Bartholomew County IN Archives Biographies.....Kinney, Emanuel H. 1846 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 24, 2007, 11:21 am Author: B. F. Bowen (1904) EMANUEL H. KINNEY. For a number of years the leading insurance man of Columbus, Emanuel H. Kinney ranks with the representative citizens of Bartholomew county and occupies a conspicuous place among the successful business men of central Indiana. His long residence in this part of the state has made him widely and favorably known, and since engaging in his present line of activity his name has become intimately associated with business transactions, which have brought him to the favorable notice of the public, not only in Indiana, but in many other commonwealths where duty has called him. Paternally Mr. Kinney comes of sturdy Scotch stock, his grandfather, a native of Scotland, having immigrated to America about 1800, or perhaps a year or two prior to that time, and settled in one of the eastern states. George W. Kinney, the subject's father, a cooper by trade, also a school teacher for many years, was born in 1821. He spent the greater part of his life in Ohio, but moved to Indiana in 1852, and died in Bartholomew county in 1858. Elizabeth A. Ogilvie, wife of George W. Kinney and mother of the subject, was descended from an old Virginia family. She was born in 1825, and departed this life in 1897, at her home in the southern part of Bartholomew county. Emanuel H. Kinney is a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, where his birth occurred on the 17th day of December, 1846, the scene of his childhood being the town of Keene, in which he spent the first six years of his life. Brought to Bartholomew county, in 1852, when the country was new and sparsely settled, he experienced all the vicissitudes of farm life under such conditions, his services as soon as he was old enough being required to clear the land and cultivate the same, in consequence of which his educational advantages were quite limited. The sum total of his intellectual training included three months of each year from 1856 to 1862, during which time he attended school in a little log cabin, where he obtained a fair knowledge of the fundamental branches, reading, writing and arithmetic. Possessing a studious nature, however, and being a great lover of books, he subsequently made good this deficiency by wide general reading, but by far the greater part of his education is of that intensely practical kind acquired by coming in contact with the world in the stern school of experience. Mr. Kinney remained at home assisting with the work of the farm until 1868, on December 28th of which year he entered the marriage relation with Miss Louisa Collier, and engaged in the pursuit of agriculture upon his own responsibility. He continued a tiller of the soil until 1873, at which time he removed to Waymanville and opened an insurance office, accepting the agency of several leading fire companies, in whose interests he succeeded in due time in building up quite a large and lucrative business. In 1877 he changed his residence from the above town to Walesboro, thence one year later removed to Columbus, in which city he found a larger and more inviting field for the insurance business, and which place he has since made his home. Mr. Kinney's career as a solicitor of insurance was eminently successful from the beginning, and but a few years elapsed until he was the recognized leader in this branch of the business in the city of his residence. Representing many of the leading companies in the United States, at a time when the great value of insurance was beginning to be appreciated, he succeeded in securing an extensive patronage, and so pronounced was his success that in 1889 he was made a special agent or adjuster, in which capacity he spent the ensuing eight years, traveling during that time over the states of Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia and a part of Wisconsin, adjusting the losses his several companies had sustained. Since 1897 he has devoted his attention to the large and constantly growing business of his local agency at Columbus, where, as already indicated, he stands pre-eminently the leading insurance agent in Bartholomew county and one of the most successful in the state. All losses occurring at this agency are adjusted by him, and so high does he stand in the confidence of the different companies he represents that his decisions are accepted as final, his settlements being eminently fair and mutually satisfactory to all parties concerned. In 1896 Mr. Kinney, in partnership with Charles A. Turpin, established at Columbus the Daily and Weekly Star, which he assisted to edit and publish until 1902, when the paper was sold to M. A. Lock, under whose management it has since been regularly issued. While satisfactory in many ways, both from a financial and professional point of view, his brief experience in the field of journalism was not altogether to his liking, and he disposed of his interest in the paper with the conviction that he was better fitted by nature and training for a business career than for the editorial sanctum. In politics Mr. Kinney affiliated with the Democratic party until 1902, when, becoming dissatisfied with its attitude toward certain leading issues, he severed his allegiance and since that year has been a zealous and uncompromising Republican. While earnest in his advocacy of measures and policies which he considers right, he has never aspired to leadership, much less sought the honors or emoluments of office at the hands of his fellow citizens, although well qualified to fill any*public position within the gift of the people of his city or county. The only office he ever accepted was that of justice of the peace, the duties of which he discharged for a period of twelve years, his long tenure in this position demonstrating not only sound judgment and a practical knowledge of the law, but also a willingness to serve the people when his tastes and inclinations consulted would have led him to turn the office over to other hands. Fraternally Mr. Kinney is a member of Pythian Lodge No. 17, which he joined about twenty-three years ago, and with which he has been actively identified ever since, having held a number of important offices the meanwhile, besides taking an active interest in the affairs of the order throughout the state. In matters religious he holds to the Methodist faith, being a liberal contributor to the church in Columbus, in addition to which he also encourages and to the extent of his ability assists all charitable and benevolent enterprises of whatever name or order. Mr. Kinney is a man of broad views and generous impulses, enterprising in all the term implies and a notable example of those powers of mind and qualities of heart that beget confidence and retain esteem. He is also a man of the times, fully up-to-date in all that concerns the material prosperity, social advancement and moral welfare of the community, zealous in promoting his own interests and at the same time active in his efforts to make the world better and prove a blessing to his kind. By his first marriage, to which reference is made in a preceding paragraph, Mr. Kinney is the father of nine children, only four of whom are living, the wife and mother also deceased, the date of her death being the year 1892; sometime afterward Mr. Kinney contracted a matrimonial alliance with Mrs. Sarah O. Anderson, the union being without issue. Additional Comments: Extracted from BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY INDIANA INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA ILLUSTRATED 1904 B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/bartholomew/bios/kinney735gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb