Seth Kinman - Legacy

Legacy

In 1876, Kinman dictated his memoirs, but they were not published until 2010. He also kept an extensive scrapbook of newspaper articles. About 1930, a one-time neighbor of Kinman, George Richmond, copied the memoirs and the scrapbook by hand. The original manuscript and scrapbook were then sent to a potential publisher or agent, and lost after his death. The published version is from Richmond's copy. Richmond also recalled many of Kinman's stories and collected others from Kinman's family and friends, then retold these stories in a book now published as I'm a Gonna Tell Ya a Yarn.

In his later years, Kinman lived in Table Bluff, California with his family, where he owned a hotel and bar. In 1886, Kinman was preparing to send chairs to President Grover Cleveland and former presidential candidate General Winfield Scott Hancock. He died in 1888 after accidentally shooting himself in the leg. He was interred at Table Bluff Cemetery in Loleta, California, in his buckskin clothing.

Mrs. R.F. Herrick bought Kinman's traveling museum collection of 186 items, including at least two of his famous chairs, and displayed them in San Francisco in 1893. She then took the collection to Chicago to display them at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where she reportedly sold the individual items. The Clarke Historical Museum in Eureka displays a suit of his buckskins, complete with beaded moccasins, as well as a wooden chest he owned. The Ferndale Museum displays several Kinman items, including another of his buckskin suits.