Notes:
James Walter Kinnaman, the third child and second son of James Hamilton and Mary Elizabeth, was born 7 January 1874. He was likely born on his parent's farm north of Odon, Indiana.
James Walter, or Walt as the family called him, lived with his parents until 27 August 1896, when, at the age of 22, he married Lula Ellen McElroy of Scotland, Indiana. (Lula's first and middle names have been a source of confusion for her children and descendants. I have heard my father call her both Lou Emma and Emma Lou, while Dad's sister, Eloise, suggests that her name was Louella. Lula's marriage license states her name as Lula E., while her obituary called her Emma. On the birth certificate for Lula's daughter, Mary Ruth, she was named Louise. Alice M. McElroy, who has done extensive research on the McElroy family, calls her Emily Louise. My "official" name for this genealogy will be Lula Ellen).
Lula, or Lou as the family knew her, was a daughter of John Andrew McElroy and Mary Frances Baker. John Andrew was of the second generation of McElroys who came to the United States from northern Ireland and settled in Scotland, Indiana, around the middle of the 19th century. John Andrew's parents were George McElroy, born 22 February 1815 in Pennsylvania and died 5 February 1876 in Scotland, Indiana; and Susanna Forsythe, born 18 February 1822 in Scotland, Indiana, and died 7 February 1851 in Scotland. John Andrew's grandparents were Matthew McElroy, who was born in 1762 in northern Ireland and died 17 July 1853 in Scotland, Indiana; and Eleanor McConnell who was born in 1770 in northern Ireland and died 20 May 1851 in Scotland, Indiana. And John Andrew's great grandparents were William McElroy and Elizabeth Thompson, both from northern Ireland. Mary Frances' parents were John Baker and Rowena Thayer, both from Stubenville, Ohio. Besides Lou, John and Mary McElroy had six other children Christopher, Charles, Clemy, Alice, Fleda, and Oscar.
Lula Ellen McElroy was born 25 October 1877, and was about 19 at the time of her marriage to James Walter.
Walt's and Lou's wedding took place in Odon, Indiana, on 27 August 1896. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. J. A. Belle, and was witnessed by Stella O'Donald and Lula Kinnaman, Walt's younger sister. Soon after the wedding Walt and Lou moved to Wheatland, Knox Co., IN -- a journey of about 20 miles requiring the fording of the White River which the young couple did in a wagon containing all of their worldly possessions.
They took up residence on a farm east of the village of Wheatland which Walt worked as a tenant for a man named Robinson. On this farm Walt's and Lou's first child, Allen Christopher, was born on 22 November 1897. Two years later, on 29 August 1899, a second child, Mary Ruth was born on the Robinson farm.
Sometime prior to 1903, Walt and Lou moved from the Robinson place into the village of Wheatland. Their house sat just off the Bruceville Road at the northwestern village limits, and it was there that their third child, Dorothy Ellen, was born on 27 April 1903.
Almost immediately the family moved again, to a house a mile or so northeast of Wheatland on old State Road 50 where, on 1 October 1904, their fourth child, Kenneth Walter, was born. Walt was then 30, and Lou, 27.
A year later the family moved once more, to the Steen farm a mile east of Wheatland on the road leading to Washington, Indiana. The large house and farm were owned by E. R. Steen, and Walt worked the place as a tenant farmer on a 2/5 share basis. It was on this farm that Walt's and Lou's fifth child, Eloise Virginia, was born on 28 November 1908.
Moving yet again in 1910 or 1912, the family took up residence on the Alf Robinson (or Robison) farm north of Wheatland on the Bicknell road. Walt traded houses with Alf who moved into a house Walt owned in Wheatland.
In 1913 the family moved yet again, this time back into the village of Wheatland on the east side to another house Walt had built. In this house, on 15 March 1915, the last of Walt's and Lou's children, Georgia Alice, was born.
Walt now had about 4 lots in Wheatland, two houses, a barn, and some livestock. Walt also farmed the Niblack place just east of Wheatland, and bought a dray with which he serviced the merchants of Wheatland and also collected mail from the railroad. He was active in the White River Poultry Association, and raised and sold poultry and eggs in season. And he did some carpentry work and, perhaps, mended shoes.
In 1923 Walt sold his interest in the dray for $1,800 which gave him the capital to build a larger house in Wheatland, which was finished in 1924. At about this time Walt brought his ailing, widowed mother, Mary Elizabeth, to live with the family. Walt's sister, Mary Ellen Kinnaman Moore, also lived in Wheatland, and the two families took turns caring for the aging woman until her death in 1929.
By 1929 Walt stopped strenuous farming, and took a job with the Standard Coal Company near Wheatland, and continued to do occasional handiwork around the Wheatland community. In 1939 Walt and Lou became eligible for Social Security and between them received around $50 a month.
About 1945 Walt suffered a heart attack from which he recovered. Then in May 1947, at the age of 71, he collapsed and died while working a hand cultivator in his garden. He was buried in Wheatland Cemetery.
Lou continued to live in the house in Wheatland with her daughter, Eloise, and Eloise's children who had come to live permanently in her parent's house after her divorce in the early 1940s. On 9 November 1966, at the age of 89, Lou died of a stroke at Good Samaritan Hospital, Vincennes, Indiana. She was buried next to Walt in Wheatland Cemetery.
Data source is Jim Kinnaman. E-mail jkkinnaman@aol.com