My Genealogy Hound

JOHN L. KENNEDY, grain and feed merchant, Allegheny, was born in that city in 1843. His father, John, was born in Pennsylvania, probably in Allegheny county, in 1809, and was a resident of the county until his decease, in 1854. He married Sarah Swaney, of Indiana township, near or what is now Harmarsville, this county, and by her had four children: James B., John L., Susan (wife of Andrew Voegtley) and one that died in infancy. The father was a rope maker, and for many years was foreman of Henry Irwin’s rope factory. He was a member of the Baptist Church. His wife died in 1850, at the age of forty-one years. John L. Kennedy, the subject of this memoir, at the age of ten years went to live with his grandfather on a farm, where he remained seven years, and then enlisted in Co. K, 9th P. R., for three years, and in 1864 was honorably discharged, having served twelve days over his term of enlistment. Besides many minor engagements he participated in some ten important battles, among them being Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, South Mountain and Mine run. Since the war he has engaged at railroading, in oil business, as an officer in the Allegheny county workhouse, four years of the time as superintendent, since when he was for seven years engaged in the livery business in Allegheny, but recently he embarked in the grain, flour and feed trade. Mr. Kennedy was married December 10, 1866, to Anna C., daughter of John F. and Elizabeth Smith, and their children were James B., George C., John F. (deceased) and Lillian M. Mr. Kennedy is a F. & A. M., member of Veteran Legion and G. A. R., a member of the M. E. Church; in politics a republican.