A Bio of John Henry Wilson Kinsey

In 1981, the Boissevain History Book Committee published a tome on the history of Boissevain, Manitoba entitled "Beckoning Hills Revisited".


In the tome, there is a short bio of John Henry Wilson Kinsey was written by his son Bert Kinsey:

John Henry Wilson Kinsey was born in Walkerton, Bruce County, Ontario, on April 10, 1868. As a young man he travelled west and in 1885 he was working at installing flume on the Chilco Ranch, in the Chilcotin Country of British Columbia. He later returned east and was employed as a tinsmith and plumber by Harry Price who at that time owned a hardware business in Boissevain, Manitoba.

It was at Boissevain in 1906 that he met Alice Jacobs whom he married in 1907. He continued working for Harry Price till such time as the business was sold to Ed Johnson, who then became his employer and for whom he continued to work until 1930. At that time, owing to the Depression, work became scarce and Mr. Johnson was forced to cut staff and, as a consequence, Mr. Kinsey had to look elsewhere for employment. He found work in his trade at Oxbow, Saskatchewan, but remained there only for a short while.

Later he returned to Boissevain and purchased the Plumbing & Heating business from Ed Johnson and changed the name to Kinsey's Plumbing & Heating. In the late 30's his son Eddie came home to become a partner until he joined up and went overseas. All during the War, John Kinsey kept the business in operation so that it would be available to his son when he returned. At the end of the war, Eddie returned to Boissevain and the business; then John Kinsey retired. As the work became too much for Eddie, he asked his brother Albert, who had just returned from overseas, to join him. About this time, the brothers built a new building on Main Street and moved there from their old location which was just around the corner on Stephen Street. John Kinsey died in 1948, and in 1949 Eddie passed away. Albert then continued with the business alone until 1970 when he sold Kinsey's Plumbing & Heating to Mr. B. R. Riddell. Albert and Lois then retired to Penticton where they still reside.

As a response to the bio, the Kinseys probably did not move to the Walkerton area until about 1872. Therefore, I would suggest that John Henry Wilson Kinsey was most likely born in Tecumseh Township in Simcoe County on 10 April 1868.