Representative Jesse Kennedy View All Years

HON. JESSE KENNEDY.

MR. SPEAKER—Your special committee to prepare appropriate resolutions to commemorate the life, character and public services of the Hon. Jesse Kennedy, beg leave to submit the following report:

Jesse Kennedy was born in the year 1824 in Perry county, Pennsylvania, He grew to manhood in his native state. So far as we can learn he had no college education, but succeeded by his own efforts in obtaining a common school education that fitted him to take an active and influential part in the public life and development of each community in which he lived.

In 1861 he was a member of the Pennsylvania State Legislature, representing the counties of Perry and Cumberland. He was an Assistant Internal Revenue Collector under President Lincoln, and for more than ten years he was principal of the State Orphans’ School at Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.

In 1876, Mr. Kennedy came west and invested in Iowa land, locating in Ida county, and two years later he moved his family and settled on a large tract of land south of Ida Grove, which soon became known far and wide as the Kennedy ranch.

Ida county at that time was almost an unbroken prairie without a railroad in the county, and he thus became identified with the real pioneers of this part of our great state. Mr. Kennedy at once rose to prominence, took an active part in all that stands for good government. He was active in church and religious life, and took a leading part in the public life of the community.

In 1884 he was elected to the State Legislature from the seventy-fifth representative district, consisting of Ida and Buena Vista counties. In this body he was chairman of the Committee on Normal Schools, and gave good service to the state, especially along moral and educational lines. He was the author of the prohibitory law that was passed at that session.

In his home life he was above reproach, a good husband, a kind and loving father, and in every way a man of whom it may be said he did nobly his part to make for good in the community in which he lived.

In 1888 he sold his Ida county interests and removed to Wichita county, Texas, where in association with some other Iowa gentlemen he organized and became president of the Iowa-Texas Land Company. This company bought a large tract of land and started the town of Iowa Park and located a colony of Iowa people. Here, too, Mr. Kennedy’s natural ability soon gained him recognition. Twice he was a candidate of his party for the State Legislature, and was strongly urged to run for congress. He was a life long member of the Church of God, a Mason and an Odd Fellow.

He spent his last years at Iowa Park and here, on August 18, 1908, the call came and he closed a long life, well spent. Now therefore be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-third General Assembly: That while we mourn at the death of this staunch old pioneer, we also want to call to remembrance the purity of his life and the noble qualities of mind and heart which raised him above the common run of men and made it possible for him to take such an influential part in the public life of these great states.

Resolved Further: That this memorial be printed in the Journal, that an enrolled copy be sent to his son, William Kennedy of Ray, Colorado, and to his daughter, Mrs. Eulalia T. Cleft of Point Loma, California.

S. M. CORRIE,

E. H. CUNNINGHAM,

H. C. SCHROEDER,

Committee.