DAVID MCGINNIS, was born in 1798, in Mercer county, Kentucky. He was married December 24, 1820, in Boone county, to Eliza Gibson, a native of that county. Mr. McGinnis visited Sangamon county in the fall of 1826, selected a location for a home, returned to Kentucky, and brought his family, accompanied by his brother, G. Dawson, arriving November 18, 1827, in what is now Island Grove township. David and William McGinnis were the inventors of a device for guiding prairie plows by wheels and a lever. They put it in operation in the summer of 1829. It was adopted throughout the prairie country, and might have made them a large amount of money, but it was never patented.