William McGinnis was my 3rd great-grandfather. He was born about 1827 in Ireland and came to America when he was about 22 years old, in 1849. It was during the "Great Irish Famine", a dreadful time when several years of failed crop harvests led to the starvation of over one million people. You can learn more about it in my previous blog (click here).
On the 1876 map of Cincinnatus, William McGinnis owned 93 acres of land on Fox Road. Fox Road is 1.3 miles from end to end, between Maricle Road (in Freetown) and Route 41 (in Cincinnatus). William appears to have lived on or near the border between the two, which may indicate this was where he lived in 1860 when he was counted on the census in Freetown. On every census after 1860, he was counted in Cincinnatus. Land records would have to be obtained to confirm exactly when he purchased the land on Fox Road.
I like to view my ancestor's homes on Google Maps in "Street View", but many rural country roads are not yet available in Street View, and such is the case with Fox Road. I finally had the opportunity to visit Fox Road over the weekend and created a video to document the place for McGinnis' posterity. It is probably very similar to when the McGinnis family lived there. Surely the road wasn't paved, there was no electricity, and there were fewer houses, but otherwise, it seems to have changed very little. It is a scenic country road with farms, pastures, and woodlands. Fox Road intersects Gee Brook and a small stream that runs off Gee Brook then runs parallel with the road across from the McGinnis property, certainly a valuable amenity for the McGinnis family.
See the video here! Enjoy! (Alternate link)