Kinney, William (IL Lt. Governor)

Born: 1781-XX-XX Louisville, Kentucky

Died: 1843-XX-XX Saint Clair County, Illinois

Alternate name: Kinny

Kinney moved with his family to Illinois when he was eleven years old. In 1800, he purchased a farm near Belleville, Illinois, and settled there with his wife, who taught him how to read and write. Kinney prospered as a farmer, a shop keeper, and a Baptist preacher. His success in business led him into politics, and he won election as a senator in the first Illinois General Assembly in 1818 and was reelected in 1822. In 1826, he won election as Illinois lieutenant governor; and in 1834, he lost the governorship to Joseph Duncan. He was president of the Illinois Board of Public Works in 1836 and was involved in various building projects in the state of Illinois.

Gravestone, Shiloh Valley Cemetery, Shiloh, IL; Alvin Louis Nebelsick, A History of Belleville (Belleville, IL: Township High School and Junior College, [1951]), 64-65; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 48, 86, 185, 198.