page_title: Seth Kinman
section_title: Life as an entertainer
hierarchical_section_title: Seth Kinman / Life in California / Life as an entertainer
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo or etching of Seth Kinman (died 1888) or of his famous chairs (last photo 1893)
context_page_description: Seth Kinman was an early settler of Humboldt County, California, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over 6 ft tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indian warriors. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk. He was also a hotel keeper, saloon keeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.
  Known for his publicity seeking, Kinman appeared as a stereotypical mountain man dressed in buckskins on the U.S. east coast and selling cartes de visites of himself and his famous chairs. The chairs were made from elkhorns and grizzly bear skins and given to U.S. Presidents. Presidents so honored include James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Rutherford Hayes. He may have had a special relationship with President Lincoln, appearing in at least two of Lincoln's funeral corteges, and claiming to have witnessed Lincoln's assassination.
context_section_description: While delivering an elkhorn chair to President Buchanan in 1857, Kinman said, "l awoke one fine morning and found myself famous."  He made use of this fame starting in the summer of 1861, together with ventriloquist and magician J. G. Kenyon, by opening an exhibit, first in Eureka and then in San Francisco in August of that same year. Kinman displayed his "curiosities" including an elkhorn chair, mounted grizzly bears, several fiddles, and scalps, and gave a lecture.
  How they shouted and yelled when I related some of my old 'bar' stories and hair-breadth escapes, and played on that fiddle made out of the skull bones. That got them! I would wind up on the "Arkansas Traveler" and their enthusiasm wound up to the highest pitch. Before I fetched my 'bar', I would horrify them by telling them how the 'bar' tore Indian children to pieces, and how I finally trapped the 'bar' with a young dead Indian. Then the 'bar' was led out by a chain, and he would dance before he unbuttoned himself and out stepped a man. Then I had to explain about the 'bar' skin. Then I told the audience how I sawed off those Indian scalps the ladies looked horrified and aghast. Then I would tell about the Indian way of life. I would finish up by describing my elkhorn chair and how I had constructed it.
  — Seth Kinman
  They then toured gold mining camps and the San Francisco Bay area as entertainers. Later he opened a traveling "museums of curiosities" in Eureka, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles.
  During his trip to the East Coast in 1864-1866, Kinman exhibited his curiosities including his chairs, primarily in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
  He took a ten-year-old Native American boy, named Burtch or Burtchfield, with him on this trip, but Burtch died in December, 1864.  Kinman said that he took the boy on the trip because he had killed both of Burtch's parents.
  Kinman may have also displayed his chairs at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.
  As late as 1885, Kinman opened a museum in Los Angeles with his sons Carlin and Roderick.
caption: Seth (seated) with his son Carlin, displaying a few curiosities in 1876
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.7.1", "Image DateTime": "2013:07:18 18:29:32", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.7.5", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 1, 255, 1, 128, 1, 255, 1, 128, 1, 255, 1]", "Image ExifOffset": "262", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "470", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6042", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1287", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1966", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal"}