My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH A. McGINNIES is one of the most prominent young Irish-Americans living in the village of Ripley. He is a son of William and Eliza Ann (Lightbody) McGinnies, and was born in County Down, Ireland, November 7, 1861. His ancestors were prominent in Irish and Scotch history, the paternal great-grandfather being a native of Scotland. During the political uprising which occurred in the latter place about 1740, he emigrated into Ireland, where he followed farming until he died. Grandfather, Daniel McGinnies, also took a prominent part in this affair. The maternal grandfather, John Lightbody, was of Scotch-Irish stock, and died in Ireland at the advanced age of ninety-five years. He was coachman and superintendent for Lord Kier, of Ireland, and performed the duties of those positions until the infirmities of age compelled him to relinquish them. William McGinnies was born in 1840, and removed to America in 1862, locating in the town of Ripley, Chautauqua county, New York, where he still lives, and has followed the vocation of railroading ever since coming to America. He married Eliza Ann Lightbody, who is yet living, aged fifty-five years. They had three children: Subject is the oldest; William, married Ina D. Grow and is now in the mercantile business at Gunnison, Colorado; and Samuel E.

Joseph A. McGinnies was educated at the common schools, and at the Ripley High school, the curriculum of the latter being in every respect, equal, excepting languages, to a college preparatory course. In 1876 he embarked in the drug business at the village of Ripley, and has followed it continuously to the present time; he also owns a vineyard of six acres adjoining the village.

J. A. McGinnies married Anna B. Brockway, a daughter of Henry Brockway, coming from one of the oldest families of Chautauqua county. Politically Mr. McGinnies is a democrat, and has held some of the town offices; from August, 1885, to August, 1889, he served under the Cleveland administration as post-master of Ripley. He takes an active interest in the politics of this locality and the success of his party, and is very popular in it, as is attested by the fact that in the campaign of 1890 he was nominated by his party as its choice to represent this district in the Assembly, and although the district is usually republican by twenty-six hundred majority, he succeeded in reducing his opponent’s plurality to five hundred and one, a very flattering exposition of his friends’ appreciation. The McGinnies are Presbyterians, and he has always affiliated with that church, is an attendant of it and contributes to its support. In addition to this he is a member of the Knights of Honor, and for four years was reporter of the Ripley Lodge.