Martin Maginnis was an American soldier, Montana politician, and congressman.
Background
Martin Maginnis was born on October 27, 1841, in Wayne County, New York. His parents, Patrick and Winifred (Devine) Maginnis, had come from Ireland about 1838.
In 1851, the family moved to Lasalle, Illinois, and in 1853 to Red Wing, Minnesota.
Education
Martin Maginnis attended Hamline University, then at Red Wing.
Career
Before graduating, Maginnis enlisted in the 1st Minnesota Volunteers and he served throughout the Civil War. He was in most of the battles of the Army of the Potomac and by July 1863 had attained the rank of captain. After Cold Harbor, he was sent to Tennessee and assigned to the staff of Andrew Johnson, military governor of the state.
At the end of the war, he was mustered out with the rank of major. For a while, he worked for a newspaper in Red Wing, Minnesota, but in 1866, he organized a party of about 150 men whom he led from Minnesota along the northern route to Montana. For a year, he engaged in mining and then he joined with Peter Ronan in editing the Daily Rocky Mountain Gazette, which later became the Helena Independent.
After his retirement from Congress in 1885, having been defeated for re-election, Maginnis engaged in mining but did not lose his interest in politics. He was again defeated for representative in Congress in 1889 and, in 1890, although chosen for United States senator by one faction calling itself the legal state legislature, he was denied his seat in Washington.
Governor Toole appointed him land commissioner, and for the next few years, he fought the Northern Pacific's claim to minerals on its land grant, finally winning his suit for independent prospectors and miners. In 1900, he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of William A. Clark in the United States Senate, but he was not seated.
Maginnis died on March 27, 1919, in Los Angeles, California, in his seventy-eighth year.
Achievements
Membership
In 1889, Maginnis was a member of the state constitutional convention.
Personality
A lifelong Democrat, he was delegate to eight successive national conventions. He was quick to comprehend public sentiment and to give it expression, but his popularity outlasted his influence as a politician.
Connections
On Marсh 11, 1868, Maginnis was married to Louise E. Mann of Pontiac, Michigan.