Early Life
Kinney's family moved to Washington, D.C., and became known in politics. His aunt's husband was Senator James Dixon of Connecticut.
At the age of 16, the 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) Kinney went to Europe, where he studied in Heidelberg, Paris and Zürich and became fluent in six languages. A walking tour of Italy took him to Venice and the Italian Riviera. Returning to Washington in 1869 he joined the Maryland National Guard and in 1873 was able to join a U. S. Geological Survey team to map the Sioux reservations of the Dakotas. He traveled to Salt Lake City and Oregon and rejoined the survey team in the Yosemite Valley.
Kinney joined his older brother's, Francis S. tobacco business with offices in New York in 1874. The Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company did much of its purchasing in the southern states and then took an interest in imported tobaccos. In 1876, Abbot traveled to Egypt and Ottoman Macedonia.
Read more about this topic: Abbot Kinney
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