Seth Kinman
Encyclopedia
Seth Kinman was an early settler of Humboldt County
, California
, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt
, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over 6 ft (1.83 m) tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indians. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk. He was also a hotel keeper, barkeeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.
Known for his publicity seeking, Kinman appeared as a stereotypical mountain man
dressed in buckskins on the U.S. east coast and selling cartes de visites of himself and his famous chairs. The chairs were made from elk
horns and grizzly bear
skins and given to U.S. Presidents. Presidents so honored include James Buchanan
, Abraham Lincoln
, Andrew Johnson
, and Rutherford Hayes. He may have had a special relationship with President Lincoln, appearing in at least two of Lincoln's funeral corteges, and claiming to have witnessed Lincoln's assassination.
His autobiography, dictated to a scribe in 1876, was first published in 2010 and is noted for putting "the entertainment value of a story ahead of the strict facts." His descriptions of events change with his retelling of them. Contemporary journalists and modern writers were clearly aware of the stories contained in the autobiography, "but each chooses which version to accept."
in central Pennsylvania, in an area then called Uniontown, now called Allenwood in Gregg Township, Union County
.
James also was a millwright and an inn-keeper, whose forbears were Quakers
from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
.
Seth was born in Uniontown in 1815. In 1830 his father took the family and migrated to Tazewell County, Illinois
.
In his autobiography, Seth states that his father fought in the Blackhawk War. He later claimed that his father and Abraham Lincoln
fought together in the war and were friends afterward. At about the same time the Kinmans acquired a rifle, known as "Old Cotton Bale," that Seth kept throughout his life. The rifle had a 4 ft (1.2 m) long barrel and "is supposed to have killed Gen'l Peckenham
" at the Battle of New Orleans
in 1815. With some skepticism, Anspach relates a long history of the rifle, gleaned from a 1864 local newspaper story on Kinman, of a renegade Kentucky sniper shooting the British general while carrying on a conversation with American General Andrew Jackson
.
Seth spent ten years working in his father's mill in Illinois, sawing lumber and grinding grain. After his father's death in 1839 he sold the mill and tried farming. He married Anna Maria Sharpless in 1840. Anna Maria and two of their sons died during the winter of 1852-53, while Seth was in California.
By 1848 Kinman was operating the Eagle Hotel in Pekin, Illinois
, on the Illinois River
. The hotel was known less for its comforts than for Kinman's rendition of the fiddle tune Arkansas Traveler
.
Kinman migrated to California in 1849 during the great Gold Rush
and worked as a gold miner in Pierson B. Reading
's party on the Trinity River
near present day Douglas City
. He then returned to Illinois for two years. In 1852 he returned to California and explored the Humboldt Bay
area, near present day Eureka, California
. Humboldt Bay had been recently rediscovered by gold miners seeking a faster and cheaper route to transport supplies. An early settlement in the area was also named Uniontown, but is now known as Arcata
. During this period, miners and their suppliers were often flush with gold
, but had little to spend it on.
On Christmas, 1852 Kinman was hired to perform on fiddle at the then exorbitant amount of $50, despite his lack of musical training. As described by a fellow '49er:
Over the winter of 1852-53 he lived in what is now Ferndale
in the cabin of Stephen Shaw
. His wife and two of their children died that winter, and he may have gone back to Illinois to bring back his mother and three remaining children by 1854.
In 1853 he started working as a hunter, feeding U.S. troops in Fort Humboldt. While at Fort Humboldt he met future president Ulysses S. Grant
, and future General George Crook
.
Sources disagree on whether he brought his family to California from Illinois in 1852 or 1854. According to tradition, about this time, he brought the first herd of cattle to Humboldt County. Kinman lived in several places in the county, including houses near Fern Cottage and a dairy farm on Bear River Ridge. He bought 80 acre (323,748.8 m²) of farm or ranch land 1 mi (1.6 km) east of the future Table Bluff Light
house in October 1858, and about 10 mi (16.1 km) south of Fort Humboldt. This was the first purchase of land in the Humboldt Land District, which was established by an Act of Congress in March, 1858. He later built a hotel and bar on the site.
Kinman made his name first as a hunter, especially as a hunter of grizzly bear
s. California was noted for its large population of grizzlies. Seth's son Calvin claimed that they once saw 40 grizzlies at one time. But by 1868, the last grizzly in Humboldt County had been killed. While Kinman was on his way to deliver one of the presidential chairs, he met Methodist bishop and writer Oscar Penn Fitzgerald
on a California steamboat. Fitzgerald recorded his impressions in the sketch The Ethics of Grizzly Hunting.
He presented Kinman as a drunkard who cruelly abused Indians and grizzly bears.
Kinman's brutality was also noted by James R. Duff, a fellow '49er, who described him as "an avowed enemy of the red man, ... (who) shot an Indian
on sight." Kinman himself claimed to be an official Indian agent
, and was involved with the Wiyot Tribe
who moved to a rancheria or reservation on Table Bluff, near Kinman's property. Their move followed the February 26, 1860 Wiyot Massacre
on Indian Island
, and two other sites, when over one hundred Wiyot were murdered in their sleep. Kinman was apparently not one of the murderers, but in the book he dictated, "The Seth Kinman Story," he gives hearsay accounts of the massacre from both Wiyots and white settlers. In May 1860 he was elected to represent Bear River at a county-wide meeting ostensibly called to discuss ways to protect white settlers from the Indians.
During a gale on the night of January 5–6, 1860, Kinman was alerted by distress signals from the Northerner which had been breached by a submerged rock. Kinman tethered himself to the shore and waded into the surf to save many passengers, although 38 people perished. He was hailed as a hero and awarded a Bible and free life-time passage on the line.
Together with J. Kenyon, Kinman toured gold mining camps and the San Francisco Bay area as entertainers, starting in 1861. Later he opened a traveling “museums of curiosities” in Eureka, San Francisco, Sacramento
and Los Angeles
.
Inspired by the election of James Buchanan
, a fellow Pennsylvanian, to the presidency, Kinman built his first elkhorn chair and brought it to Washington.
With some help from Peter Donahue and O.M. Wozencraft, on May 26, 1857, after an introduction from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs James W. Denver
, Kinman presented the chair to Buchanan. The President was so pleased by the present that he bought Kinman a rifle in return.
Kinman's presentation of an elkhorn chair to President Abraham Lincoln
at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 26, 1864 was recorded by artist Alfred Waud
, the only known picture of Lincoln's accepting a gift.
The drawing shows Lincoln's examining Kinman's rifle, which he called "Ol' Cottonblossum." Kinman also presented a fiddle
made from the skull and a rib of his favorite mule and played the instrument.
Within three weeks, Lincoln stated that he would prefer to eat Kinman's chair, antlers and all, than appoint a certain office-seeker.
The following April, Kinman marched in President Lincoln's funeral cortege in Washington. Kinman was allegedly in Ford's Theater the night of the assassination and witnessed the murder. He escorted Lincoln's body on its way to burial. On April 26, 1865, the New York Times described Kinman in the funeral cortege in New York City: "Much attention was attracted to Mr. Kinman, who walked in a full hunting suit of buckskin and fur, rifle on shoulder. Mr. Kinman, it will be remembered, presented to Mr. Lincoln some time ago a chair made of California elk-horn, and continuing his acquaintance with him, it is said, enjoyed quite a long conversation with him the very day before the murder."
During his stays on the East Coast, many cartes de visite
photographs of Kinman and his chairs were taken by Mathew Brady
. Kinman claimed to have paid Brady $2,100 in one three month period for photos at 8 cents apiece, which calculates to an unlikely amount of over 26,000 photographs.
Kinman sold these photographs, among other places, in the U.S. Capitol
. He also toured the country, performing in his buckskins as a frontier story teller and fiddle player.
Kinman's tour de force in presidential chairs was presented to President Andrew Johnson
on September 8, 1865.
Johnson kept the chair in his White House
library, the Yellow Oval Room. On September 18, 1876, Kinman presented an elkhorn chair to Governor Rutherford Hayes of Ohio, who was soon to become the President of the United States. The chair is now displayed in the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
in Fremont, Ohio
.
In his later years, Kinman lived in Table Bluff, California
with his family, where he owned a hotel and bar. In 1886, Kinman was preparing to send chairs to President Grover Cleveland
and former presidential candidate General Winfield Scott Hancock
. He died in 1888 after accidentally shooting himself in the leg. He was interred at Table Bluff Cemetery in Loleta, California
, in his buckskin
clothing.
Mrs. R.F. Herricks bought Kinman's traveling museum collection of 186 items, including at least two of his famous chairs, and displayed them in San Francisco in 1893. She then took the collection to Chicago to display them at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
, where she reportedly sold the individual items. The Clarke Historical Museum
in Eureka displays a suit of his buckskins, complete with beaded moccasin
s, as well as a wooden chest he owned. The Ferndale Museum displays several Kinman items, including another of his buckskin suits.
Humboldt County, California
Humboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located on the far North Coast 200 miles north of San Francisco. According to 2010 Census Data, the county’s population was 134,623...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt
Fort Humboldt State Historic Park
Fort Humboldt State Historic Park is a California state park located in the southern portion of Eureka, just off U.S. Route 101. The North Coast regional headquarters of the California State Parks is located onsite.-Early years, 1853–1860:...
, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over 6 ft (1.83 m) tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indians. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk. He was also a hotel keeper, barkeeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.
Known for his publicity seeking, Kinman appeared as a stereotypical mountain man
Mountain man
Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through the 1880s where they were instrumental in opening up the various Emigrant Trails allowing Americans in the east to settle the new territories of the far west by organized wagon trains...
dressed in buckskins on the U.S. east coast and selling cartes de visites of himself and his famous chairs. The chairs were made from elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
horns and grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
skins and given to U.S. Presidents. Presidents so honored include James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
, and Rutherford Hayes. He may have had a special relationship with President Lincoln, appearing in at least two of Lincoln's funeral corteges, and claiming to have witnessed Lincoln's assassination.
His autobiography, dictated to a scribe in 1876, was first published in 2010 and is noted for putting "the entertainment value of a story ahead of the strict facts." His descriptions of events change with his retelling of them. Contemporary journalists and modern writers were clearly aware of the stories contained in the autobiography, "but each chooses which version to accept."
Early life
Seth Kinman's father, James Kinman, ran a ferry across the West Branch Susquehanna RiverWest Branch Susquehanna River
The West Branch Susquehanna River is one of the two principal branches, along with the North Branch, of the Susquehanna River in the northeastern United States. The North Branch, which rises in upstate New York, is generally regarded as the extension of the main branch, with the shorter West Branch...
in central Pennsylvania, in an area then called Uniontown, now called Allenwood in Gregg Township, Union County
Gregg Township, Union County, Pennsylvania
Gregg Township is a township in Union County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,687 at the 2000 census, .-History:Gregg Township, named for U.S...
.
James also was a millwright and an inn-keeper, whose forbears were Quakers
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...
.
Seth was born in Uniontown in 1815. In 1830 his father took the family and migrated to Tazewell County, Illinois
Tazewell County, Illinois
Tazewell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 135,394, which is an increase of 5.4% from 128,485 in 2000. Its county seat and largest city is Pekin. The majority of the population live in the suburbs and bedroom communities...
.
In his autobiography, Seth states that his father fought in the Blackhawk War. He later claimed that his father and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
fought together in the war and were friends afterward. At about the same time the Kinmans acquired a rifle, known as "Old Cotton Bale," that Seth kept throughout his life. The rifle had a 4 ft (1.2 m) long barrel and "is supposed to have killed Gen'l Peckenham
Edward Pakenham
Sir Edward Michael Pakenham GCB , styled The Honourable from his birth until 1813, was an Irish British Army Officer and Politician. He was the brother-in law of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he served in the Peninsular War...
" at the Battle of New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
in 1815. With some skepticism, Anspach relates a long history of the rifle, gleaned from a 1864 local newspaper story on Kinman, of a renegade Kentucky sniper shooting the British general while carrying on a conversation with American General Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
.
Seth spent ten years working in his father's mill in Illinois, sawing lumber and grinding grain. After his father's death in 1839 he sold the mill and tried farming. He married Anna Maria Sharpless in 1840. Anna Maria and two of their sons died during the winter of 1852-53, while Seth was in California.
By 1848 Kinman was operating the Eagle Hotel in Pekin, Illinois
Pekin, Illinois
Pekin is a the county seat of Tazewell County in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located on the Illinois River, Pekin is also the largest city of Tazewell County, and a key part of the Peoria metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, its population is 34,094. A small portion of the city limits extends...
, on the Illinois River
Illinois River
The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...
. The hotel was known less for its comforts than for Kinman's rendition of the fiddle tune Arkansas Traveler
The Arkansas Traveler (song)
"The Arkansas Traveler" was the state song of Arkansas from 1949 to 1963; it has been the state historical song since 1987. The music was composed in the 19th century by Colonel Sanford C...
.
Life in California
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
and worked as a gold miner in Pierson B. Reading
Pierson B. Reading
Pierson Barton Reading was a California pioneer.-Life:Pierson B. Reading, was born in New Jersey. He came across country to California with Samuel J. Hensley as a member of the Chiles-Walker party in 1843...
's party on the Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
near present day Douglas City
Douglas City, California
Douglas City is a census-designated place in Trinity County, California. Douglas City sits at an elevation of . The ZIP Code is 96024. The community is inside area code 530...
. He then returned to Illinois for two years. In 1852 he returned to California and explored the Humboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, United States entirely within Humboldt County. The regional center and county seat of Eureka and the college town of Arcata adjoin the bay, which is the second largest enclosed...
area, near present day Eureka, California
Eureka, California
Eureka is the principal city and the county seat of Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 27,191 at the 2010 census, up from 26,128 at the 2000 census....
. Humboldt Bay had been recently rediscovered by gold miners seeking a faster and cheaper route to transport supplies. An early settlement in the area was also named Uniontown, but is now known as Arcata
Arcata, California
-Demographics:-2010 Census data:The 2010 United States Census reported that Arcata had a population of 17,231. The population density was 1,567.4 people per square mile...
. During this period, miners and their suppliers were often flush with gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, but had little to spend it on.
On Christmas, 1852 Kinman was hired to perform on fiddle at the then exorbitant amount of $50, despite his lack of musical training. As described by a fellow '49er:
Ferndale, California
Ferndale is a city in Humboldt County, California, United States. Known for its well-preserved Victorian buildings, the city's population was 1,371 at the 2010 census, down from 1,382 at the 2000 census...
in the cabin of Stephen Shaw
Stephen William Shaw
Stephen William Shaw was a California '49er and portrait painter who helped discover and name Humboldt Bay and introduced viticulture to Sonoma County by 1864.-Early life:...
. His wife and two of their children died that winter, and he may have gone back to Illinois to bring back his mother and three remaining children by 1854.
In 1853 he started working as a hunter, feeding U.S. troops in Fort Humboldt. While at Fort Humboldt he met future president Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
, and future General George Crook
George Crook
George R. Crook was a career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.-Early life:...
.
Sources disagree on whether he brought his family to California from Illinois in 1852 or 1854. According to tradition, about this time, he brought the first herd of cattle to Humboldt County. Kinman lived in several places in the county, including houses near Fern Cottage and a dairy farm on Bear River Ridge. He bought 80 acre (323,748.8 m²) of farm or ranch land 1 mi (1.6 km) east of the future Table Bluff Light
Table Bluff Light
Table Bluff Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,United States, on southern Humboldt Bay, near Eureka, California. The Table Bluff Lighthouse was one of the first to be automated. The light house tower portion is now located at the Woodley Island Marina within the City of Eureka.-History:Table...
house in October 1858, and about 10 mi (16.1 km) south of Fort Humboldt. This was the first purchase of land in the Humboldt Land District, which was established by an Act of Congress in March, 1858. He later built a hotel and bar on the site.
Kinman made his name first as a hunter, especially as a hunter of grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
s. California was noted for its large population of grizzlies. Seth's son Calvin claimed that they once saw 40 grizzlies at one time. But by 1868, the last grizzly in Humboldt County had been killed. While Kinman was on his way to deliver one of the presidential chairs, he met Methodist bishop and writer Oscar Penn Fitzgerald
Oscar Penn Fitzgerald
Oscar Penn Fitzgerald was a Methodist clergyman, journalist and educator. He served as California Superintendent of Public Instruction and was elected a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1890....
on a California steamboat. Fitzgerald recorded his impressions in the sketch The Ethics of Grizzly Hunting.
He presented Kinman as a drunkard who cruelly abused Indians and grizzly bears.
Kinman's brutality was also noted by James R. Duff, a fellow '49er, who described him as "an avowed enemy of the red man, ... (who) shot an Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
on sight." Kinman himself claimed to be an official Indian agent
Indian agent
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.-Indian agents:*Leander Clark was agent for the Sac and Fox in Iowa beginning in 1866....
, and was involved with the Wiyot Tribe
Wiyot people
The Wiyot people are a native people of the Humboldt Bay, California and nearby environs.-History:The Wiyot and Yurok are the farthest southwest people whose language has Algic roots; Wiyot and Yurok are distantly related to the Algonquian languages...
who moved to a rancheria or reservation on Table Bluff, near Kinman's property. Their move followed the February 26, 1860 Wiyot Massacre
1860 Wiyot Massacre
The Wiyot Massacre refers to the incidents on February 26, 1860, at Tuluwat on what is now known as Indian Island, near Eureka in Humboldt County, California.-Event:...
on Indian Island
Indian Island (Humboldt Bay)
Indian Island or Duluwat Island is located on Humboldt Bay within the City of Eureka, California. The village of Tolowot or Tuluwat on Duluwat Island was the site of the spiritual if not political center of the Wiyot people and is where the main thrust of the 1860 Wiyot Massacre by European...
, and two other sites, when over one hundred Wiyot were murdered in their sleep. Kinman was apparently not one of the murderers, but in the book he dictated, "The Seth Kinman Story," he gives hearsay accounts of the massacre from both Wiyots and white settlers. In May 1860 he was elected to represent Bear River at a county-wide meeting ostensibly called to discuss ways to protect white settlers from the Indians.
During a gale on the night of January 5–6, 1860, Kinman was alerted by distress signals from the Northerner which had been breached by a submerged rock. Kinman tethered himself to the shore and waded into the surf to save many passengers, although 38 people perished. He was hailed as a hero and awarded a Bible and free life-time passage on the line.
Together with J. Kenyon, Kinman toured gold mining camps and the San Francisco Bay area as entertainers, starting in 1861. Later he opened a traveling “museums of curiosities” in Eureka, San Francisco, Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Presidential chairs
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, a fellow Pennsylvanian, to the presidency, Kinman built his first elkhorn chair and brought it to Washington.
With some help from Peter Donahue and O.M. Wozencraft, on May 26, 1857, after an introduction from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs James W. Denver
James W. Denver
James William Denver was an American politician, soldier, lawyer, and esteemed actor. He served in the California state government, as an officer in the United States Army in two wars, and as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from California, as well as playing lead...
, Kinman presented the chair to Buchanan. The President was so pleased by the present that he bought Kinman a rifle in return.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 26, 1864 was recorded by artist Alfred Waud
Alfred Waud
Alfred Rudolph Waud was an American artist and illustrator, born in London, England. He is most notable for the sketches he made as an artist correspondent during the American Civil War.-Early career:...
, the only known picture of Lincoln's accepting a gift.
The drawing shows Lincoln's examining Kinman's rifle, which he called "Ol' Cottonblossum." Kinman also presented a fiddle
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
made from the skull and a rib of his favorite mule and played the instrument.
Within three weeks, Lincoln stated that he would prefer to eat Kinman's chair, antlers and all, than appoint a certain office-seeker.
The following April, Kinman marched in President Lincoln's funeral cortege in Washington. Kinman was allegedly in Ford's Theater the night of the assassination and witnessed the murder. He escorted Lincoln's body on its way to burial. On April 26, 1865, the New York Times described Kinman in the funeral cortege in New York City: "Much attention was attracted to Mr. Kinman, who walked in a full hunting suit of buckskin and fur, rifle on shoulder. Mr. Kinman, it will be remembered, presented to Mr. Lincoln some time ago a chair made of California elk-horn, and continuing his acquaintance with him, it is said, enjoyed quite a long conversation with him the very day before the murder."
During his stays on the East Coast, many cartes de visite
Carte de visite
The carte de visite was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris, France by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero...
photographs of Kinman and his chairs were taken by Mathew Brady
Mathew Brady
Mathew B. Brady was one of the most celebrated 19th century American photographers, best known for his portraits of celebrities and his documentation of the American Civil War...
. Kinman claimed to have paid Brady $2,100 in one three month period for photos at 8 cents apiece, which calculates to an unlikely amount of over 26,000 photographs.
Kinman sold these photographs, among other places, in the U.S. Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
. He also toured the country, performing in his buckskins as a frontier story teller and fiddle player.
Kinman's tour de force in presidential chairs was presented to President Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
on September 8, 1865.
Johnson kept the chair in his White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
library, the Yellow Oval Room. On September 18, 1876, Kinman presented an elkhorn chair to Governor Rutherford Hayes of Ohio, who was soon to become the President of the United States. The chair is now displayed in the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center is a complex comprising several buildings related to the life and presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. Located in Fremont, Ohio, the center comprises the Rutherford B. Hayes Museum and Library and Spiegel Grove, an estate encompassing the Hayes home,...
in Fremont, Ohio
Fremont, Ohio
Fremont Public Schools enroll 4,450 students in public primary and secondary schools. The district administers 9 public schools including seven elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school, Fremont Ross. In addition, the city is home to one private catholic high school, Saint Joseph...
.
Legacy
In 1876, Kinman dictated his memoirs, but they were not published until 2010. He also kept an extensive scrapbook of newspaper articles. About 1930, a one-time neighbor of Kinman, George Richmond, copied the memoirs and the scrapbook by hand. The original manuscript and scrapbook were then sent to a potential publisher or agent, and lost after his death. The published version is from Richmond's copy. Richmond also recalled many of Kinman's stories and collected others from Kinman's family and friends, then retold these stories in a book now published as I'm a Gonna Tell Ya a Yarn.In his later years, Kinman lived in Table Bluff, California
Table Bluff, California
Table Bluff is a semi-flat terrace in Humboldt County, California, that terminates above the ocean in a dramatic, high cliff with spectacular views of the Eel River delta, the South Spit of Humboldt Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. It separates Humboldt Bay to the north from the Eel River to the south...
with his family, where he owned a hotel and bar. In 1886, Kinman was preparing to send chairs to President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
and former presidential candidate General Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock was a career U.S. Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War...
. He died in 1888 after accidentally shooting himself in the leg. He was interred at Table Bluff Cemetery in Loleta, California
Loleta, California
Loleta is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California. It is located south of Fields Landing, at an elevation of 46 feet . The population was 783 at the 2010 census....
, in his buckskin
Buckskin
Buckskin may refer to:*Buckskin , leather made of buck hide*Buckskins, an outfit of buckskin leather*Buckskin , a color of horses similar to buckskin leather...
clothing.
Mrs. R.F. Herricks bought Kinman's traveling museum collection of 186 items, including at least two of his famous chairs, and displayed them in San Francisco in 1893. She then took the collection to Chicago to display them at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
, where she reportedly sold the individual items. The Clarke Historical Museum
Clarke Historical Museum
The Clarke Historical Museum in Eureka, California contains the area's premier collection of far California North Coast regional and cultural history, with significant focus on the 19th Century Victorian era...
in Eureka displays a suit of his buckskins, complete with beaded moccasin
Moccasin
A Moccasin is a form of shoe worn by Native Americans, as well as by hunters, traders, and settlers in the frontier regions of North America.Moccasin may also refer to:* Moccasin , an American Thoroughbred racehorse-Places:...
s, as well as a wooden chest he owned. The Ferndale Museum displays several Kinman items, including another of his buckskin suits.
Further reading
- Marshall R. Auspach, The Lost History of Seth Kinman, 1947
- The Seth Kinman Story, 1876, handwritten manuscript dictated by Kinman, with additions and comments by H. Niebur, pp. 319, available in the Andrew Genzoli Collection, Humboldt State UniversityHumboldt State UniversityHumboldt State University is the northernmost campus of the California State University system, located in Arcata within Humboldt County, California, USA. The main campus, nestled at the edge of a coast redwood forest, is situated on Preston hill overlooking Arcata and with commanding views of...
Library (Catalog entry)- available as "Seth Kinman's Manuscript and Scrapbook," transcribed by Richard H. Roberts, published by Ferndale MuseumFerndale MuseumThe Ferndale Museum, located in Ferndale, California, houses and exhibits artifacts, documents and papers from settlement during the California Gold Rush to the present including an active Bosch-Omori seismograph. The area of collection covers the lower Eel River Valley as far south as the...
, 2010.
- available as "Seth Kinman's Manuscript and Scrapbook," transcribed by Richard H. Roberts, published by Ferndale Museum
External links
- Local resident donates memorabilia to Ferndale Museum KIEM-TV News, 7-29-2010
- Patent 46365, Issue date: February 1865, Seth Kinman IMPROVEMENT IN ARM-SUPPORTERS FOR RIFLEMEN
- Seth Kinman Day, July 29, 2010 You Tube video