M. Nellie McGinley

MISS M. NELLIE McGINLEY. This estimable lady is the efficient superintendent of the Chetopa, and is widely known in Labette county. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and, is a daughter of P. C. and Anna (Brady) McGinley.

Her father, who was a native of County Donegal, Ireland, came to America in 1857, and located at Cleveland, Ohio. He married Anna Brady, and their union was blessed with five children: F. J., a merchant of Norman, Oklahoma; P. J., cashier for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, at Coffeyville, Kansas; Anna; Hannah, a teacher in the Pittsburg, Kansas, schools; and Margaret Helen, the subject of this biography, who with her mother and sisters, has her home in Chetopa. Mr. McGinley died at Norman, Oklahoma, in 1897.

Miss McGinley received her primary education at Cleveland, Ohio, where she lived until her parents removed to Chetopa, in 1875. She was one of the first graduates of the Chetopa High School, in the class of 1883, which consisted of four members. Subsequently Miss McGinley attended the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia, and also the University of Chicago. Her first work as instructor, a task to which she is admirably adapted, was in 1883, when she accepted a position in the primary department of the Chetopa schools under Superintendent J. W. Weltner. She has since taught in all the grades. In the fall of 1897 her superior ability was recognized, and she was made superintendent of the Chetopa High School, which position includes the superintendency of the city schools. She is at the head of 10 teachers and 700 Pupils. Miss McGinley gives the names of the 12 members in the 1901 graduating class of the Chetopa High School, and they are as follows: Charles Crookhan; Ethel Smith; Pearl Remington; Mabel Rosier; May McPherson; Nell Miller; John Thompson; Charles Amos; Ada Simons; Jennie Cooper; Hannah Cunningham; and Bertha Ditzler. Miss McGinley has had a thorough education, and is well prepared to take charge of such a large number of scholars. Her duties are arduous and exacting, but she manages to find time in which to keep thoroughly informed on all progressive movements in educational circles. The Chetopa High School is a large and handsome building, and one of which any town might well be proud. The citizens of Chetopa have just cause to feel that the training of its young people could not be placed under better supervision than Miss McGinley's. She is greatly esteemed by all who come in contact with her pleasing personality. Miss McGinley is a member of the district and county teachers' associations. In religious views, she is a Catholic.