Henry Lawrence Kinney was born in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, USA on June 3, 1814. In 1838 Kinney moved to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 and settled near where Brownsville, Texas

Brownsville, Texas

Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...

 is today. He served in both houses of the Texas Legislature

Texas Legislature

The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...

. He was killed in a gunfight in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 on March 3, 1862.

Corpus Christi

By 1841 Kinney began trading and ranching near where Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

 is today on a site known as the Old Indian Trading Grounds. He was elected as a senator to the Ninth Texas Congress and served as a delegate to the Convention of 1845.

At the beginning of the Mexican-American War he was on General James Pinckney Henderson

James Pinckney Henderson

James Pinckney Henderson was a United States and Republic of Texas lawyer, politician, soldier, and the first Governor of the State of Texas....

's campaign staff, campaigning in Northern Mexico. At the end of the war he returned to the area and continued trading. Kinney established Corpus Christi as Kinney's Rancho and also established Nuecestown, which is now a ghost town within the city limits of Corpus Christi.

Seminole War

Kinney began using the title "Colonel" that he claimed to have earned during the Seminole War in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, but there is no evidence that he took part in that conflict.