Notes:
Kenneth Walter Kinnaman, the fourth child and second son of Walt and Lou, was born 1 October 1904 near Wheatland, Indiana. He graduated high school in Wheatland and worked on his father's farms until 1924, when he attended Taylor University at Upland, Indiana, for two years. In 1926 he attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where his brother, Allen Christopher Kinnaman, lived. Then he enrolled in Indiana State College at Terre Haute before returning to Wheatland without a degree. On 19 November 1927 Kenneth, or Bud as the family called him, married Freddie Esther Mershon at Petersburg, Indiana, Freddie was working in the law office of Allen and Hastings in Washington when they met, and they had eloped to keep their marriage a secret for a time.
Freddie was born 21 November 1907 in Washington, Indiana, the only child of George William Mershon and Della Etta Purcell. George was born 16 January 1876, possibly in Iva, Indiana, and his parents were Dan Mershon, born 5 June 1846 in Columbus, Indiana, and died 17 June 1920 in Daviess County; and Esther J. (Jenny or Jennifer) Hughes, born 3 April 1852 in Bloomington, Indiana, and died 23 June 1934 in Daviess County. George had a brother, Frederick F. Mershon, born 14 December 1876, and three other siblings who each died before their fifth birthday. Della was born 13 February 1881 in Cumback, Indiana, and her parents were Nelson Purcell, born 24 March 1842, died 9 December 1915; and Lydia Eubank, born 3 September 1843. Nelson served with Company E, 27th Regiment, Indiana Infantry Volunteers and with Company B, 33rd Regiment, Indiana Veterans Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. He fought with the 27th at Antietam, Winchester, Chancellorsville, Cedar Mountain, Gettysburg, and Ressaca, and marched with Sherman to the sea. His parents were William T. Purcell, born circa 1816, and Cintha Ann Alexander, born circa 1824, and he had at least one sister, Bernetta, born 26 March 1844 in Daviess County, and one brother, Hiram, born circa 1848 in Indiana. Cintha Ann's parents possibly were Ashberry Alexander, born circa 1786 in North Carolina, and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown), born circa 1792 in Kentucky.
Freddie's father, George, worked at the Democrat newspaper in Washington, and he and Della were married 25 March 1899 in Iva, Indiana. George died 1 July 1948, and Della 13 February 1968 on her 87th birthday. Freddie graduated from Washington High School in 1927 and was editor of the senior class annual. She was two days shy of her twentieth birthday when she and Bud married.
In November 1928, shortly after their marriage, Bud joined the S. S. Kresge Company (later becoming the K-Mart Corporation) at Vincennes, and the couple moved there. Thirteen months later Bud was transferred to Detroit, and Freddie, now pregnant, made the move with him but came back to her parent's home in Washington when her baby was due. James Kenneth was born 12 February 1930 in his grandparent's house on Fifth Street,
Bud continued with the Kresge Company for the rest of his working life, and he and Freddie made many moves with the company during the thirty-four years. They lived in Vincennes, Detroit, Mansfield, Findley and Toledo, Ohio, before moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1936. In Grand Rapids their second son, Fred Mershon was born on 26 February 1937 at Butterworth Hospital, The family next moved to Kalamazoo, and then to Fort Wayne, Indiana; Jamestown, New York; Lima, Ohio; Elkhart, Indiana; Harrisburg, Illinois; and finally to Midland, Michigan, where Bud retired from the Kresge Company in 1964.
Upon retirement, Bud and Freddie moved back to Washington, Indiana, partly to be near Bud's mother in Wheatland and Freddie's mother in Washington. They bought a house on Darnell Drive, and for many years divided their residences between Florida during the winter, and Washington during the rest of the year.
Freddie broke her leg in the spring of 1995 and required rehabilitation at Eastgate Nursing Home, Washington, Indiana, Also suffering with an increasing dementia, Freddie became a resident of the nursing home. After living by himself briefly, Bud also entered the nursing home in the fall of 1995.
On 26 December 1995 Freddie Esther Mershon Kinnaman died at the nursing home of congested heart failure. She was buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, Washington, Indiana. Bud never really recovered from Freddie's death, and after a series of seizures, died at Eastgate on 23 September 1996 -- just nine days from his 92nd birthday. He was buried at Oak Grove next to Freddie.
Data source is Jim Kinnaman. E-mail jkkinnaman@aol.com