From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 717-718.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


W. M. McGINTY

W. M. McGinty is an example of what patience and energy will do for 
him who practices them. Born in Jackson county, W.Va., January 1, 
1850, he lived with his parents, John and Mary Jane (Bryson) McGinty, 
until the death of the mother in 1857, at which time he went to live 
with his grandfather, John A. McGinty, and later with his maternal 
grandfather, John Bryson, until the death of the grandmother; the 
child was then taken by his aunt, Nancy Ferguson, who lived near 
Wheeling. Here he stayed for two years, after which he cut loose from 
her and all other kindred at the age of eleven years.  He has since 
fought his own way through the world.  Deprived of educational 
advantages in early life, he was over twenty-one years old before he 
obtained even a common school training.  Three years were spent in 
the common school, at the expiration of which time the young man, 
eager for knowledge, entered the state normal school at West Libery.  
His moral courage and perseverance have accomplished thus much; he 
spent some years in teaching, and his labors were attended with 
flattering success.  Mr. McGinty has been variously employed, and has 
acquired a practical knowledge of several trades and branches of 
business, such as farming, gardening, floriculture, painting and 
merchandising.  But preferring the activity of a traveler's life, he 
is now employed as a solicitor of biographical notes for the 
publishers of this volume.  His sisters, Margaret and Agnes L., who 
were entirely separated from him by the death of their mother, have 
since married; the former is the wife of R. B. Graham, of Ripley, 
W.Va., the latter is Mrs. N. I. Sturdevant, of Russell, Kan.  The 
grandfather, John A. McGinty, graduated from the Queen's college in 
Ireland; was one of the corps of engineers who made the first survey 
of the state of Ohio, and was the best scholar in his section of the 
state.  He, with most of his family, and the grandmother Bryson, are 
buried in Jackson county, W.Va.  John Bryson went back to Ireland, 
where he died in 1864.  These grandparents were all, except John 
Bryson, worthy members of the Presbyterian church.  John McGinty, the 
father of our subject, is supposed to have been drowned in the Ohio 
river, about the year 1857.  Mary Jane, the mother, was a woman of 
great personal beauty, and is remembered by those who knew her, as 
one whose life was actuated in everything she did by a noble purpose 
and purity of motive.  W. M. McGinty was joined in marriage in 
February, 1878, to Miss E. V. Ransom, a child of Hiram and Mary 
(Snow)  Ransom, who were old and highly respected inhabitants of the 
county.  Ellen, Agnes L., Lilly, John and Carl have come to bless Mr. 
and Mrs. McGinty's happy home.  Mr. McGinty is a Methodist in good 
standing, and much beloved by all who know him best.        


(Linda Fluharty)