L.B. Kinne,
the author of the “Biographical Sketch of Peter Hazelbaker”
By Greg Humphrey
Jill Hazelbaker Foley
recently posted an essay “Coming to
America” where she analyzed the information contained in the
“Biographical Sketch” and
compared it to other known sources of Hazelbaker history. She came to the
conclusion that
much of the information in the sketch that was unique might
have come from oral history that was handed down in the
Hazelbaker
family. But where did Mr. Kinne get his information? She theorized that he must have
known someone in the
Hazelbaker
family. Further questions were
raised by the
letter accompanying the sketch where Mr. Kinne
requested
money and a power of attorney from family members in order
to pursue an inheritance left to Peter in
Did Mr. Kinne
really believe that such an inheritance existed or was he running some type of
scam? I will leave
that question for another day.
The letter was written in
1896 from
1900 Federal Census and sure
enough there was a “Louis B. Kinne” living in
Name |
Sex |
Age |
Birthplace |
Father’s BP |
Mother’s BP |
Occupation |
Kinne, Louis B |
M |
39 |
|
|
|
Telegraph Oper. |
Kinne, Eva |
F |
41 |
|
|
|
|
Kinne, Harl |
M |
13 |
|
|
|
|
Kinne, Ray |
M |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Kinne, Clare |
M |
5 |
|
|
|
|
The one thing that immediately
stood out was that his wife’s parents were from
the Hazelbakers? Were they Hazelbakers? Further
research at ancestry.com has finally led us to a document
that answers these questions.
Starting in 1925 the same company
that published the “Who’s Who in
Seven volumes were printed
between 1925 and 1942. On page 302 of the fifth volume, published in 1933,
there
is a record for Louis Beebe Kinne.
He traces his ancestry back to Henry Kene who was
born in 1624 and
immigrated to
On February 4, 1885 Louis
married “Henri Eva Cooper” the daughter of Jehu Cooper and Mary Hazelbaker.
Mary was the daughter of
George Hazelbaker and Matilda Dunlevy. Here was the
source for Kinne’s information
about Peter: his mother-in-law was Peter’s grand-daughter!
We can now be fairly certain that he was the author
of the sketch and that the stories about Peter he
included were handed down from Peter and Elizabeth
to their children and grand-children.
[Addendum: Greg subsequenlty found a passport application by Kinne from 1896.
This allows additional speculation. Peter Hasselbacher 26 Feb 2011]