Notes:
James Hamilton Kinnaman, the first child of Peter J. and Sarah B., was born 22 December 1844. The place of his birth was possibly Greene Co., IN. In the Federal census of 1850 for Greene County, Cass Township, Indiana, James appears in the household of his parents.
When James was about 11, his mother, Sarah, died, and soon thereafter he was taken, with his younger sister, Susannah Rachel, to live with his grandparents, Peter and Susannah. In the 1860 Federal census for Madison Township, Daviess Co., IN, James is recorded as living in Peter's and Susannah's household. His age at that time was 16, not 14 as recorded in the census,
It is likely that James lived with his grandparents until the age of 19 when, on 1 August 1863, he enrolled with Company K, 117th Regiment, Indiana Infantry Volunteers, holding the rank of Private. The history of the 117th has it being raised in Daviess County in June 1863 under the captaincies of James R. Bryant and John B. Wirtz for a six-month duration of service.
On 11 August 1863 the 117th Regiment left Washington, Indiana, to be organized in Indianapolis, Then on 17 September 1863 the regiment departed Indianapolis and marched through Kentucky to Greensville, Tennessee, via the Cumberland Gap. The 117th saw action in November 1863 at Bean's Station, and at Clinch Mountain Gap where it was nearly captured. During the remainder of the month of November the 117th Regiment endured extensive marching through eastern Tennessee, suffering very badly from adverse weather and limited provisions -- some of the worst conditions faced by any unit of the army during the war. December 1863 saw the end of the 117th six-month's service, and James was mustered out on 27 February 1864 in Indianapolis,
One month later, on 31 March 1864, James enlisted again -- this time with Company F, 1st Regiment, Indiana Heavy Artillery of the 21st Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, again with the rank of Private. This enlistment was made at Columbus, Indiana, and was to have been for three years. Upon his second enlistment, James was 19 years old, stood 5 feet 6-1/2 inches tall, and had a dark complexion with hazel eyes and light hair. His civilian occupation was listed as farmer, and he stated that he had neither parents, guardian or master, even though his father, Peter J. Kinnaman, was alive at the time, as was his grandfather, Peter. James was mustered in on 7 April 1864 at Indianapolis, and was sponsored by Michael Daily (or Daly), a private in Company F, 21st Indiana Volunteers, 1st Artillery.
When James joined the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery (1st IHA), it was stationed at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and soon participated in the siege of Mobile, Alabama. Company F engaged in the reductions of Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines (Georgia) in August. The 1st IHA also served at Spanish Fort (Mississippi), and in the final capture of Mobile, but whether James' Company was involved or not I haven't learned, James was recorded as present in each Company F muster roll from May 1864 through October 1865. At the time of his second enlistment he had apparently been over paid by $13 on a recruitment bounty, and spent the entire second enlistment repaying the money through pay deductions. In June and July, and September and October, 1865 James served as company cook, which may have been his military occupation throughout his second enlistment, At the close of the war different batteries of the 1st IHA were assigned to Forts Morgan, Rickens and Barrancas, and to Baton Rouge and other points of Mississippi River defense, with the headquarters at Mobile under Col. Benjamin F. Hays, Company F was assigned to Barrancas, Florida.
On 10 January 1866 James' services as soldier were "no longer required" and he was mustered out and discharged in Baton Rouge - a month after his 21st birthday. The war had been over for about nine months,
James returned home to Peter and Susannah after his discharge. Then three years later, early in 1869, he made preparations for his upcoming marriage. In January he "united" with the M. E. Church at Good Hope, and on 1 February he purchased 57 acres (the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, and the north one-half of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 19 in Madison Township) from his grandfather, Then on 4 February 1869 he married Mary Elizabeth Frets. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. James B. Hamilton (what a curious duplication of names!), and took place in Clarksburg. James was 25, and Mary Elizabeth, 29.
Mary Elizabeth, or Elizabeth or Lizzie as she was called in the family, was born, according to traditional family lore, 6 December 1840 in Auburn, DeKalb Co., IN. However her obituary, in error in other details, states her place of birth as Pennsylvania, and her death record, also flawed with obvious errors, reveals the state of her birth as Ohio, as does the 1880 census. Family lore also states that her father was Abraham Frets, however her death record names her father as Henry Frets born in Ohio, and also gives her mother as Mary Miller born in Ohio. The same family lore says she was a sister of George Frets who had previously married James' half-sister, Margaret, but this may or may not be true in light of the differences in establishing who her father was. Mary Elizabeth also had, according to family lore, two other brothers, Sam and John, and two sisters, Mary (Shaffer) and Nance (Stotss).
The couple's first child, Thomas Grant, was born 2 December 1869, in Daviess County, Madison Township10. Two years after the birth of Thomas, a daughter, Mary Ellen, was born on 30 September 1871, to be followed by the rest of James' and Elizabeth's children James Walter on 7 January 1874, Martha Magdaline on 7 June 1876, Lula Marie on 14 November 1878, and John Henry on 7 November 1880. James farmed the land he had purchased, and some he apparently inherited, from his grandfather in the section of Madison Township known then as Good Hope.
Then in 1891 he sold his farmland (40 acres in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 19 in January 1891, and 80 acres in the northwest quarter of the east one-half of the northwest quarter of section 16 on 3 February 1891), and moved into the town of Odon to a house on Bair Street - "at the top of the street on a hill" as Kenneth Walter Kinnaman, James' grandson, remembered. On 3 December 1903 James Hamilton died in Odon at the home of his daughter, Lula Marie Kinnaman Freeman, after a several-week illness.11 He was nearly 59 years old, and was buried under a military headstone in Walnut Hill Cemetery, not far from the graves of his grandparents, Peter and Susannah.
Five days after her husband's death, Elizabeth at age 63, applied in Odon for a Widow's Pension. She either did or did not receive her pension because on 15 September 1916 she applied again (Certificate No. 572,495). At any rate it was under this certificate number that the final allotment of $40 per month was paid on 4 July 1929 after an August 9 judgment of stoppage prompted by Elizabeth's death on 20 July 1929. Some years prior to her death Elizabeth had sold her house in Odon, and was living with her children James Walter and Mary Ellen in Wheatland, Indiana, who took turns caring for the aging, and somewhat difficult, widow until her demise. Elizabeth died in her daughter Mary Ellen Kinnaman Moore's home in Wheatland, Knox Co., IN.
According to my father, Kenneth Walter Kinnaman, who attended her funeral, Mary Elizabeth was buried in Walnut Hill Cemetery "on a hill under a tall tree", possibly in a grave plot owned by her son-in-law, Lan Freeman, of Odon, but a search of the graveyard by several members of the family has not revealed the location of the grave, Perhaps she was buried with no marker. And to continue the inconsistencies surrounding Mary Elizabeth, her flawed death record gives her burial site as Fairview Cemetery near Elnora, but she cannot be located there either.
Data source is Jim Kinnaman. E-mail jkkinnaman@aol.com
Data source is Yvonne Oliphant, 1011 W 2600 N, Pleasant Grove, UT 84062, e-mail OliRol@aol.com