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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY 523
JAMES SUMNER McGINNIS
Attorney
SURNAMES: DOTTS, SMITH, FORREST,
An attorney of San Jose whose career as a successful practitioner is of
exceptional interest is James Sumner McGinnis, who was born in
Tuscarawas County, Ohio, on October 31, 1863. His father, John F.
McGinnis, a native of Pennsylvania and a farmer there, had married Miss
Susannah Dotts, also born in that state. When James S. was six years
old his parents removed to Lucas County, Iowa, and there the mother
passed away in 1871. John F. McGinnis served in the One Hundred
Ninety-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and was
prominent in the ranks of the G.A.R. in Iowa, where he engaged in
farming until his death in 1895. Besides James S., the eldest of the
family, Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis were the parents of a daughter, Minerva,
who became the wife of Clem T. Smith and now resides Steamboat Springs,
Colorado.
In the pursuit of an education, James S. McGinnis attended the public
schools of his locality and alter studied at Western College, at
Toledo, Tama County, Iowa, and when he was well equipped for such work
he taught school, and also farmed for a couple of years. In 1886 he
entered the office of McMillan and Kindall at Onawa, Iowa, where he
studied law, and four years later, in Nebraska, he was admitted to the
bar, having removed to that state a short time before. Being ambi-
tious, he had acquired much facility in the use of short nad entirely
through his own study, while attending school, so that when he began
the study of law he found it very helpful to him. After practising a
short time in Nebraska, he came to California in 1891, and a few months
later he located in San Jose, where he established himself in the legal
profession, in which he has made such a success, enjoying a large
clientele and a highly lucrative practice. Not being an office seeker,
he has devoted all his energies to the interests of his growing body of
clients, with consequent satisfaction to all desirous of unselfish,
watchful service.
At Santa Cruz, on September 1, 1891, Mr. McGinnis was married to Miss
Edith Forrest of that city, an accomplished and charming lady, and they
have had two children, Viola Forrest, a graduate nurse of St. Francis
Hospital, San Francisco, where she now holds a responsible
institutional position, and Summner D.
McGinnis, a student at Stanford University. The quiet of domestic life
and the pleasures of gardening have alway attracted Mr. McGinnis; and
when wishing a change, he has found it in the mountains, along the
streams, or in the circles of the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, and
other societies. He is a Master Mason and has belonged to the Knights
of Pythias for thirty-six years. A Republican in his preference for
national party platforms, he is independent in his devotion to the
interests of his adopted state. During the American participation in
the World War, the president of the Couonty Bar Association, of which
Mr. McGinnis is a member, appointed him to assist drafted soldiers in
preparing their questionnaires, and he gave much of his time in
fulfilling this patriotic service.
Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 523
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