Newspaperman Counterfeits Money, Writes Algebra Book

Before he was arrested in 1896 and jailed for counterfeiting money in Missouri, Michael Angelo McGinnis had found a way to make his mark on Medford, Ore.Before he was arrested in 1896 and jailed for counterfeiting money in Missouri, Michael Angelo McGinnis had found a way to make his mark on Medford, Ore.
McGinnis had published the first issue of Medford’s The Monitor newspaper on Feb. 20, 1885.  Although the Ashland Tidings and Jacksonville’s Oregon Sentinel welcomed McGinnis’ paper, the Jacksonville Democratic Times accused him of slurring and misrepresenting Jacksonville.
The Monitor established McGinnis as a prominent member of Medford society, holding positions of honor such as the reader of the Declaration of Independence during the Fourth of July celebration in 1885.
McGinnis didn’t stay in the Rogue Valley for long, leaving many creditors behind when he moved to Colorado to establish a newspaper there.
Convicted in Missouri, McGinnis kept busy in prison by writing an influential book published in 1900 titled “Algebra, the Universal Solution for Numerical and Literal Equations".  Despite his success as a mathematician, McGinnis committed more crimes and was convicted of forgery in 1906.
 
McGinnis died in 1914, after a complicated life as newspaper publisher, convict, and respected mathematician.
Source: Truwe, Ben. “Michael Angelo McGinnis”. October 15, 2015. Southern Oregon History, Revised http://id.mind.net/~truwe/tina/McGinnis.html