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Settlement by Europeans in what would become East Tennessee began as part
of the western expansion of colonial America. The countryside was a
wilderness, long occupied by Native peoples and when German, Irish,
English and Scotch immigrants headed south and West, looking for
opportunity and adventure, they found both in the rugged landscape of the
future state of Tennessee.
Bradley County came into existence on February 10, 1836, almost forty
years after the state of Tennessee was founded. Two years after the bill
was passed by the legislature to establish this county, Cleveland was
designated as the county seat. Already an attractive location for new
settlement because of its plentiful water supply and lush farmland,
Bradley County began to attract even more European descendants after the
Cherokee removal in 1838.
Coming to Bradley County a few years after its founding were members of,
by then, a third generation American family, the Kinsers. The Kinsers or
Küntzers, as the name was originally spelled had come to the Colonies in
1730 from the Palantine region of Germany, settling first in Pennsylvania
and in succeeding generations, migrating to Southwestern Virginia, then to
Greene county, later Monroe and McMinn Counties in upper East Tennessee.
From Monroe County Henry, Peter, George, and Jacob came to Bradley County.
Henry(i1746) sold his McMinnn County farm in early 1848 and with his wife Mary
Briant(i9094) and five children settled in the easternmost part of Bradley
County. Their farm was located on what is now Bates Pike, in the vicinity
of Tivior's School. Peter(i1744) and George Kinser(i1749), Henry's brothers, and Jacob
their cousin, settled in the same general locale.
All of the Kinsers were farmers but George and Henry also did carpentry,
and legend has it that they introduced the "wrap around" porch
to this area, building many homes in eastern Bradley County with this
unique (at that time) feature.
Peter Kinser(i1744) also owned a sorghum mill and in a fascinating court case, he
was sued by a neighbor who accused Peter of knowingly letting her cow eat
so much sugar cane at his mill, that the cow foundered and died. The
woman, a widow with three children, won the case against Peter, who was
then ordered by the court to pay for the cow and to pay court costs,
including $3 to his brother Henry for Henry's testimony
Peter also worked as a railroad construction hand and in the 1850 Bradley
County census he is listed both in his home with his wife and children and
in the home of the construction foreman.
Jacob Kinser, said to be a lawyer, a carpenter and a teacher, as well as a
farmer; was the son of Jacob, Sr., a brother to Henry, George and Peter's
father, John.(i16)
Henry was the only Kinser who stayed in Bradley County. George and his
wife Caroline, who were childless, moved to Polk County, some time later
George fathered a child with a young neighbor of his and was ordered by
the court to pay the girl $90 for the upkeep of their son.
Peter, his wife Sarah and their large family migrated to Texas in 1867,
along with thirty-seven wagonloads of Kinsers, most of them from Greene
County.
Following already established migration routes, Peter chose to settle in
Hunt County, in northeastern Texas. He married twice more, once after
Sarah's death, and a third time after a divorce. Family rumor says that
Peter became involved with the woman who would become his third wife while
he was still married to wife number two.
Jacob, the cousin of Peter, George and Henry, lost his first wife, Nancy,
and one daughter to typhoid fever in late 1863 and early 1864. A few years
later, with his children grown and away from home, Jacob married Minerva
lawson, a young widow with one son, eventually settling in Polk County
with his new family.
Some years after her brothers settled, in Bradley County, Easter Kinser
and her husband Joseph Cobble moved, with their children here from Monroe
County. Joseph's untimely death left Easter with a hefty mortgage and no
means of support. Even with Henry's help, Easter was unable to keep her
home, eventually losing it to the mortgage holder. She and her family then
left Bradley County.
Henry and Mary Briant Kinser had a sixth child, Nancy who was born three
years after the family arrived in Bradley County. Nancy eventually married
a Peter Duff and they lived out their lives in McMinn County.
Lydia, the third child of Henry and Mary, migrated to Colin County, Texas
in 1882 with her. husband, Isaac Armstrong and their children. it is said
that they were part of a wagon train made up of Armstrong's siblings.
The other Kinser children, John Alexander, Susannah, Serepta and Henry
Rise stayed in Bradley County. Today there are no descendants of either
John or Susannah in the county. Serepta's legacy includes the names Goode
and Finnell, while the heirs of Henry Rise's sons Carrol and Parker
include, not only the Kinser name, but Kinne, Carson, Carter, Greene and
others.
The imprint made by the Kinsers can be seen in the naming of a church and
a county road in their honor. More importantly, that imprint can be seen
in the contributions made to Cleveland and to Bradley County by all the
descendants of this German-American family.
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