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Thursday, November 17, 2011

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS 22

 I already knew I had a cousin connection with Joseph Kimball's
family, but I didn't realize just how much that connection was at
first!

Because of earlier encounters with Dunham cousin grave sites in the
Mt Vernon Cemetery, I was able to determine that  Joseph Edward
Kimball's wife was Susan Ford Dunham, the daughter of Brigadier
General Henry Dunham, whom I've posted about here. I was also
able to find out the Kimball's had two other children besides John
Hermann Kimball but very little about their childrens' lives:

Anna Dunham Kimball b1Apr 1873, married Edwin Brown

John Hermann Kimball b 18Feb 1875, d.28Jul 1896, m.14Aug 1895
Blanche Lousie Wilber from Rockland Ma. They had one daughter
who apparently did not survive infancy because I can find no record
of her  as part of Blanches's family after she remarried a Frederick
Loud in 1899.

Josephine M Kimball b. 28Apr 1876


I found out more about Joseph Kimball's post Civil War career and as
is the case with much of the Dunham history in Abington, it revolves
around the shoe industry. This is from History of Essex County, 
Massachusetts: with biographical sketches ...Volume 1 edited by\
Duane Hamilton Hurd  (1888) p 645-646:


"Mr. Kimball was in the rudiments of his trade when the war broke out,
and When he returned from the conflict he returned to his trade, and
associated himself with his brother in Abington, in the manufacture of
tack and nail machinery for boot and shoe manufacturing, and they
were enabled so to improve them that they gained an enviable reputation
at home and in foreign countries. Their reputation was such that a 
powerful combination of tack manufacturers to control these goods in
the United States paid them a considerable sum in cash, with the sole 
right to manufacture their machines and no others.


In 1876 and 1877 Mr. Kimball perfected and patented a nailing machine.
This aroused a powerful antagonist,—the McKay Metalic Fastening 
Company. A hard struggle ensued. His brother retired from the firm. At
last the McKay Company offered, on the score of economy, to purchase
the surrender of his patents rather than expend more money in litigation. 
Just then, very opportunely, Mr. James E. Maynadier, a patent lawyer, 
took the case, cleared the patents, and was instrumental in establishing 
a company with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars to utilize them. 
The capital was soon increased to fifty thousand dollars, then to one 
hundred thousand dollars, and then to one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, which is now paying good dividends. Mr. Kimball received 
twenty thousand dollars for his invention and held stock in the company.
Ere long appeared a fastening called the " Estabrook and Wire-clinching 
screw," which was cheap and possessed other merits, but had to be 
worked by hand. Mr. Kimball invented machinery to make it a success. 

He then removed to Milford.
Within the last two years he has invented an improved metalic fastening
and all the new machinery for its manufacture. This is now his main product.
Lastly he has invented a machine for sole-fastening, upon which is placed 
a simple coil of threaded wire from which at each revolution of the machine
a clinching screw is completed, automatically governed in length to conform 
exactly to the thickness of the material to be fastened together at the exact
point necessary to be fastened, inserted in the material and securely riveted. 
By this machine, within a period of about fifteen seconds every fastening is
made, inserted and riveted, necessary to fasten the sole to a boot or shoe. 
The machine is on trial, with apparent prospect of success."

The reason there was such a long entry for a Plymouth County resident in
an Essex County history is that Joseph Edward Kimball was the son of
David Tenney Kimball, a prominent Ipswich clergyman. And it was in the
entry for the Rev. Kimball that I found a surprising bit of information:
his wife was named Dolly Varnum Coburn.

I have Coburn ancestry. Could there be a connection there?

There is. Like myself, Dolly Coburn was descended from Edward 
Colborne and his wife Hannah. And to add even further to the common
ancestry, Joseph and I share another common ancestor, Richard Kimball
of Ipswich, Ma.

So not only had I found a Dunham cousin's final resting place, I had
discovered I was a cousin twice over to her husband!

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