Biography

Payne Kenyon Kilbourne (1815-1859), author, was born in Litchfield, Conn. He learned the printer's trade, assisted in publishing a literary paper in Hartford and was owner and editor of The Litchfield Enquirer from 1845 until 1853. In 1857 he was private secretary to Gov. Alexander H. Holley. Kilbourne was an enthusiastic student of local history, and wrote both in prose and verse. He published The Skeptic and Other Poems (1843), History of the Kilbourne Family, from 1635 to the Present Time (Hartford, 1845), Biographical History of the County of Litchfield (New York, 1851), The History and Antiquities of the Name and Family of Kilbourn (New Haven, 1856), and Sketches and Chronicles of the Town of Litchfield (Hartford, 1859). He also compiled and arranged the appendices to Gideon Hollister's History of Connecticut (2 vols., New Haven, 1855), and prepared most of the notes for that work. In 1842, he married Elizabeth C. Cone (1816-1900). They had two daughters, Julia Elizabeth Kilbourne Braman (1843-1892) and Lelia Kenyon Kilbourne (1850-1861).

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