Col. Kinney occupied a very conspicuous position in the incipient stages of the existence of Peru. He emigrated from Bradford county, Penn., in 1838, and commenced making a new farm on the west bank of Spring Creek, working assiduously during the following winter at splitting rails. In 1835, in connection with Capt. Ulysses Spaulding, he built a store where Peru now stands and filled it with goods. Upon the letting of work on the canal, he became a contractor for all that portion below the Little Vermillion, including locks, basin and channel, amounting to nearly a million of dollars. He soon embarked in other speculations and business, and became the most influential and noted man in this part of the State. In 1837 and the early part of 1838, everybody's movements appeared to be regulated by those of Col. Kinney. He was the central Sun from whom all lesser orbs borrowed their light. In 1837, Kinney became disconnected from Spaulding, and was joined by Daniel J. Townsend. A portion of the business was then conducted in the name of Townsend & Kinney. In 1838, their affairs fell into confusion and Kinney left. It was wonderful how many people, in the town and vicinity, were ruined by his failure. Many, who had been brought here from Pennsylvania at his expense, and had lived upon his bounty while here, were suddenly ruined by the treachery and perfidy of their friend, and, as a consequence, were entirely unable to meet their own little engagements. Col. Kinney, as is well known, was and is a man of indomitable energy, and possessed of a brain fertile with vast schemes and gigantic enterprises. He is said to have rode once to Chicago, a distance of one hundred miles, without leaving his saddle. Gen. Taylor reported him as having moved a command of mounted men, in the Mexican War, one hundred miles in twenty-four hours--a feat, it is believed, without a parallel. His address and manners were captivating in the extreme, and he possessed a sort of magnetic power to bind all who came within the sphere of his influence, to his interests and fortunes. His hospitality and liberality were circumscribed only by the means at his command at the moment, and, as a consequence, parasites clung to him with a tenacity known only to that interesting class.--Two of his sisters still reside in the town, and his venerable father, Simon Kinney, Esq., at Tiskilwa. Col. Kinney soon afterwards turned up at Corpus Christi, Texas. His career thenceforth has become a portion of the history of that State, of the Mexican War, and of Central America.