Kinnehan, Lawrence (1845-1914)

KINNEHAN

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 14:09:35

Lawrence Kinnehan
May 3, 1845 - Mar 13, 1914

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.474)
L. KINNEHAN, City Treasurer of Council Bluffs, was born in Woodville, Province of Quebec, Canada, in 1845, son of James and Sarah A. (MILLER) KINNEHAN, natives of New York and New Hampshire, and of Irish and Puritan extraction. When the subject of this sketch was quite young, his parents moved to Wisconsin and became pioneers of Racine and Green Bay. The father was extensively engaged in the lumber business for a number of years. About 1860 he returned east and died in Canada. The mother also died in the east. Our subject was the fifth born of their nine sons and three daughters, all of whom are now living except one. He was reared in Wisconsin and educated in the public schools of that state. At the age of fourteen, he entered upon a four years apprenticeship to the tanner and currier's trade, in which business he was engaged some twelve or fourteen years, working in Chicago, Milwaukee and other points. In 1870 he came to Council Bluffs and here he engaged in the furniture business three years, after which he owned and operated a tannery about four years. But at the age of eighteen, he entered the service of the United States Government at Chicago, was teamster and afterward clerk in the quartermaster's department at Nashville, and was mustered out of service in May 1865. Next he crossed the plains with a wagon train and helped to build the Union Pacific Railway. While in the railroad employ, he had the misfortune to lose one of his limbs. In 1886 he was elected City Auditor and when his term of two years expired, he engaged in the boot and shoe business on the corner of Broad and Bryant Streets, which business he still conducts.

In March 1890, Mr. KINNEHAN was again elected to the office of Treasurer. Politically, he is an independent Republican, being one of the active workers in his party. He is a member of the I.O.O.F. No. 49, the A.O.U.W. No. 270, and the K. of L. No. 1668, being treasurer of the last named.

Mr. KINNEHAN was married in 1872 to Mary J. PALMER, a native of Salt Lake City, born in 1855. They have a family of four children: Nellie M., Eva, Della and Annie. They hold to the belief of the Swedenborgian Church or New Jerusalem Church and are among the most worthy citizens of Council Bluffs. Mr. KINNEHAN has aided in many of the enterprises of this city and is now an active businessman.