History of Des Moines County, Iowa - 1915 - K

Des Moines County >> 1915 Index

History of Des Moines County, Iowa...
by Augustine M. Antrobus. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915. 2v.

K


Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM W. KINNEAR

Captain William W. Kinnear, Burlington manager for the Blair or White Collar and Streckfus steamboat lines, has the distinction of having been at one time the youngest captain on the Mississippi river. He was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1836, a son of David and Nancy (De Woodie) Kinnear. The father came to Iowa in the early '40s and took up government land seventeen miles west of Dubuque, and in 1845 he brought his family to this state. From Galena, Illinois, the trip was made by wagons westward to the farm. David Kinnear performed the arduous task of breaking the sod and developing a new farm but later sold that property and removed to Geneva Lake, Minnesota, where he continued to make his home until his death, as did his wife. The remains of both were there interred.

Captain Kinnear acquired a public-school education and worked out one summer for a farmer by the name of Glue, who paid him with calves. This was his initial step in the cattle business and with oxen he broke prairie for settlers. He is acquainted with almost every phase of pioneer life and the attendant labors which have led to the development of this section of the country. He obtained the United States contract for carrying the mail from Dubuque to Garnaville and acted in that capacity for a year, when he sold his contract. He next went to work for James McGregor, who founded and owned the town of McGregor. He was sent by his employer to Black River Falls on an important mission to buy land from Mr. McLaughlin which Mr. McGregor wanted, but which the owner would not sell to him. Mr. Kinnear, however, was successful in making the purchase. On the return trip he met a man on the stage who wanted to sell a ferry boat and Captain Kinnear purchased it for seventeen hundred and fifty dollars. At that time the boat was grounded in the river, but Capt. Kinnear succeeded in freeing it and ran the boat from Dubuque up the river, carrying loads of wood and later loads of hogs. He then established a woodyard at Dubuque and later sold the boat to a company in Prairie du Chien. About that time he learned the carpenter's trade, which he afterward followed for several years. Subsequently he worked in a boat yard during the period of the Civil war and afterward became assistant superintendent of the White Collar Line. He became captain of the Chippewa Falls at the age of twenty-eight years and was the youngest captain on the river. At different times he has been captain of various well known boats, including the Harry Johnson, Andy Johnson, Lady Lee, Addie Johnson and many others, representing various boat lines, sailing from Keokuk, St. Louis and other river towns. He became assistant superintendent at St. Louis of the White Collar Line in 1875 and in 1879 resigned and came to Burlington to take the general agency for the line in this city. He also had charge of coalyards and he engaged in the coal, wood and lime business on his own account for some years. In 1893 he again entered into active connection with the Blair Line, or the White Collar Line, as business manager at this point. There is no one in Burlington more familiar with navigation interests on the Mississippi or who has longer been connected therewith. Captain Kinnear knows every phase of river transportation and can relate many interesting incidents concerning the days when the Mississippi was not only the highroad for freight traffic but also for passenger travel.

In 1858 Captain Kinnear was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. McLaury, of McGregor, Iowa, who died in 1911, leaving a daughter, Mary A., who is now acting as housekeeper for her father. Captain Kinnear belongs to the Masonic fraternity and attends the Congregational church. He exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the republican party and has ever been interested in its success, believing that its principles contain the best elements of good government. Few men of his years remain so active a factor in the world's work as does Captain Kinnear, who has now passed the seventy-eighth milestone on life's journey. Practically his entire life has been passed in the Mississippi valley and there are few phases of its development or chapters in its history with which he is not familiar.