Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - Israel Kinney
ISRAEL KINNEY
Israel Kinney, a farmer, P. O. Richwood, was born in Muskingum County,
Ohio, January 8, 1894; he is a son of Thomas J. and Nancy (Biggs)
Kinney, natives of Pennsylvania, who emigrated to Ohio in 1808, and
settled in Muskingum County. His great-grandparents, Thomas and
Anna Kinney, were residents of New Jersey, and came to Ohio with the
family in the above year; the former lived to reach eighty-nine years
of age, and the latter ninety-two. The ancestors, as far back as
known, were tillers of the soil. Our subject was raised to farm
life, but, in his younger days, taught school, receiving his first
certificate in 1845. During one winter, he taught in the same
township with the late President James A. Garfield, with whom, however,
he had only a slight acquaintance. He heard that such a man had
been employed in a neighboring district, but when he met him, saw
nothing in him to indicate the force of character, noble nature or
sound judgment that afterward endeared this man to the hearts of the
people. Mr. Kinney continued teaching during the winter seasons,
for sixteen years-farming in the summer. In 1851, he married Jane
W. Monlux, by whom he had three children, viz. : Mary, wife of George
O. Fisher, Thomas F., who married Maggie Maskill, and died in 1879 and
W. W. The latter was born in Claibourne Township December 24,
1857 ; received a common school education and has followed farming for
life. He was married, October 7, 1879, to Ella daughter of John
Maskill, of Richwood, and by her has one child-Clarence. She is a
member of M. P. Church. Mr. Kinney is a Republican in politics.
Our subject lost his wife in 1860, and on February 3, 1861, he married
Mary J. Snedeker, who died in 1865, without issue. On December 1,
1866, he married Mrs. Sylvia Hurdle, who was a widow with one child at
the time of her marriage to Mr. Kinney. The latter union has been
blessed with one child, O. E. now thirteen years of age. Mr. and
Mrs. Kinney are members of the M. P. Church, in which he has been a
Deacon, Trustee and Superintendent of Sabbath school. He was a
Democrat until the discussion of the Missouri Compromise, when he
became a Republican, but latterly, he is a Prohibitionist. He
came to this township in 1845, and now owns a farm of 270 acres, one of
the best in the county. <>