Sarah McGinnis

Sarah McGinnis, born September 20, 1812, is the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Harris) Montgomery. The former, born in North Carolina in 1764, at the age of sixteen enlisted as a soldier in the .Revolutionary War, and served until liberty was secured. At the close of the war he moved to Russell county, Va., and taking from the government a title to a piece of land, called a "corn right," began its improvement. His first wife, to whom he was married at the close of the Revolution, removed with him to Virginia, where after several years she died, leaving him a family of eight children, four boys and four girls. He was again married to Miss Elizabeth Harris, of Virginia, with whom and his family he moved to Russell county, Va., where he purchased land and continued farming for a time, when once more he removed with his family to Floyd county, Ky. At the end of three years he took his family in wagons, and, carefully avoiding the Indians, arrived safely in Franklin county, Ind. There he remained for seven years, when he and his faithful wife removed with the subject of this sketch, who in the meantime had married, to Peoria county, Ill., in 1835, where he died in 1845 in his eighty-second year-; some eighteen months later his wife followed him. This union was blessed by four children (the first two boys died in infancy), and two girls, Sarah and Susanna, the latter deceased, leaving Mrs. McGinnis, the sole representative of the family. At the age of eighteen she was married to Geo. I. McGinnis, and settled on a farm in Park county, Ind., where she remained some nine years, and then with her husband and two children moved to where Princeville now stands. There Mr. McGinnis died at the age of seventy-two years. Mrs. McGinnis still resides upon the farm, one and a half miles north of Princeville. Of their twelve children nine are still living, namely: Susanna, Sarah Ann (deceased), John, James, Nancy, Mary, Elizabeth, Temperance (deceased), Jane, William (deceased), George L, Charles H. Susanna, the wife of J. Anderson, resides in Stark county, Ill. John and James are at Rochester; Nancy resides on homestead; Mary resides at Wyoming; Elizabeth is postmistress at Stark; Jane is in the Indian Territory; George I. at Princeville, and Charles H. in Peoria county. The father of the subject of this sketch was for a time a friend and companion of Daniel Boone, being with him at Fort Boone when it was besieged by the Indians.