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COATES
KINNEY. Among the leading men of letters who
have been identified with the state of Ohio, there are none
who have written more musical verse than the late Coats
Kinney. Although not a native of Greene county,
yet most of his active life was spent within its limits, and
the county has always been proud to number him among its
distinguished men. Not only as a literary man did he
rise to fame, but as a newspaper editor, as a member of the
General Assembly of the state of Ohio, as lieutenant-colonel
in the Civil War and as a man prominent in the affairs of
the every-day life about him was he equally well known.
When his famous poem. "The Rain on the Roof."
was first given to the public, it was acclaimed as one of
the most musical poems of the country, and there were few
papers in the United States or England that did not reprint
it.
Colonel Kinney was born in Jerusalem township,
Yates county, New York, Nov. 24, 1826. His parents
were Giles and Myra (Cornell) Kinney, the former a
native of New London, Connecticut, and the latter of
Delaware county, New York. The great-grandfather of
Giles Kinney came over to this country in the
"Mayflower" in 1620. Myra Cornell was a
daughter of Samuel and Polly Cornell. Colonel
Kinney was the third of a family of twelve children born
to his parents. In 1840 the Kinney family
removed from New York to Springboro, Ohio, a small village
in the northwestern part of Warren county. He was a
leader in his class, read everything he could find and
before he reached his majority was considered one of the
best educated men of his county. Before reaching the
age of twenty-one he was in charge of a school room and
continued to teach each winter for five or six years,
meantime for a while studying law in the office of Thomas
Corwin, of Lebanon. He completed his law studies
under the tutelage of Donn Piatt at Cincinnati and
after being admitted to the bar practiced in that city for a
year, and then returned to his old county, Warren, and
practiced for a year. The next chapter of his life
opens in Xenia, where he appeared in the latter part of the
'50s. He came to Xenia to become editor of the
Xenia News, and he continued in this capacity until the
opening of the Civil War. He enlisted on June 1, 1861,
and served until November 14, 1865. He was mustered in
with a commission of major and detailed as a paymaster in
the regular army and was mustered out with the commission of
lieutenant - colonel by brevet, "for long and faithful
services." As soon as he was released from service in
the regular army he returned to Xenia and the issue of the
Xenia Torchlight, dated December 6, 1865, carries his
name at its head as one of the owners of the paper. He
remained with the paper until December 1, 1869, when he sold
his interest in it to a stock company. The remainder
of his life was largely devoted to literary work. His
poem, "The Rain on the Roof," had appeared in 1849 and
established his reputation as a poet. In 1876 when the
state wanted to have its best poet produce a centennial ode,
there was a universal demand that there was only one man in
the state to write it - and that man was Coates Kinney.
His poem created a profound impression, being delivered by
the author in person before a vast concourse of people in
the Coliseum at Columbus. In the '80s he issued a
volume of his poems under the title of "Lyrics of the Ideal
and the Real." The last forty years of his life were
devoted to newspaper work. He was for a time editor of
the Cincinnati Daily Time; chief editorial writer on
the Ohio State Journal for a year; the owner
and editor of the Springfield Republic: part owner
and in full editorial charge of The Genius of the West,
a literary magazine of Cincinnati. In the midst of his
editorial duties he found time to serve his community in the
state of Senate as a member from the fifth senatorial
district. The year 1881 saw him the leading Republican
speaker in the Senate, and he has the honor of being the
author of the temperance amendment to the constitution
adopted the following year. The newspapers of that day
credit him with being the most forceful speaker in either
branch of the General Assembly.
Colonel Kinney was twice married. His
first wife was Hanna Kelley, of Waynesville, Ohio,
and one son, Abbott, was born to this union.
The son died between the ages of five and six. He was
married a second time, in December, 1862, to Mary
Catherine Allen, of Xenia. He died in December,
1902.
(Source: History of Greene County, Ohio, its
people, industries & institutions by Hon. M. A. Broadstone,
Editor in Chief - Vol. I.- Publ. 1918 by B. F. Bowen &
Company, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind.) |
JOHN LITTLE. In many
respects John Little was one of the greatest men
Greene county has ever produced. As a lawyer he ranked
among the best of the county, while as a versatile man in
public affairs he was easily the greatest man the county has
ever produced, with the notable exception of Whitelaw
Reid. From the time he was mayor of Xenia in the
sixties until his death in 1900 he was before the public in
some official capacity most of the time, his succession of
official position including in order the following:
Mayor of Xenia, prosecuting attorney of Greene county, state
Legislature, attorney general of the state of Ohio, member
of Congress, member of Venezuelan commission, member of the
Ohio state board of arbitration and finally a member of the
court house commission of Greene county.
John Little was a native son of the county, born
in Ross township, April 25, 1837. He called this
county his home until his death in Xenia on October 18,
1900. He lived on his father's farm until he was
nineteen years of age. In 1856 he became a student in
Antioch College and graduated therefrom in 1862. He
then began reading law with Judge J. J. Winans in
Xenia. While still reading law he was elected mayor of
Xenia. He was admitted to the bar in 1865 and the
following year was elected prosecuting attorney of the
county, being re-elected in 1868. Before his second
term as prosecuting attorney came to a close, he announced
his candidacy for a seat in the General Assembly of Ohio.
He resigned as prosecutor, made the legislative race and was
elected by goodly majority to the fifty-ninth session.
He was re-elected and became a political power in the state.
In 1873 Little was elected attorney general of the
state and two years later was elected for a second term.
For seven years thereafter, 1877-1884, devoted himself to
his legal practice. He had been a partner of
Charles G. Shearer since 1872, a partnership which
continued up until the latter took his seat as a member of
the circuit court of appeals in 1887. In 1884
Little was nominated for Congress by the Republicans of
his district, and elected in the fall of the same year,
serving from March 4, 1885, to March 4, 1887. At the
close of his term in Congress he returned to his home in
Xenia and resumed his practice, but two years later he was
called upon to fill the position of the Venezuelan
commission to which he was appointed in 1889 by President
Harrison. Little was chosen president of the
board and wrote the preliminary opinion concerning the
disputed boundary line. Other official position came
to Little after his retirement from the Venezuelan
commission. Governor McKinley appointed him as
a member of the Ohio state board of arbitration and he held
this position until his death. When the county
commissioners decided to erect the present court house, they
created what they called a court house commission and on
that commission they placed John Little - the last
official position to which he was appointed. The court
house was still unfinished at the time of his death, Oct.
18, 1900.
(Source: History of Greene County, Ohio, its
people, industries & institutions by Hon. M. A. Broadstone,
Editor in Chief - Vol. I.- Publ. 1918 by B. F. Bowen &
Company, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind.)
Little was married Oct. 19, 1865, to Barbara
Jane Sheets. They had two children, George and
Mary. His widow died in Xenia on May 30, 1902. |
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