History of Wayne County New York United States of America

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John La mountain, a?ronaut, was born in Wayne county, N.Y., in 1830. His education was limited by reason of the death of his father, and the necessity of working to support his mother. He became interested in ballooning while a young man and succeeded in making several ascensions. He constructed the "Atlantic," a balloon made of silk, having a capacity for 70,000 cubic feet of gas, and with several passengers, including John Wise, the a?ronaut, he made an ascent from St. Louis Mo., July 1, 1859. The balloon passed over the states of Illinois and Indiana, reached Ohio the next morning, crossed Lake Erie into New York and to Lake Ontario into which it descended, but rose again and a safe landing was effected at Henderson, Jefferson county, N.Y. This journey occupied nineteen hours and fifty minutes, and the distance traversed was 1150 miles, or 826 miles in an air line. He made an ascension in September 1859, from Watertown, N.Y., and at various altitudes experienced much suffering from the changes in temperature. He passed one night in the balloon, descending during the second day, and wandered for four days in the wilderness without adequate food or clothing. He was rescued by lumbermen 150 miles north of Ottawa, Canada. He was appointed a?ronautic engineer to the Army of the Potomac under Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, in 1862, and made several ascensions, but soon severed his connection with the army. He subsequently made occasional uneventful ascensions. He died in Lansingburg, N.Y., in 1878.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Martin Maginnis, senator, was born in Wayne county, N.Y., Oct. 27, 1841; son of Patrick and Winifred (Devine) Maginnis. His parents, born in Ireland, immigrated to America, settled on a farm in Wayne county, N.Y., in 1836, and removed to Minnesota in 1852. Martin matriculated at Hamline university, St. Paul, Minn., in the class of 1862 and in 1861 with other members of his class he enlisted in the 1st Minnesota volunteers and served in twenty-two battles of the Army of the Potomac, 1862-64. He was one of the survivors of his regiment at the famous charge at Gettysburg where the regiment lost 82 per cent of its men. His company lost thirty of the thirty-five men he led to the charge. He served in the Army of the Cumberland under General Thomas at Franklin and Nashville, Tenn., 1864; was provost-marshall-general of Tennessee on the staff of Governor Andrew Johnson, and was mustered out in June, 1865, having attained the rank of major. He organized an expedition and crossed the plains to Montana in 1866 where he engaged in mining and founded the Rocky Mountain Daily Gazette at Helena. He was married in 1868 to Louise E. Mann, of Pontiac, Mich. He was the delegate from Montana Territory to the 43d-48th congresses, 1873-85; a delegate to the convention of July 4, 1889, which framed the constitution under which it was admitted as a state, and he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for representative in the 51st congress. He was elected one of the first U.S. senators by the Democratic legislature convened by reason of the Silver Bow county election contest, but both he and his colleague, William A. Clark, were rejected by the senate in 1889. He was appointed by Governor Toole in 1891 a commissioner to look after the mineral-land interests of Montana and served two years. On the resignation of William A. Clark as U.S. senator in 1900, Major Maginnis was appointed, on May 18, by Governor Robert A. Smith, to fill the vacancy. He was orator of the day at the dedication of the Soldiers' Home, Washington, D.C.; at the reunion of Federal and Confederate officers on the battle-field of Gettysburg, and at a reunion of the Society of the Army of the Potomac.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Wayne County New York

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