The Kinnear Family Story

Our Kinnear family, as they say, “daughters out” with James D. Rowlison’s mother, Martha Ann Kinnear (1813-1890), wife of the second Aaron Rowlison (1809-1875). The immigrants were Michael M. Kinnear (1762-1847) and his two-year old son James (1783-1847). Note: Michael outlived his son by a few months.

Michael Kinnear came from Fife County, Scotland to Belfast, Ireland where he married Margaret McDill about 1782. Their son James was born on May 22, 1783 and two years later the little family set out for America. Margaret died on the voyage and was buried at sea. There are online family trees that give Margaret’s birth as in 1760 in Belfast, but without references as far as I’ve seen.

So now we have the picture of Michael and two-year old James disembarking from their ship in Philadelphia in 1785 – an interesting time to be there.

Michael married Elizabeth Campbell on September 19, 1786 in Rockbridge County, Virginia where they had eight children, six living into adulthood. I corresponded with a couple of the descendants of Michael and Elizabeth several years ago. It appeared that extended family was close and well organized about staying in touch.

Michael Kinnear and many of the next generation are buried in the Kinnear Cemetery on the banks of Goose Creek in the midst of Section 15, Township 4 North Range 9 East in Smyrna Township, Jefferson County, Indiana. The cemetery is on the original Michael Kinnear farm which is still in the family (at least it was in 1999). We were shown the cemetery by the owner, a third cousin, Kenneth Hord (Michael Kinnear, James Kinnear, Elias Campbell Kinnear, Nellie J. Kinnear, Ernest A. Hord, Kenneth Hord) after a ride through corn and tobacco fields. The cemetery has no recent burials; the most recent one I saw was that of Eliza (Hammond) Kinnear who was buried in 1924. She was the wife of Elias Campbell Kinnear.

James Kinnear Married Martha Littrel Harris in Virginia in 1808. The whole family of eleven children was born in Virginia through 1832. The Kinnear clan moved to Jefferson County, Indiana before 1836 as we find our gal marrying Aaron Rowlison on July 29, 1836 and James D. was born almost three years later.

If you should take off on your own Heritage Tour and visit College Hill Cemetery on the east edge of Lancaster, Indiana you’ll find three graves of Aaron Rowlison’s family. I quote a thing I wrote some time back to explain possible confusion…

Martha A. Kinnear is an ambiguous name in this family. Buried next to Aaron Rowlison is Martha A. Kinnear identified by the D. A. R. in 1931 as the wife of Aaron Rowlison. Martha A. Kinnear was the maiden name of Aaron’s wife (A = Ann). The Martha A. Kinnear buried beside Aaron is his daughter whose maiden name was Martha A. Rowlison (A = Alice). Her husband and cousin Henry Kinnear is buried with her and is identified on the reverse side of the tombstone facing a tree line. Thus Martha A. Kinnear married Aaron Rowlison to become Martha A. Rowlison. Her daughter, Martha A. Rowlison married Henry Kinnear to become Martha A. Kinnear. Got that? And Martha Ann Kinnear’s mother was Martha Littrel Kinnear, maiden name of Harris. And furthermore, there is an Indiana marriage record for a Martha A. Kinnear marrying James McElvoy in 1838 which is likely someone else entirely, or whatever.

So where is Aaron's wife buried? Some evidence supports the family folklore that the marriage of Aaron and Martha was not going well at the end. Aaron died in 1875 and we know from correspondence between James D. and his Indiana attorney that settlement of his estate was contentious. Martha died fifteen years later (less than two months after James D. died in Kansas) and the story is that Martha wished to be buried somewhere other than next to Aaron. Apparently that happened but no one in the family seems to have sprung for a grave marker for her. I vaguely remember reading or my Mother learned that she's likely buried in an unmarked grave in College Hill Cemetery.

College Hill Cemetery on the east edge of Lancaster, Indiana in Jefferson County. Aaron Rowlison (and daughters Victoria Calidonia (1846-1849) and Martha Alice (1847-1893) plus Martha's husband Henry Kinnear) are buried here. Their graves are in the exact center of this photo against the tree line on the right hand (North) slope of the knoll at the back. The right tombstone is the largest, left the smallest.

 We do have some clues as to the origins of Michael Kinnear in Ireland and Scotland. There is a public domain book at Google Books titled, "The Kinnears and their kin; a memorial volumne of history, biography, and genealogy, with revolutionary and civil and Spanish war records; including manuscript by Rev. David Kinnear."

The book includes documents written by various folks about the Kinnear family(ies). One entry is by J. H. Kinnear of Kirksville, Missouri dated May 11, 1908. This would be James Henderson Kinnear (1841-1910) a first cousin of James Demetris Rowlison, a contemporary who gets a mention in the Civil War diary on January 25th, "...Got a letter from J. H. Kinnear." James Kinnear followed James and Rhoda from Jefferson County, Indiana to Kirksville, Missouri where he a local gal, Millie Grisham on March 21, 1872.

James Kinnear recounts the story of Michael and son James Kinnear (he does not mention Margaret dying at sea). he adds some details including the news that several Kinnears were killed in the Civil War except himself and one other, Thomas J. Kinnear (further research, later.).  

He notes that his grandfather had a large body of land in Indiana - that would be Kenny Hord's farm today - and that the family  were the "...old John Knox Presbyterians of the strictest kind."

Better yet was his next story quoted here:

"Many years ago I met a temperance lecturer from Illinois, who claimed that at the time England conquered Scotland, three brothers, Kinnears, left Scotland, one went to Normandy, one to Germany, the other to Ireland; that he was French;that his ancestors were officers in the French Army under the old Napoleon; that I descended from the branch in Ireland, and that the "Dutchman" got lost; he said that he and his father went to Scotland and examined the records as far back as they ran; he was  a typical Frenchman, as I never took much stock in temperance lecturers I am giving this as he told me; the Coat of Arms, he said, "was a Shield with a ladder; a dove on each round, a scroll; Motto: I live in hope; Kinnear at the base.' "

Another entry in this book was by John Kinnier of Lynchburg, Virginia dated December 11, 1911. This fellow tells of immigrating from Ireland with his parents and sister to Lynchburg in 1852 when he was sixteen. His father had two brothers who also came to Virginia plus three sisters who married and stayed in Ireland. He knew of an uncle of his fathers named Michael Kinnear who settled in Culpepper, Virginia long before his family immigrated. The uncle removed to Indiana to get away from the "clank of the chains of slavery."

The full text of this book is at:  http://www.archive.org/stream/kinnearsandthei00maltgoog/kinnearsandthei00maltgoog_djvu.txt

The two references are entries numbered 266 and 290. There may well be important gems of evidence here that I just haven't gotten to yet. Help yourself.