Cleaning Up Frederick Joseph Kinsman's Biographical Record

The photo above is the second of two provided by a visitor of Kinsman from the St Paul's School website. It shows him as a master at St Paul's, which he was up to 1896, when he was ordained an Episcopal priest. Born in 1868, he would have been in his mid-20s at the time of the photo.

A difficulty in tracking down biographical information on Frederick Joseph Kinsman is that both his father and grandfather were named Frederick Kinsman as well. Due to this problem, I erred in an earlier post here in saying that Frederick Joseph was the son of a Cleveland judge. Judge Frederick W Kinsman (1807-1884) was actually Frederick Joseph's grandfather, a prominent citizen of Warren, OH. In 1832, his father-in-law built him a house on "Millionaire's Row" in Warren as a wedding gift. The house is preserved as a historical exhibit. Kinsman's first wife died young, and their children all died in infancy. His second wife was Cornelia Pease Kinsman.

Their children were John Kinsman, Thomas Kinsman, Charles Pease Kinsman, Henry Perkins Kinsman, and Frederick W Kinsman Jr, born in 1841. Frederick Jr presumably grew up in the now-preserved Kinsman house at 303 Mahoning Avenue, Warren, OH, but ownership appears to have passed to another of Frederick Jr's siblings, and the 1880 census says that Frederick Jr's family, which consisted of his wife, Mary Marvin Kinsman, his daughter Cornelia, and his son Frederick Joseph, lived on Washington Ave in Mahoning. Frederick Jr's occupation in that census was listed as "manufacturer".

We know little else of Frederick Jr. At the time of his death, he was 81 years old, and based on the brief reference in Reveries of a Hermit, by the tmie of his death, he was paralyzed, but we know nothing else of his condition or its cause. I found this obituary in the Brooklyn Tablet from January 1922:

I assume this obituary was written and placed by Frederick Joseph's sister, Cornelia, who seems to have been his companion throughout much of his life. She also probably wrote and placed this 1934 obituary for his mother:

Of note is that she died in the Hospice Marcotte in Lewiston, ME which is an elder care facility to which Frederick Joseph and Cornelia moved in 1936. In addition, it mentions that Mrs Kinsman lived in the bishop's residence while Frederick Joseph was Bishop of Delaware. We know that his sister Cornelia also lived there during that period and may have served as his hostess. A visitor has determined from census records that Mrs Kinsman also lived with her son when he was rector of St. Martin's Church, New Bedford, MA, which suggests this living arrangement must have continued throughout much of Kinsman's life.

Whether his father, Frederick Jr, lived with his wife, son, and daughter during this period is unclear, and it's also completely unknown when, and for what reason, he became paralyzed. It's entirely possible that his condition required him to be hospitalized separately from the family.

Frederick Joseph's life is fascinating in some measure due to what we don't know. I note that the experience of blogging on figures like Cardinal Law has in fact caused knowledgeable parties to come forward. I certainly hope this may be the case here.