Thomas Kinsella

Who was Thomas Kinsella?

Thomas Kinsella was a United States Representative from New York. Born in County Wexford, Ireland, he immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City, where he attended the common schools. He moved to Cambridge, New York in 1851 and learned the printer's trade; he worked for the Cambridge Post, and moved to Brooklyn in 1858, becoming editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on September 7, 1861. He was postmaster of Brooklyn in 1866, and was a member of the city water commission and board of education.

Kinsella was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-second Congress, holding office from March 4, 1871 to March 3, 1873. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1872. He established the Brooklyn Sunday Sun in 1874; it afterward combined with the Daily Eagle, which he edited until his death in Brooklyn, 1884. He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery.