedition under Col. Lee, with which he went to Ft. Sill, and remained connected with the Indian service of the Government for about ten years. In one of his numerous trips he had crossed this country, and having taken a great liking to the land in Sedgwick County, he had, in 1871 or 1872, pre-empted 160 acres of land in Delano Township, with a view to having a home on which to settle, should he ever leave the service of the Government. After a period of adventurous life, a great portion of which was spent upon the frontier, and in the company of soldiers, teamsters and Indians, in August, 1879, he came to Sedgwick County, and settled upon his place, where he commenced its cultivation, and has made it his home ever since.

            The parents of our subject were residents of Bedford County, Pa., but moved to Blairsville, Indiana County, in 1848 or 1849, and from there to Westmoreland County, where the father died about 1852, and the mother ten years later in Blairsville. He has two sisters, and often receives letters from them.

            While he is not a teetotaler, Mr. McGinity has not drunk any intoxicating liquors for years, and never allowed whisky to get the better of him, but is an advocate of, and votes for Prohibition. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, in whose doctrines and belief he was educated from an early age, and is faithful in the performance of his religious duties. As a man and a citizen he is esteemed and respected by the community in which he lives, and enjoys the regard and confidence of all who know him.

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