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 Germany.

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 South Omaha, Nebraska. Was this where Mr. Kinne resided? I checked the

1900 Federal Census and sure enough there was a “Louis B. Kinne” living in South Omaha, Nebraska:

 

Name

Sex

Age

Birthplace

Father’s BP

Mother’s BP

Occupation

Kinne, Louis B

M

39

New York

New York

New York

Telegraph Oper.

Kinne, Eva

F

41

Illinois

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

 

Kinne, Harl

M

13

Iowa

New York

Pennsylvania

 

Kinne, Ray

M

8

Illinois

New York

Pennsylvania

 

Kinne, Clare

M

5

Iowa

New York

Pennsylvania

 

 

The one thing that immediately stood out was that his wife’s parents were from Pennsylvania. Had they known

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 America” books began to publish

“The Compendium of American Genealogy: The Genealogical Encyclopedia of the First Families of America”.

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 America from Leyden, Holland. Of more interest to us is the information about his wife.

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. (The abstract is available here. Webmaster)

 

[Addendum: Greg subsequenlty found a passport application by Kinne from 1896. 
This allows additional speculation.  Peter Hasselbacher 26 Feb 2011]