(1837 Missouri - 1913 Austin, Texas)
Olivia Kinney's gravestone is modest, situated off to one side of the Cleveland/Kinney plot in Oakwood Cemetery. She is buried with her sons and their wives. She was an early Austinite who owned and farmed large holdings in what is now the Zilker area. Her sons grew up there on "Kinney Hill," south of the Colorado River, and their descendants continue to live in Austin today.
Olivia Treadwell Cleveland Kinney was born May 24, 1837, in Howard County, Missouri and died July 28, 1913, in Austin, Texas. Her father was John Treadwell Cleveland (1798 Massachusetts--1875 Blanco County, Texas). He was a well-educated and talented man who left his home in New England and traveled to live in Missouri. John had a large prosperous farm and worked as a seaman, merchant, newspaper publisher, teacher, and boat captain on the Ohio River. In 1823 he married Louisiana Hughes (December 11, 1806, Jessamine, Kentucky—October 22, 1890, Rocky Cliff, Travis County, Texas). Louisiana's family were wealthy planters in Kentucky who moved to Missouri with their whole household in 1818 along with sixty slaves and a four-horse wagon load of Mexican dollars, with which to purchase land. Louisiana was the youngest child in a large family and married at age 16. She and John had ten children between 1824 and 1841. Olivia and her twin sister Ophelia were born between six older siblings and two younger brothers.
Soon after 1850, John Cleveland moved to Austin, Texas. He became the proprietor of the Swisher Hotel at 6th and Congress and was elected to be Austin’s 13th mayor in 1855. After the Civil War, John Cleveland retired to ranch land in Blanco County and died in Cypress Mills, Texas in 1875. He was buried on private family land. However, there is a marker in Oakwood Cemetery with the inscription “J.T. Cleveland, C.S. Navy.” Most of his children settled in Texas and were involved in ranching but only Olivia stayed in Austin.
As a young woman, Olivia was a beauty of culture and charm. She played the piano well and cut a lovely figure in the small Austin social scene of the 1850's. She was courted by a handsome New Yorker, Daniel Perry Kinney (1831 Cortland, New York--1899 Austin, Texas). Daniel was born to Daniel and Sophia Burke Kinney in Cortland County, New York, in 1831. His family had lived for many generations in the east U.S. His father was a farmer and Daniel apprenticed as a harness maker as a young man. His brother Henry B. Kinney came to Austin and worked as a teacher and later a postmaster. Daniel followed him in the 1850's. He married Olivia in 1857 in Austin, and their first child was born the next year in Blanco County on the ranch owned by Olivia's father, John Cleveland.
Between 1858 and 1870, they had seven children, five sons and two daughters, all but one surviving to adulthood. Daniel worked as a carriage trimmer. In 1871 Olivia and Daniel built a stone home on ranch land directly south of Austin across the Colorado River in what is now the Zilker neighborhood. They called the home Rocky Cliff and farmed stock and raised their family there.
After 26 years of marriage, Olivia and Daniel divorced in 1884. Their property was divided and Olivia remained at Rocky Cliff which she operated as a ranch with her sons. She retained custody of her minor children and also ownership of the 320 acre Blanco ranch as well as cattle and livestock exceeding $3200. Olivia’s land extended for 50 acres from Barton Creek to Bouldin Creek. Olivia lived at Rocky Cliff nearly forty years, often with her sons and family. Years later some of the western land became part of Zilker Park and the eastern part was developed into Barton Heights. Rocky Cliff is still standing though no longer in Kinney family ownership.
Children of Daniel and Olivia Kinney
John Daniel Kinney (1860 Blanco County, Texas–1941 Austin, Texas) worked for E.W. Shands & Sons Real Estate and married Virginia Catherine Shands (born 1863) on May 16, 1883. They had three children and lived and ranched in Blanco County.
Charles Dexter Kinney (1861 Austin–1942 Austin, Texas) farmed on his mother’s land and married Norma Mabel Baldwin at age 38. He practiced chiropathy at 1328 West 6th street in Austin in the 1920's and 1930's.
George Putman Kinney (1863 Austin, Texas–1934 Austin, Texas) married Carrie Mae Shands in 1889 and they had four sons. He moved to Blanco County to ranch on family land, but later in retirement moved back to Austin and lived on Virginia Avenue in the I.V. Davis Home.
Olivia Treadwell Kinney (1865 Austin, Texas–1946 Galveston, Texas) married Hallers Smith Corington (b. 1864) and had three children--Winifred, Hal and Louise Corington They lived in Galveston and Haller was a railroad dispatcher.
Ophelia "Phoebe" Sophia Bell Kinney (1868 Austin –1951 Shawnee, Oklahoma)
married in 1888 to Newton Givens Lane (born 1857). They had two children-- Annie Lane and Richard Givens Lane. Phoebe's husband was a dealer in livestock and moved around in Texas and Oklahoma. She lived in Ft. Worth as a widow.
Frank Kinney (1869--?) No information is available and he may have died early.
William Cleveland Kinney (1870 Austin, Texas--1951 Austin, Texas) married Elizabeth Jeffkins Griffin, daughter of one of the early owners of the I.V. Davis home. They had two children, Dexter E. and Eleanor Kinney. William worked for Capital Cotton Compress and his family lived on West Fifth Street in Austin.