My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE W. KENNEDY, one of the largest and most successful farmers of Phelps county, is a native of Ohio, and was born March 16, 1832. He comes of New England parentage, his father and mother both having been natives of Massachusetts. His father’s christian name was David and his mother’s maiden name was Abigail Sprague. They were married in their native state and moved West at an early day, settling in Ohio, where they both died. They had five children, of whom the subject of this notice is the eldest. He grew up in his native state, receiving a common-school education and being trained to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life, being his own guardian and making his own way in the world since early childhood, losing his parents when he was young. He left Ohio at the age of eighteen and went to Lafayette, Ind., where he engaged as a farm hand and where in 1858 he married, moving two years afterwards to Illinois and then after one year’s renting, bought a farm of 120 acres on which he settled. In February, 1865, he entered the Union army, enlisting in Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Illinois volunteer infantry, and going South at once, was in the service, till the following September, being on guard duty, mostly along the line of railways running out from Nashville. Tenn. Returning home in the fall of 1865, he resumed farming and continued successfully at it in Illinois, till the spring of 1880, when he decided to try his fortunes in the West, and accordingly came that year to Nebraska, settling in Phelps county, buying half of section 3, township 5, range 19 west, where he has since resided. Unlike many of those who sought homes in Nebraska at a comparatively early date, Mr. Kennedy had some means to start on, not however a great deal. The farm he bought was practically unimproved and all it is he has made it. He now owns the entire section on which he lives, besides a quarter section in Harlan county, making him 780 acres, all fine land and about half of which he has under cultivation. He has his home place in splendid condition, being furnished with a superior class of buildings and all needful conveniences. He is a systematic, thorough-going man of business, and has made the bulk of what he has in the last ten years. He has never failed to raise a crop since he has been in the state and he thinks, taking it one year with another, he has had the best success at farming since living in Nebraska, that he ever had in his life. Mr. Kennedy has had a great deal of experience in the ways of the world and has acquired a large fund of practical information, having had to think and act for himself, from youth up. He is a man of sound intelligence and clear and comprehensive judgment, plain in manner, blunt in speech, and direct in his business methods. He has a kindly disposition and his neighbors say that when one comes to know him there is no better man to live by in the world. He has a pleasant home and a family of seven children growing up around him. He married, as above noted in Lafayette, Ind., in 1858; the lady whom he chose for a life companion was Miss Caroline Sandell, a daughter of Anares Sandell, a native of Stutterstrip, Sweden. His children, some of whom are now grown up, are — Elizabeth, Clara, John, Warren, Bugg, Alvin and David.

In politics Mr. Kennedy affiliates with the republicans, but is not a politician and has never sought office for himself in his life.