Kinne, Aaron
Yale College; Moor's Indian Charity School
Yale (1765), M.A. (1774)
New Light Congregationalist
Anglo-American
Missionary; Minister
- Moor's Indian Charity School (from 1765 to 1766)
- Old Oneida, NY (from 1766-07-07 to 1766-10)
- Kanawalohale, NY (from 1768-05 to 1768-08-16)
- Groton, CT (from 1769 to 1798)
Married the daughter of a Groton Deacon; they had 11 children.
Aaron Kinne was a Congregationalist minister and scholar who, like Titus Smith and Theophilus Chamberlain, worked as a missionary for Wheelock after graduating from Yale. After his 1765 graduation, he taught and studied at Moor's for a year before making two trips as a missionary in 1766: one to Maine to report on the local Indian tribes, and one to the Oneidas, the latter being cut short by poor health. He returned in the summer of 1768 to substitute for Samuel Kirkland. Kinne was ordained in 1770 and became the minister of the Congregationalist church at Groton, Connecticut, where he served until he was dismissed in 1798. He also became a prolific scholar, and during the Revolution, served as chaplain to American troops, including those massacred at the Battle of Fort Griswold. After dismissal from Groton, Kinne lived in a variety of locations in New England and was sporadically employed as a missionary. He died in Ohio while visiting one of daughters.
Allen, William. “Kinne, Aaron.” The American Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Account of the Lives, Characters, and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons Deceased in North America from Its First Settlement. Boston: J.P. Jewett and Company 1857, p. 495. Accessed via GoogleBooks. Chase, Frederick. A history of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire. 1891. Dartmouth College. General Catalogue of Dartmouth College and the Associated Schools 1769-1900: Including a Historical Sketch of the College. Hanover: Dartmouth College Press 1900. Accessed via GoogleBooks. Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale college with annals of the college history. New York: Henry Holt and Company 1903. Accessed via GoogleBooks. Love, Deloss. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Pilgrim Press 1899. McCallum, James. The Letters of Eleazar Wheelock’s Indians. Dartmouth College Press 1932.