The Motor Car Rescue: Sheriff Frank Kinnie, the Masonic Temple Scaffold, and the Sixty-Horsepower Escape of Adelaide Branch

I. The Frontier Sheriff of Sullivan County

Frank Kinnie (1867–1945) was a central figure in Sullivan County’s Progressive Era law enforcement, civic organization, and political administration. Born on Kinnie Hill in Maplewood, near Mongaup Valley, New York, on September 13, 1867, he received a classical education at the Seybold Academy in Monticello, preparing him for an early career in public education.

Before entering law enforcement, Kinnie spent ten years teaching in various Sullivan County schools, serving as an educator in Mongaup Valley, Barryville, and Narrowsburg. His teaching career culminated in Narrowsburg, where he served as principal of the district school. In addition to teaching, Kinnie established a successful general mercantile business in Narrowsburg under the firm name Kinnie & Schneider.

Kinnie’s administrative rise began in the Town of Tusten, where he served as Town Supervisor from 1908 to 1909. In November 1911, running on the Republican ticket, Kinnie was elected Sheriff of Sullivan County for a three-year term spanning 1912 to 1915. Establishing his official residence and office at the newly constructed, state-of-the-art Sullivan County Jail on Bank Street, Kinnie managed the county's penal system alongside Under-Sheriff Richard Hall and Deputy Sheriff Howard Beecher.

II. The Highway Commission and Friendship with Melvin Couch

Throughout his life, Sheriff Kinnie maintained a close friendship with Monticello attorney and former District Attorney Melvin H. Couch. Both men operated within the elite Republican political networks and fraternal circles of Sullivan County. This bond was formally cemented in November 1910, when County Judge Thornton appointed Melvin Couch, John Z. Twichell, and Frank Kinnie as Commissioners to determine the necessity of a new public highway (NYS Route 97) connecting Minisink Ford and Barryville.

This deep friendship placed Sheriff Kinnie in a delicate position when Couch died suddenly on December 21, 1913. As Couch’s death bared his dual existence and the presence of Adelaide Mary Branch—who had been secretly cloistered behind a wooden board partition in Couch's law office for three years—Kinnie was thrust into the dual role of chief law enforcement officer investigating a potential homicide and a protective loyalist seeking to manage the resulting moral scandal.

III. Room 3 Collapses: Sheriff Kinnie’s Tactical Custody

Upon entering Couch's office on the morning of December 21, 1913, alongside Dr. John F. Curlette, Sheriff Kinnie discovered Adelaide cowering behind the locked partition door. To manage the gathering crowd and secure the scene, Kinnie took Adelaide into custody. Local authorities issued a technical, temporary misdemeanor charge of petit larceny, alleging that she possessed three dollars (and later, about $600 in mortgages) belonging to Couch's estate.

This placeholder charge allowed Kinnie to legally detain Adelaide in the hospital ward of the Sullivan County Jail, effectively shielding her from the hounding metropolitan reporters who descended upon Monticello. Despite her technical status, Adelaide was treated with remarkable consideration by the Kinnie family. Kinnie kept her in the comfortable hospital ward under suicide watch. Kinnie's wife, Cora Rockwell Kinnie, personally prepared and delivered homemade breakfasts each morning and arranged for a local nurse, Mrs. Andrew Dunn, to remain with her night and day.

In the original Sullivan County Jail logbook (log entry #159 for 1913), Adelaide was described as a forty-year-old, "well-educated" Protestant whose habits were strictly "Temperate." Under the column used to record an inmate's occupation, the word "Typewriter" was initially written in pen, which was then struck through with a single line and replaced with "Clerk" in pencil, illustrating the officials' discomfort with her professional standing.

IV. The Sixty-Horsepower Midnight Escape

On the afternoon of Tuesday, December 23, 1913, Justice of the Peace Kenneth D. L. Niven officially dismissed the petit larceny charge against Adelaide due to a total lack of evidence. Free to leave, Adelaide begged to remain in the jail's custody for several more days to avoid the aggressive journalists camped on the courthouse lawn. Kinnie willingly extended his hospitality, keeping her safe until her older brother, Herbert O. Branch, arrived from Hartwick.

Early on Sunday morning, December 28, 1913, between 1:00 AM and 6:00 AM, Sheriff Kinnie executed a meticulous plan to smuggle Adelaide out of Monticello. Heavily veiled and clad in a dark wool duster, Adelaide was escorted out of the jail's rear entrance into a high-powered, sixty-horsepower automobile. The machine sped away at top speed toward South Fallsburg to evade pursuing reporters.

Adelaide was safely hidden in South Fallsburg until the morning train west was due. Sheriff Kinnie, former Sheriff Avery, and Adelaide's legal counsel, George H. Smith, met her at the Ontario & Western (O&W) railroad station to bid her farewell. Adelaide boarded the train to New York City, where she sought refuge with Upton Sinclair’s progressive circle.

Kinnie maintained his protective stance even after her departure. When Sinclair wrote to him in January 1914 inquiring about her well-being, Kinnie replied on official Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office letterhead, stating that he had no idea of her ultimate destination and writing: "I trust a kind Providence will protect and care for her"—permanently securing her privacy and allowing her to emerge in Manhattan as Mary Douglas.

V. Archival Footprint of Sheriff Frank Kinnie