Rivercene
Rivercene and hot house hogs • Rivercene's treasures auctioned.
Rivercene, the magnificent mansion built by Steamboat Captain Joseph Kenney on the north bank of the Missouri River attracted Lilburn’s attention as a child. It continued to fascinate him for many years. When Captain Kinneys’ three daughters who inherited the place had financial difficulties, he befriended them in many ways. A few of his columns about Rivercene follow:
Rivercene, now a bed and breakfast place
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No place in the Boonslick Country has been publicized more than Rivercene across the river from Boonville. The supply of stories seems inexhaustible.
Captain Joseph Kinney who founded Rivercene in 1869, died in 1892. His 22-year-old son, Noble W. Kinney, a student of Agriculture at Missouri University took over management of the farm. His ambition was to convert it into a fruit and vegetable farm and wholesale the products. He had made such progress by the second year of his operation it showed prospect of becoming one of the best arranged places of its kind in Missouri.
Mr. Kinney said that 100 acres were to be devoted to staple vegetables. There would be 55 acres of potatoes on land rented to Jack Hulett.
There would be 10 acres of peas, 7 acres of tomatoes, 17 acres of cabbage, 4 acres of radishes, 4 of lettuce and 2 of celery. Five of the 17 acres of cabbage would be grown for the northern market and the other 12 acres reserved for shipment to southern points in August and September. Everything else would be grown for northern markets.
There would be 7 acres of rasberries and blackberries. Eight or 9 acres would be planted to pears.
Mr. Kinney had built a greenhouse 90 feet long and 60 feet wide a short distance southeast of the dwelling. Inside were growing long rows of vegetables. The finest varities of radishes were being sold and shipped daily to points north. Lettuce plants without number, fresh looking, thrifty and truly beautiful would be ready to ship in about two weeks.
Some tomato plants were in crocks but would soon be transplanted in beds and trained up the walls and beneath the glass roof. These plants would bear about the 1st of May before the planting of tomatoes outside to mature normally.
To heat the greenhouse there was a coke furnace. Temperature was kept at 60 degrees. Water, a supply practically inexhaustible, was supplied from a large tank in the yard which was filled by an engine from a deep well nearby.
In February a large number of hot beds 300 feet long and 6 feet wide would be seeded.
The Advertiser’s report said, “doubtless Rivercene will become one of the best and most widely known farms of its kind in the west and ere long the whole north will be a market for the products of its soil.”
But young Noble Kinney was not destined to realize his dream. Declining health for many months of which few knew because he always seemed so cheerful and lighthearted in spite of his infirmities, brought about his death in April, 1895 at the age of 26 years.
No survivor in the family was able to carry out his plans and they were abandoned.
Rivercene and Hot-House Dogs
In the New Franklin News of April 24, 1902, an advertisement appeared as follow:
“Kinney and Odonnell will sell their entire herd of Hot-House Hogs on the 25th of April, a number of challenge brood sows, fancy bred gilts and a large number of strictly first class shoats. These are all high grade Poland China hogs. Their object in selling is to handle in the future, nothing but registered stock. Come as soon as you get your dinner.”
Kinney and Odonnell were probably the first and last producers of Hot-house Hogs in Howard County. The reason they embarked upon the project was the existence of facilities which could be used, an idle 90 x 18 green house heated with a coke furnace and well supplied with water.
Miss Alice Kinney, a sister of Noble, with the aid of advisory pamphlets from the Missouri Department of Agriculture took over management of Rivercene after her brother died in 1895. Assisting her was a young man, Daniel Odonnell who had lived at Rivercene most of the time since 1881 when his father’s family, he included, headed for the west in a covered wagon, reached the ferry near Rivercene and found the river blocked with ice.
Capt. Kinney, renowned for his assistance and hospitality on such occasions, allowed the travelers to live in a vacant house on his premises until the ice should break up. The two families became so congenial the visitors remained some time. A daughter, Miss Mary, became a fine teacher in the New Franklin school for several years. Dan eventually went on west with his father but later returned to Rivercene.
Maybe someone at the Missouri University conceived the idea of Hot-house Hogs, maybe Miss Alice, maybe Dan. Why couldn’t the hot house be used for farrowing and growing pigs? There was plenty of sunshine, heat from the furnace and plenty of water. If vegetables planted there thrived, why not hogs?
I found no account of the 1902 sale but there is a record of an annual one in 1905. “Owing to the inclement weather there was not a large crowd in attendance but those who did come, came for business.”
The names of the buyers of the pens were listed in the paper. there were 21 pens of which Horace Kingsbury bought 14.
The only other Hot-house Hogs I ever heard of were raised scientifically in Alaska by the University of that state, sponsored by the the University of Iowa.
The project of Kinney and Odennell was quite primitive compared with the one in Alaska.
Rivercene's Treasures Auctioned
When the treasures of Rivercene, the old Joseph Kinney home in south Howard county were sold in 1948, the auction was memorable. Many people learned that fine household goods need not be a hundred years old to be classified as antiques which bring amazingly high prices. The late Opal Melton in her column, “My Say” in the Cooper County Record, described the event well. Excerpts follow:
“The weather was Missouri May-time at its best, the sun bright and the air brisk. A wrap felt good if you sat in the shade and the sun felt fine when you moved into it as rays slanted down from the west. And the crowd! Estimated at 600. A more intellectual and cultured group of that size seldom assembled in one body in the great out-of-doors. It was predominantly feminine and largely Missourian.
“The place and the people created an atmosphere I liked. The great brick and walnut mansion built in 1869 by Captain Kinney, owner of a fleet of steamboats, was filled with treasures from our own country and far lands. Many of the materials were brought great distances by steamboats and unloaded at Rivercene’s private dock just in front of the building site. The eleven mantels of gleaming Italian marble. The two walnut doors to the west parlor weigh 250 pounds each.
“Under the spell of the great house, the maple and tulip trees, the furnishings, a low-voiced audience, antiques sold high. You could understand distinctly every word of the auctioneer.
“A great deal of credit for the successful auction goes to the publicity from a half page feature story in the Kansas City Star and to the hundreds of visitors from all over the United States who have seen the house and its furnishings since it was opened in 1948 to the public.
“While eastern dealers doubtless helped to keep prices up through a day of spirited bidding from 10 in the morning until five in the afternoon, I noted that some of the most expensive pieces went to wheatpoor Kansas and not a few to Missourians.
“Mr. Charles van Ravenswaay, historian, author, collector, authority on old homes and Director of the Missouri Historical Society of St. Louis was one of the few Boonville buyers.”
Antiques leave many people cold but once bitten by the bug, it takes money to treat the fever. Rivercene during the auction was a likely place to get bitten.
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