George L. Kinnard

From Black Hawk Slept Here

Kinnard's letter as it appeared in the St. Joseph Beacon

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress describes George L. Kinnard as follows:

KINNARD, George L., (1803 - 1836)

KINNARD, George L., a Representative from Indiana; born in Pennsylvania in 1803; moved with his widowed mother to Tennessee and completed preparatory studies; moved to Indianapolis, Ind., in 1823; studied law; was admitted to the bar and practiced in Marion County, Ind.; assessor for Marion County in 1826 and 1827; member of the State house of representatives 1827-1830; county surveyor 1831-1835; State auditor for several years; colonel of the State militia; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses and served from March 4, 1833, until his death from injuries received in an explosion on the steamer Flora on the Ohio River November 26, 1836; interment probably in Presbyterian Burying Ground (now Washington Park), Cincinnati, Ohio.

Not mentioned here is role in the state militia during the Black Hawk war. He was involved in an incident at South Bend. The militia contingent from Indianapolis, which included a number of politicians, got as far as present-day Joliet, then decided to return home by way of South Bend. The editor of the local paper poked fun at them for taking this route, apparently suggesting it was done for political purposes. The militia members took exception.

The July 4, 1832 issue of the St. Joseph Beacon (South Bend, Indiana) contained a letter from George L. Kinnard, which read as follows:

To the Editor of the Beacon:

Sir:--From the verbal applications which have been made to you, you are aware that certain remarks in your paper of yesterday, are considered highly offensive to the detachment of Indiana volunteers now encamped near this place. This note is addressed to you, to avoid some other more unpleasant mode of allaying the offended feelings of the troops, and to ascertain in their behalf, whether you are prepared to avow in your next paper the impropriety of those remarks, and to have you say that your allusions to mercenary motives and cowardice as having governed their movements are wholly groundless and unmerited. I regret sincerely that circumstances render it necessary for me to become the medium of expressing the views fo the troops in so unpleasant a matter; and although this is not an official act, yet I entertain the hope that an amicable result will be obtained.

Respectfully,
G.L. KINNARD,
Adj't 40th Reg. I.M.