John Franklin Kinney

John Franklin Kinney (June 20, 1860 - May 8, 1934) of Rochester, New York was a New York State jurist and Democratic Party operative of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, described as one of “the strong men of the Democratic Party, potent in counsel, a trusted leader and a popular campaign orator.”

Known in Upstate New York as “The Judge,” Kinney was born in Ogden Township, Monroe County, New York State on June 20, 1860. His parents were William Deegan Kinney (1833–1888) and Julia Hough Kinney, of Adams Basin and later of Spencerport, New York. William D. Kinney was a Democratic activist, clerk of the town of Ogden, and weighmaster on the Erie Canal at Rochester from 1878-1879. The elder Kinney emigrated from Nappanee, Ontario in 1855, having settled at Erinville, Ontario during the Great Famine. The family was native to Coolkenno on the Wicklow-Carlow county border, Leinster Province, in the years when Ireland was still a colony of the United Kingdom.

Maternally, Judge Kinney’s family were from Ballina, Co. Tipperary. They settled at Herkimer, New York during the same period. Both families anglicized their names from “Kenny” to “Kinney” and “Hough” to “Howe” in order to mitigate discrimination and assimilate within the American Protestant majority. Kinney’s great uncle, John Howe of Boston, mustered and fought with the 28th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War (1861–1865); his cousin James Howe of Herkimer mustered with the 22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was also a first cousin to the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, president of Notre Dame University, and his brother, the Rev. Frank Cavanaugh. His granddaughter, Mrs. Captain Donald J. Meyer, USN, was sister-in-law to Mrs. George A. Meyer, niece to the Rev. Edward B. Bunn, S.J., president and chancellor of Georgetown University. John F. Kinney himself was educated at the public Union School of Spencerport, New York and took the collegiate course at Saint Joseph’s College, Buffalo, New York (later Niagara University). He read the law with William H. Bowman and then matriculated at the Albany Law School, boarding with the Edward and Mary (Foohy) Hanlon family on Eagle Street, Albany, next to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. His brother-in-law was the Reverend John J. Hanlon.

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