Life in a Small Town Fishbowl - The Tales of Beniah Kinnamon

Researching the Kinnamon family line a certain member of the family kept cropping up with interesting newspaper articles. Beniah Kinnamon seems to have led a very eventful life.

We find Beniah as baker, bailiff, and hotel owner. Then throw in a lightning strike, fire and goods lost to a shipwreck and you have one fascinating ancestor.

Denton Journal - June 14, 1890

Dangerous Thunder-Bolts

Property and Stock Destroyed In this County - Damages in Queen Anne.

The severest thunder-storm of the year visited the Peninsula on Friday evening of last week. For a half-hour or more the gust was furious, and electric shafts pierced the air in all directions. The storm in Caroline county did considerable damage. In Tuckahoe Neck the farmhouse of Beniah Kinnamon was struck by lightning, the chimney demolished, the weather-boarding stripped off, and the gable end knocked out. Mrs. Solloway, wife of the tenant, had just left her sewing machine. An unfinished garment on it was torn to shreds. Mr. Solloway was smoking at the time, and the pipe was knocked from his mouth. Sawyer Murphy, of Towns' mill, near Denton, and his wife were both knocked down but were not seriously hurt.

Denton Journal - June 27, 1891

Another Damage Suit Docked.

Mr. Beniah Kinnamon brought at the June term of the Circuit court a suit for damages against Captain Caleb C. Wheeler, of the Wheeler Transportation Line, and Captain John Eaton. The amount of damages has not yet been specified. Captain Wheeler was owner and Captain Eaton was master of the schooner C.C. Wheeler, which was chartered by Mr. Kinnamon to deliver a cargo of coal to C. T. Redden & Co. When near the mouth of the Choptank river the Wheeler was sunk in collision with the Royal Oak, the cargo being a total loss to the owner and consignees. Mr. Kinnamon paid for the lost coal, and he now proposes that the owners of the vessel reimburse him for so doing.

Denton Journal - April 30, 1898

B. Kinnamon, Confectionery, Cigars, Tobacco

Denton Journal - March 18, 1899

The commissioners of Denton on Monday evening last granted to Mr. Beniah Kinnamon a permit to build a dwelling near the site of his building recently destroyed by fire. Mr. Kinnamon proposes to place his new house some distance back from the street, on a line with the Denton National Bank building. It will be covered with fire-proof material of some kind, as will also all other buildings to be erected in the district recently swept by fire.

Denton Journal - September 9, 1899

Beniah Kinnamon - Bailiff of Denton

Denton Journal - January 28, 1905

Beniah Kinnamon - Hotel Owner

Nothing like small town newspapers to give you the intimate details of family life. Looking forward to writing Beniah's story!