Alfred Kinney was a politician from Arizona. He was one of the first two state senators from Gila County, serving in the first three state legislatures, and the 6th through 10th legislatures, a total of eight legislatures overall.
Life
Kinney was born in Ohio, leaving home at the age of 14 and traveling to Colorado, where he remained for several years, before heading to New Mexico. He stayed there for two years, then made his way to Arizona, where he eventually ended up in Globe, Arizona, where he arrived in 1881. After his arrival in Globe, he initially worked at a sawmill, where he lost an arm. He was married to Clara Kinney. Sometime in late 1888, or early January 1889, Kinney purchased the Globe Soda Water Works. In 1891 Kinney purchased a commercial ice making machine, after which the company was renamed The Globe Ice and Soda Works. In addition, he and his wife operated a rooming house in Globe, called "Kinney House". In 1891, Globe experienced a devastating flood, when Pinal Creek, swollen by two days of torrential rain, overran its banks, destroying many houses and businesses. Kinney's adobe house was one of those lost in the flooding.
By 1900 Kinney had renamed his company the Globe Ice Works. In August 1901, Kinney and several partners transferred the assets of the Globe Ice Works into a new public corporation, The Globe Ice and Cold Storage Company, with Kinney serving as the corporation's president. A month prior, Kinney was also one of the founding officers of the Pinal Paraffine Oil Company. In 1905 he was one of the founding members, serving on the board of directors, of the Radium Mines Company, a mining corporation. He had numerous other mining interests, as did his wife, including the Bryan Group of mines, which was very profitable. He had numerous other mining interests, as did his wife, including the Bryan Group of mines, which was very profitable. In 1907 he was one of the founders of the Globe Consolidated Lighting, Water & Power Company.
While wealthy in his own right, his wife was thought to be the wealthiest woman in Arizona, and one of the top two wealthiest people in the entire state. The two sold their rights on 25 mining claims in the Sleeping Beauty Mountains to the Porphyry Reserve Copper Company in 1930 for $250,000. At the time it was one of the largest deals in mining in Gila County.
In January 1931, Clara Kinney became seriously ill, Senator Kinney travelled back and forth between the hospital in Globe where she was being seen to, and his senatorial duties in Phoenix. She died after several weeks in the hospital on February 6, 1931.
Kinney died suddenly on January 23, 1934, from what was reported as a heart stroke.
Political career
In 1886, Kinney was the Democratic nominee for the supervisor of Gila County. While the other Democrat in the race, W. F. Connors, lost, Kinney was elected to supervisor. In July 1888, citing personal business, Kinney resigned from the Board of Supervisors. In 1898 Kinney was one of two delegates from Gila County to the Arizona territorial Democratic convention.
In 1908 Kinney was the Democratic candidate for mayor of Globe, which he won handily, becoming the first mayor of Globe. Kinney resigned as president of the Pinal Mountain Water Company, due to a conflict of interest with his new mayoral duties. After less than two years in office, Kinney resigned his mayoral seat, over a conflict with the city council regarding city employees' wages. However, Kinney, agreed to rescind his resignation, as long as the council considered passing the ordnance he authored reducing certain city employees' salaries. The town council agreed, and Kinney did not resign.
In September 1910, Kinney was one of five Democratic nominees from Gila County to be the county's delegates to the State Constitutional Convention Arizona State Legislature. Initially it was reported that all five of the Democrats in Gila County, which included future governor, George W. P. Hunt, won the election. However, there was a change after the final tally came in and one Republican, John Langdon, received more votes than three of the Democrats, and he knocked John H. McCormick out as a constitutional delegate. In December 1910 Kinney became one of the forty-one signers of the Arizona Constitution. There were 52 delegates, but 11—10 Republicans and one Democrat—refused to sign.