BIOGRAPHY: John KINER, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 546-547.

  JOHN KINER, Atkinsons Mills, Mifflin county, Pa., son of George and Salome 
(Ebert) Kiner, was born in Madison township, Perry county, February 18, 1818.  
His grandfather, George Kiner, a cooper, came from Germany when a young man, and 
settled in Perry county, Pa.  He married and reared a family of six children:  
Jacob;  Frederick;  George;  John and two daughters, whose names are not known.  
George Kiner, father of John Kiner, had a fair German and English education, 
which was received in the subscription schools.  He learned the trades of 
cooper, weaver and brickmaker, working at each of these occupations in Perry 
county.  He owned numerous hand looms, and carried on the business of weaving 
during the winter months.  Besides this variety of handicrafts, Mr. Kiner 
engaged in farming and stock-raising.  He married Salome, daughter of Lorenz 
Ebert, a farmer of Perry county, of German descent.  They had these children:  
Lydia, widow of Peter Keyser, of Perry county;  John;  Henry, of Perry county;  
Catharine (Mrs. Jesse Ewing), deceased;  George, of Perry county;  Ann, widow of 
Solomon Biner, of Perry county;  Eliza (Mrs. Peter Lightner), deceased, of Perry 
county;  Sarah, deceased;  William, resides in Perry county;  Elvira, widow of 
Philip Gensler, who was killed in the late war.  George Kiner, the father, was a 
Democrat.  He was very temperate in his habits, and was fond of hunting and 
other out-door diversions.  He died in Perry county, and is buried at Loysville.  
Mrs. Kiner also died on the homestead in Perry county.  Both were members of the 
German Reformed church.
  John Kiner received a limited education in the subscription schools of Madison 
township, the term lasting only during the three winter months.  When only ten 
years old he hired out among the farmers, bravely shouldering the work, for 
which he received three dollars per month, all of which was given to his father 
to aid in supporting the family.  Nine years were thus spent among the farmers.  
At the age of nineteen years, he learned carpentry with Jacob Souders and George 
Shoop, in Perry county.  His apprenticeship lasted two years, during which time 
he received no wages.  He worked for himself for one year in Perry county, then 
went to McVeytown, Mifflin county, for three months, after which, in 1841, he 
removed to Spruce Creek, Huntingdon county, finding employment at carpentry for 
two years.  Turning his attention to farming, he rented a farm in Franklin 
township, Huntingdon county, remaining there until 1861, after which he rented 
successively in Tyrone township, Blair county, for five years, and in Union 
township, Blair county, for four years, buying a farm of 250 acres there, but 
afterwards disposing of it, and coming to Wayne township, Mifflin county, where 
he bought his present place of 175 acres, known as the John Atkinson farm.  This 
he improved and continued to cultivate until 1891, when he retired.  He is a 
Republican, and cast his first vote for Gen. William Henry Harrison, in 1840.  
He has been school director nine years, and supervisor for three years.
  Mr. Kiner was married in 1843, at Spruce Creek, to Mary A., daughter of John 
McPherran, a farmer of Franklin township.  She is a granddaughter of Andrew 
McPherran, born in Ireland in 1751, who came to America and served seven years 
in the Revolution, in the part of Washington's army commanded by Colonel Church.  
The children of Mr. And Mrs. Kiner are as follows:  Sarah, died young;  Leah, 
died young;  Elizabeth;  George, railroad employee at Derry Station;  Andrew, 
employed in railroad business at Altoona;  Mary, deceased;  Emma;  Blanche, 
deceased;  John, in railroad business at Wilkinsburg;  William E.;  Samuel, on 
the homestead;  and Beulah, deceased.  Mrs. Kiner died on the homestead in 1889.  
Mr. Kiner has been for fifteen years and still is an elder in the Presbyterian 
church at McVeytown.
  William E. Kiner, son of John Kiner, was born in Franklin township, Huntingdon 
county, and attended the public schools of Wayne township.  He remained on his 
father's farm until he was twenty-one years old, and then went to Kansas City, 
Mo., as bookkeeper for Charles Scribner & Company, publishers.  After five 
years, he returned home and entered the University of Pennsylvania, at 
Philadelphia, for the purpose of taking a course in dentistry.  Three years 
later he graduated in June, 1896.  Mr. Kiner is a Republican, and a member of 
the F. and A. M., McVeytown Lodge, No. 376, in which he has taken the third 
degree.  His middle name is Emmet, so named in memory of his great-grandmother, 
Elizabeth Emmet, who was a native of Ireland, and a cousin to the celebrated 
Irish patriot, Robert Emmet.  Mr. Kiner is a member of the Presbyterian church.