Peter Kinnear (1822 – 1913)[Section 113 Lot 16]
Owner of Kinnear Foundry and Machining Co., Own of Albany Billiard Ball Company, President of St. Andrew’s Society, member of Albany County Board of Supervisors
Peter Kinnear was born on March 3, 1822, in Buchin, Forfarshire, Scotland to John and Helen Kinnear. There he was educated and apprenticed for six years as a millwright. He immigrated to the United States in 1847 and looked for work in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Toronto before coming to Albany. He took a job in a foundry owned by William Orr, a Scots-Irishman, becoming a partner in 1872 and later on the owner. The name of the company was changed to Kinnear Foundry and Machining Co.
On September 11, 1849 he met Anna Gilcrist, a Scottish native. They were be married in Canada and had two children.
Peter was an early abolitionist and believed in universal freedom for all. He was initially a Whig, but he soon converted to the newly-established Republican Party. For two years he served as a member of the Albany County Board of Supervisors. Although he was recognized as the most popular man in his Ward, he was not elected as Alderman. He ran several unsuccessful campaigns against the Democratic machine of his Ward.
Referred to as the best known Scotsman in Albany, Kinnear served as secretary and president of the local St. Andrew’s Society. Founded in Albany in 1803, this social and benevolent organization was a rallying point for immigrant Scots and people of Scottish descent in and around Albany. While serving as president he would help with the construction of St. Andrew’s Hall, located at 69 Howard Street. In November of 1880, the St. Andrew’s Society purchased a group plot at Albany Rural Cemetery for the Scottish-Americans who did not have the means to pay for burial.
In 1875 Peter Kinnear developed a business relationship with the inventor John Wesley Hyatt, who was renting property from him. They sought to develop a new material for billiard balls. Up to that point the balls were made out of ivory from elephant tusks, which was expensive, scarce and known to crack easily. Peter purchased the Hyatt Manufacturing Company and renamed it Albany Billiard Ball Company. Peter became president and Hyatt served as vice-president. In addition to billiard balls, the company made dentures, dominos and checkers.
A number of early plastics were used to produce billiard balls; pyroxiline, celluloid, which had a tendency to explode, and bonsilate. Bonsilate was a mixture of finely ground bone and sodium silicate and held color better, which resulted in a more durable product and a cheaper production process. This resulted in great expansion and profit for the company, which moved from a site in the area now covered by the Empire State Plaza to the corner of Whitehall and Delaware Avenue.
For an extended period, the Albany Billiard Ball Company dominated the billiard industry, and it operated until 1986. After World War II, however, phenolic resin replaced bonsilate as the key material, and globalization made manufacturing cost cheaper overseas.
In 1884 Peter Kinnear expanded the Kinnear Foundry to include the manufacturing of copper, brass, and bronze casting for commercial and home use. Some of the items would include fittings for plumbing, brass works for breweries, beer apparatus, steamcocks and valves.
Peter was the executor of the estate of Mary McPherson, a Scottish born Albany citizen who died in 1886. Her family’s fortune did not have an heir, and though a portion was set aside for the poor of Albany, most of the estate would go to creating a tribute to the McPhersons and Scotland. Artist Charles Calvery was hired to do a bronze statue of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. It was unveiled in August of 1888 in Albany’s Washington Park, and a similar one was constructed for Central Park in New York City.
Peter passed away on May 16, 1913, two months after his wife died. They are buried in the Kinnear family plot where J.W. Hyatt and his wife are also laid to rest.