Wilson B. Kinyon Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 254

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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HON. WILSON B. KINYON, the popular and efficient postmaster of Bradley, 
Clark county, is one of the early settlers of Dakota. His life since 
residing in that state has been spent along the line of agriculture, 
which calling he pursued with a marked degree of success. He is a 
gentleman whose business ability is readily recognized, and his willing 
aid to the advancement of his locality is well known. Clark county may 
well count him among the prominent citizens, whose influence is felt 
not only in his own county but throughout the state.  

Mr. Kinyon is a native of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and was born 
June 5, 1840. He is of Irish-German descent and the fourth in a family 
of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to Phineas and Ann 
(Crandall) Kinyon. The family located in Dodge county, Wisconsin, in 
18446, where the father followed the occupation of a farmer, and our 
subject grew to manhood on his father's estate. He received a common-
school education in an old log school house, and June 10, 1861, at the 
first call for men to enter the three years service he enlisted, and 
became a member of Company E, Third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He 
was engaged at Culpeper Court House, and Antietam, in which latter 
battle he was severely wounded by a ball which he still carries. He was 
discharged in February, 1863 and returned home. While recovering from 
his wound he learned the tinner's trade, working afterward in Juneau 
and Hartford, Wisconsin. He was appointed internal revenue storekeeper 
at Schleisingerville, in 1872, and in 1875 was appointed internal 
revenue gauger, with residence at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Three years 
later he returned to a small farm in Dodge county, and in the spring of 
1883 went to Dakota, and located land on section 20 in Blaine township. 
His family joined him in May of that year, and he opened a general 
farm, and by good management and foresight was able to assist his 
children aside from keeping ahead on his own expenses. He was appointed 
postmaster of Bradley in 1898, in which capacity he is still engaged.  

Our subject was married in 1868, Miss Celia La Count, a native of Ohio, 
becoming his wife. Their home has been blessed by the birth of three 
children, as follows: Frederick P., farmer of Cottonwood township, 
Clark county; Annie, now Mrs. J. D. McKinney, of Bradley, South Dakota; 
and Ross, farmer of Blaine township, Clark county.  

Our subject is a member of the G. A. R. and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. In the first state legislature of South Dakota he took a seat 
in the lower house and served on the temperance committee. He is a man 
who keeps abreast of the times, is strong in his convictions for right, 
and although a member of the Republican party, supports the high 
license law and favors equal suffrage. Mr. Kinyon is a man of mark in 
his community, and his standing as a good citizen is irreproachable. He 
is an old soldier, whose life he placed at the command of his country, 
and never wavered when he heard the call for action, bravely fighting 
for the cause he loved so well, and leaving the battlefield only when 
wounded too severely to combat longer for freedom's cause. To such 
loyalty the Union owes her preservation, and the subject of this review 
is worthy the highest words of praise.