{{short description|American politician (1816–1902)}} {{Other people|John Kinney|John Kinney (disambiguation)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = John F. Kinney | image = John F. Kinney.jpg | image_size = | caption = | office = Justice of the [[Iowa Supreme Court|Supreme Court of Iowa]] | term_start = 1847 | term_end = 1854 | nominator = | appointer = [[Ansel Briggs]] | predecessor = | successor = | office1 = Delegate to the<br/>[[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br/>from [[Utah Territory]]'s [[Utah Territory's at-large congressional district|at-large]] district | term_start1 = March 4, 1863 | term_end1 = March 3, 1865 | predecessor1 = [[John Milton Bernhisel|John M. Bernhisel]] | successor1 = [[William H. Hooper]] | office2 = Chief Justice of the [[Utah Supreme Court|Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah]] | term_start2 = 1854 | term_end2 = 1857 | nominator2 = | appointer2 = [[Franklin Pierce]] | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | term_start3 = 1860 | term_end3 = 1863 | nominator3 = | appointer3 = [[James Buchanan]] | predecessor3 = | successor3 = | birth_name = John Fitch Kinney | birth_date = {{birth date|1816|4|2}} | birth_place = [[New Haven, New York|New Haven]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1902|8|16|1816|4|2}} | death_place = [[Salt Lake City]], [[Utah]], U.S. | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Hannah Hall|1838|1895}} * {{marriage|Lucy Jane Leonard|1899|1902}} }} | signature = Signature of John Fitch Kinney (1816–1902).png }} '''John Fitch Kinney''' (April 2, 1816 – August 16, 1902) was a prominent American [[Attorney at law (United States)|attorney]], judge, and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] politician. He served as Justice of the [[Iowa Supreme Court|Supreme Court of Iowa]], twice as [[List of Utah Supreme Court Chief Justices|Chief Justice of the Supreme Court]] of the [[Utah Territory|Territory of Utah]] and one [[term of office|term]] as the Territory of Utah's [[Delegate (United States Congress)|delegate]] in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] of the [[38th United States Congress|38th Congress]].
==Biography== He was born in [[New Haven, New York]], the fourth child and second son of Stephen Fitch Kinney (1789–1872) and Abby Brockway (1788–1824). Having completed public school and a more select school, he entered the Oswego Academy at age 16. After two years of higher learning there, he entered the [[law firm|law office]] of [[Orville Robinson]], with whom he studied law for two and half years. He then moved to [[Marysville, Ohio]], where he resumed his law studies. He was admitted to the [[bar association|bar]] in 1837 and began the [[practice of law]] in Marysville.<ref name=Whitney>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofutahcom04whitrich/page/668/mode/1up |first=Orson F. |last=Whitney |title=History of Utah |volume=IV—Biographical |date=October 1904 |location=Salt Lake City |publisher=[[George Q. Cannon & Sons]] |pages=668–671 |access-date=2022-05-02 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
On December 29, 1838, Kinney and Hannah Hall (1816–1895) were married in [[Mount Vernon, Ohio]]. He lived there and practiced successfully until the summer of 1844, when he moved to [[Lee County, Iowa]]. He was twice elected secretary of the Territorial Legislative Council, in 1845 and 1846, and was [[prosecutor|prosecuting attorney]] for Lee County in 1846 and 1847. In June 1847, he was made president of the [[Democratic National Convention|Democratic Convention]], and before leaving [[Iowa City, Iowa|Iowa City]], which was then the [[List of capitals in the United States|capital]] of the new state, he was appointed, by [[Governor]] [[Ansel Briggs|Briggs]], as Justice of the [[Iowa Supreme Court|Supreme Court of Iowa]], to fill a vacancy. Kinney served in the office under the Governor's appointment for nearly two years. He was then elected Judge of the Supreme Court for six years, by the joint assembly of the [[Iowa General Assembly|Legislature]]. In January 1854, he resigned in order to remove to Utah Territory.<ref name=Whitney/>
[[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin Pierce|Pierce]] had appointed Kinney as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the [[Utah Territory|Territory of Utah]], and he served in that position from January 1854 until 1857, just before the [[Utah War]]. He then removed to [[Nebraska City, Nebraska]], where he resumed his law practice. He was re-appointed Chief Justice of the Territory of Utah by President [[James Buchanan|Buchanan]] and served from June 26, 1860, until March 1863.<ref name=bioguide.congress.gov>{{cite web |title=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |work=Bioguide.Congress.gov |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000225 |access-date=2008-04-07}}</ref> He was directly involved in the events leading up to the [[Morrisite War]] of 1862, and allowed a condemnation of Territorial Governor [[Stephen Selwyn Harding|Stephen S. Harding]] to be read into the public record after Harding issued a blanket [[pardon]] for all [[Church of the Firstborn (Morrisite)|Morrisites]] convicted in connection with the war.
Kinney was elected as the Territory of Utah's Democratic [[Delegate (United States Congress)|Delegate]] to the [[38th United States Congress|38th Congress]] and served from March 4, 1863, until March 3, 1865. He was not a [[candidate#Candidates in elections|candidate]] for re-nomination in 1864. He returned to Nebraska City, and resumed his law practice. In February 1867, President [[Andrew Johnson|Johnson]] appointed Kinney a Special Indian [[Commissioner]] to visit the [[Sioux]]. He was appointed by President [[Chester A. Arthur|Arthur]] as agent of the Yankton Sioux in [[South Dakota]], and served from December 11, 1884, until January 1, 1889, when he resigned, in order to escape the rigors of the northern climate, and again resumed the practice of law in Nebraska City.
In 1890, Kinney removed to [[San Diego]], California. His wife Hannah died there on May 1, 1895. He was Chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in 1896, when [[San Diego County, California|San Diego County]] was carried for [[William Jennings Bryan]] in the [[election|Presidential election]], and at the close of his official term, in 1898, received from the County Convention a vote of thanks and an expression of confidence for the able and satisfactory manner in which he had discharged his duties. Kinney was again married on May 9, 1899, to Lucy Jane Leonard (1826–1911), widow of Moses Thurston (1817–1873), a [[Mormon]] pioneer and old friend from Utah. Though they were married in San Diego, the Kinneys made their home in [[Salt Lake City]].
John Fitch Kinney died at age 86 in Salt Lake City.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100910864/hon-john-f-kinney-dead-at-salt-lake/ |title=Hon. John F. Kinney Dead At Salt Lake – Prominent Jurist And Legislator Of Several States – Delegate in Congress and Justice of State Supreme Bench—Married Widow of Moses Thurston at San Diego Two Years Ago |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |location=Salt Lake City (Utah) |page=2 |date=August 17, 1902 |access-date=2022-05-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> His remains were then returned to San Diego, where he is interred in [[Mount Hope Cemetery (San Diego)|Mount Hope Cemetery]], alongside his first wife.
==See also== *[[Utah's congressional delegations#U.S. House of Representatives|United States congressional delegates from the Territory of Utah]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Biographical Directory of Congress|K000225|name=KINNEY, John Fitch|inline=1}} at the [[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]] *[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/kinney.html John F. Kinney] at the [[The Political Graveyard|Political Graveyard]] *{{Find a Grave|10789087}} *{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Kinney, John Fitch|year=1892 |short=x |notaref=x}} *[http://www.iowacourts.gov/wfdata/frame1206-1434/pressrel4.asp John F. Kinney] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924035917/http://www.iowacourts.gov/wfdata/frame1206-1434/pressrel4.asp |date=September 24, 2015 }} at Iowa Judicial Branch Past Iowa Supreme Court Justices
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{succession box | title=[[Utah's congressional delegations#U.S. House of Representatives|Delegate to the United States Congress from the Territory of Utah]] | before=[[John Milton Bernhisel]] | after=[[William Henry Hooper]] | years=March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1865}} {{s-end}} {{UtahUSRepresentatives}}
{{Bioguide}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinney, John F.}} [[Category:1816 births]] [[Category:1902 deaths]] [[Category:Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from Utah Territory]] [[Category:Justices of the Iowa Supreme Court]] [[Category:Members of the Iowa Territorial Legislature]] [[Category:People from Lee County, Iowa]] [[Category:People from Oswego County, New York]] [[Category:People from Marysville, Ohio]] [[Category:People of Utah in the American Civil War]] [[Category:People of the Utah War]] [[Category:Utah Democrats]] [[Category:19th-century Iowa state court judges]] [[Category:Burials at Mount Hope Cemetery (San Diego)]] [[Category:People from Nebraska City, Nebraska]] [[Category:Chief justices of the Utah Territory Supreme Court]] [[Category:District attorneys in Iowa]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:United States federal judges appointed by Franklin Pierce]]