Disability History Fact: The McGinty Club in El Paso started by "Peg" Grandover

The McGinty Club, a men’s fun-making group that also contributed to civic development in the bustling frontier town of El Paso in the 1890s, was created by a Texan with a disability. Almost every historian of El Paso in that era has dealt favorably with the McGinty Club.

The McGinty Club began with a convivial group of El Paso men who loved to gather and sing. One of the most popular songs with this group was “Down Went McGinty.” One day one of the members, “Peg” Grandover (so called because of his prosthetic leg, at the time referred to as a “peg leg”) arrived driving a wagon adorned with signs reading “barbecued burro meat,” “ice water” and, most important, “Hunting for McGinty.” This was in answer to the expected question, “Where are you going?” and referred to a well-remembered phrase of the McGinty song, “Down went McGinty to the bottom of the sea. He must be very wet, for they haven't found him yet.”

From this beginning, the McGinty Club soon sprang into full being. Peg Grandover was involved in everything the club did. Without any firm rules and with a constitution that was largely a joke, it nevertheless drew to its membership lawyers, three mayors, three prominent bankers, several judges, the manager of Myar’s Opera House, a tax assessor, two physicians, and “almost everybody who was anybody.” The club had more than 300 members.

Adapted from: 

Conrey Bryson, "MCGINTY CLUB," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vqm01), accessed September 23, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.