Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/311

  Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1848 he was elected to the same office by the General Assembly for a term of six years. In 1853 he gave a dissenting opinion in a case before the Supreme Court involving the right of counties to issue bonds to aid in building railroads. Judge Kinney held that under the Constitution counties had no right to permit a majority of the voters to impose a tax upon the people to build railroads. A few years later Judge Samuel F. Miller of the United States Supreme Court gave a similar dissenting opinion. He referred to the opinion of Judge Kinney as a correct rendition of the law on the subject before the Iowa Supreme Court. Had these opinions prevailed hundreds of thousands of dollars would have been saved to the people of several Iowa counties for which no value was ever received. In August, 1853, Judge Kinney was appointed by President Pierce Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah. Accepting the position he made the journey of 1,500 miles with his family in an emigrant wagon over the plains then infested with hostile Indians. In 1860 he was reappointed by President Buchanan and in 1863 was removed by the Republican administration. Returning to Nebraska, he was chosen to Congress and gave his support to the war measures of that body. In 1867 he was a member of a commission to report upon the condition of the Sioux Indians. He was appointed by President Arthur agent for the Yankton Sioux Indians of Dakota, serving until 1889, when he removed to California where he died August 16, 1902. WILLIAM H. KINSMAN was a native of Nova Scotia where he was born in 1832. He was a sailor in early life and later entered the Columbia, New York, Academy. After attending law school in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1858 he went to Council Bluffs where he entered the law office of Clinton & Baldwin. He was admitted to the bar of Pottawattamie County and was employed on one of the city papers. When the Civil War began he assisted in raising the first military company organized in that county and was chosen second lieutenant. The company was assigned to the Fourth Iowa Infantry and became Company B. Kinsman was soon promoted to captain of the company which he led in the Battle of Pea Ridge. In July, 1863, he was placed on the staff of General Dodge and in August was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-third Iowa Volunteers. In December he was promoted to colonel and commanded the regiment in the early battles of Grant's Vicksburg campaign. While gallantly leading a charge at the Battle of Black River Bridge he fell mortally wounded and died upon the field. SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD, fifth Governor of the State, was born in Hartford County, Maryland, December 20, 1813. He was educated in Washington, D. C., and employed in a drug store. In 1835 his father removed to Richland County, Ohio, where for several years the son assisted