A Lonely Grave Stone

 Of interest to the Dakota War Dialog might be this post. In the sandhills of southeast North Dakota a number of small cemeteries can be found in a rather small area. I claim relatives in all of them, something which prompts us to visit each spring when the Meadowlarks are singing. In one of them, a solitary tombstone stands at the western edge of an old Lutheran church cemetery where the church building has been moved elsewhere.

The stone at the grave identifies the occupant as James M. Kinney, a wagoner attached to Co. B, 10 Minn. Inf. While there is no reason to doubt the facts, they were borne out in a book titled

MINNESOTA IN THE CIVIL & INDIAN WARS which includes rosters of all the men on the Sibley Expedition of 1863. Thanks to Kevin Carvell for sending this book to me, a book which contains much information about this period.

Mr. Kinney died in 1915. I thought this stone looked newer than that and set out to find the circumstances of its placement. I was able to find the “Application for Headstone” made to the War Department, dated June 8, 1939 by a Mr. Henry Ylvisaker. His farmstead is nearby and he had been on this church board.

The editor of the Sheldon Progress on March 10, 1911 expressed his admiration for Kinney as expressed in this headline of the newspaper: “Remarkable Feat Performed by Seventy-seven year old man.” A sub-headline states “James Kinney walked from his home on the Sheyenne, a distance of sixteen miles in less than six hours.”

Although on the shady side of seventy-seven years, James Kinney performed a most remarkable feat for a man his age on Monday when he walked from the home of his son on the Sheyenne River to Sheldon in less than six hours, the distance covered being over sixteen miles. He started on his trip shortly after 8u a.m. and was on the last lap of his journey by 2 p.m. The soft loose snow somewhat retarded Mr. Kinney’s progress. Mr. Kinney spent the afternoon and evening in Sheldon, leaving the next morning for the Soldier’s Home at Lisbon where he has spent every winter for the past several. He is an interesting narrator and entertained several of the young fellows by giving many interesting incidents of the stirring days of the Dakota plains, many of them of local interest and in which he was engaged.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Kinney was driving a stagecoach in Minnesota, but the adventures of the life did not compare with that of chasing Indians, and one day when he pulled in from his trip, after delivering the mail, and not waiting to care for his four-horse team, he joined the ranks of Company B 10th Minnesota as a wagoner.

…

When seen the next morning by the writer he was chipper and the fatiguing walk of the day before seemed to have little effect on him. In the summer he spends most of the time with his children.