Adams, Jefferson


HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS SCENERY,
AND
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS.

Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia 1879
Page 110:

KIMBALL, H. M. - The present editor and manager of the Carlinville Democrat, was born at Plainfield, Massachusetts, February 12th, 1833. His father was the late Rev. David Kimball, who edited and published the �Christian Panoplist,� at Concord, New Hampshire. He removed with his family from Plainfield to Concord, when the subject of this sketch was two years of age. He remained in the latter place a number of years, then moved to Franklin, afterwards to Hanover, New Hampshire, where he resided until his removal to Rockford, Illinois, in 1863, where he remained until his death in 1875. He married Miss E. E. Carter, of Newburyport, Mass. She still resides at Rockford. Henry M. is the fifth in a family of seven children, three of whom are living. He at an early age entered a printing office and learned to �set� type. The first money he earned as a printer was on the �Herald of Freedom,� an Anti-Slavery paper, published by John French. He afterwards received an academic education in Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, and in 1851 he entered Dartmouth College, and graduated from that institution of learning in 1855.

In the fall of the same year he came to Illinois and taught school for six months in Byron, Ogle county. In May of 1856 he, in company with others, removed to Kansas for the purpose of aiding in making that a free state. He was employed on George Washington Brown�s �Herald of Freedom,� at Lawrence, until the office was pitched into the river, and the town sacked and burned by the border ruffians. He afterwards, in partnership with a friend, purchased a farm and left his partner in charge of it, while he came east and stopped for a short time at Alton. After Mr. Kimball�s return to Illinois his partner became sick, and he too left the farm, after which other parties jumped the claim and they lost it. His first venture in real estate in the west may be regarded as a flat failure.

In September of 1856 he came to Carlinville, and went to work on the �Free Democrat,� He soon after became a partner of W. C. Phillips in the publication, and in 1859 purchased Phillips� interest, and remained sole proprietor and editor until 1867, when Major A. W. Edwards was taken in as a partner. He withdrew in 1872, and from that time to the present Mr. Kimball has been both editor and manager.

The �Democrat� under his management has become one of the most influential journals in Central and Southern Illinois. (For a more elaborate history of the rise and progress of the �Democrat,� the reader is referred to the �History of the Press of Macoupin County� to be found elsewhere in this work.) In 1861 he was appointed postmaster of Carlinville by Abraham Lincoln, and in 1869 was re-appointed by U. S. Grant. He held the office for nearly ten years. In politics he has always been a republican. At an early age and while it was yet unpopular, he attached himself to the party of freedom and human rights. He aided with his pen to hasten the time when the foul blot and stain of slavery was wiped out of the land.

On the lst day of March, 1860, he was united in marriage with Miss Fanny M., daughter of Rev. E. J. Palmer, an elder brother of Ex-Governor Palmer. This marriage has been blessed with six children, three sons and three daughters; all but one, (which died in infancy,) are yet beneath the parental roof. Mr. Kimball in his manners is a quiet, unobtrusive gentleman. With his friends and acquaintances he is kind and social; as a citizen he is much respected, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of the entire community.
Index to Biographies
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