Benjamin McClusky (1819-1862)

As I discussed in my last post, John P. Kennedy's first wife Mary Susan McClusky was the daughter of Benjamin McClusky and Sarah A. Howard. Her father Benjamin was born in Limestone County, Alabama in 1819 and was the third of eight children belonging to his parents William McCleskey and Elizabeth Proctor. During his childhood, the family would relocate to Lawrence County, Alabama and then to Lincoln County, Tennessee. It is here in Lincoln County that Benjamin would meet and eventually marry his wife Sarah A. Howard on September 28, 1840. Very little is known about his wife Sarah's early life other than she was born in Virginia around the year 1818.

Together Benjamin and Sarah would have five children: William Marion (1841), Sarah E. (1844), Joseph P. (1848), Mary Susan (1851), and Harriet A. (1856).

By 1844, the family would relocate to Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Benjamin McClusky makes his first appearance in the county records via the 1845 tax list for the county. His earliest known appearance in the county's land records involves a deed of trust between himself and a man named Isaac P. Carr dated June 1, 1852. In the document, Benjamin is guaranteeing the transfer of 103 acres of land to Isaac P. Carr who was the treasurer of the county school fund, against a loan of two hundred and fifty dollars. The land is described as being located in the southwest quarter of Section 3 Township 11 of Range 3 east. This piece of land lay to the southeast of the town of Algoma and it's location proves interesting when it comes to trying to locate the final resting place of Benjamin McClusky and his wife Sarah.

Township & Range Map for Pontotoc County, MS.

(red X marks location of land owned by Benjamin McClusky)

Civil War Enlistment Document for Benjamin McClusky

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Benjamin at age 43 and his oldest son William Marion McClusky would enlist with Company F of the 41st Mississippi Infantry Regiment CSA on April 1, 1862. The men in Company F were also known as the Pontotoc Grays. Benjamin's service would be very short-lived due to his contracting measles and being sent home where he would die from the disease on June 23, 1862. For his efforts, records indicate that Benjamin received a whopping sum of twenty-two dollars and seventy-three cents. In stark contrast, his son William would survive the entire war and ultimately be pardoned in Greensboro, NC as part of General Joseph E. Johnston's surrender to General William T. Sherman on April 26, 1865. In 1863, Benjamin's wife Sarah would petition the Confederate government for his pension and ultimately receive the sum of forty-three dollars and ten cents. After this point, Sarah would disappear from the county record apart from a possible listing on the 1870 federal census. Both her and Benjamin's final resting places are unknown, but I tend to believe they are buried in unmarked graves in a small cemetery south of their property known today as the McCleskey Cemetery. There is also the possibility they are buried in New Salem Cemetery in the southeastern part of the county near the community of Troy which is where two of their children, Joseph and Harriet, are buried.

New Salem Cemetery ~ Troy, MS

Grave of Joseph P. McClusky

(son of Benjamin & Sarah McClusky)

Grave of Harriet A. McClusky

(daughter of Benjamin & Sarah McClusky)

William Marion McClusky and family.

oldest son of Benjamin & Sarah McClusky

(circa 1890 ~ Chickasaw County, MS)
photo courtesy of Nelda Hamer

1845 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 1)

1845 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 2)

1855 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List

1859 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 1)

1859 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 2)

1852 Pontotoc County, MS Deed ~ Benjamin McClusky to Isaac P. Carr (page 1)

1852 Pontotoc County, MS Deed ~ Benjamin McClusky to Isaac P. Carr (page 2)

1862 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 1)

1862 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 2)

1862 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 3)

1862 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 4)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 1)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 2)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 3)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 4)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 5)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 6)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 7)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 8)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 9)

1863 Benjamin McClusky Civil War Service Document (page 10)

John P. Kennedy (1831-1912)

John P. Kennedy and his six sons.

(circa 1910)

The early life of John P. Kennedy is somewhat shrouded in mystery. His gravestone (a modern replacement) indicates his birth year as being 1822, yet various census records put it as being 1827, 1831, or 1836. I tend to lean more towards the year 1831 which is the birth year stated on the 1900 federal census for Pontotoc County, Mississippi. This is also the record that states he was born in Ireland and had immigrated to the United States as a child in 1842. Port of entry records for the time period show numerous John Kennedys that fit the same description entering the country from various ports in the Northeast, as well as the South.

If I were to venture a guess at a likely candidate and location for John P. Kennedy prior to his appearance in Pontotoc County in 1870, it would be the John Kennedy that appears on the 1860 federal census for Tippah County, Mississippi. With Tippah County bordering Pontotoc County to the north at the time, proximity makes it very possible, as does the fact that this individual shares the same birth year and is listed as being from Sligo, Ireland. If this is in fact the same John Kennedy, this record would provide evidence of a previously unknown first wife named Wiley A. Strong. County marriage records show the couple having married on December 10, 1859, with her father Martin Strong acting as a bondsman. It's also quite possible this same John Kennedy can be seen ten years earlier on the 1850 federal census living in the home of J. and Hannah Kenada in Tishomingo County which bordered Tippah County to the east. Interestingly enough, this John is the only person in the household listed as having been born in Ireland. It's also important to note that both of the John Kennedys mentioned disappear from both of these counties' records beyond these two census records.

1850 Federal Census listing for Tishomingo County, MS

1860 Federal Census listing for Tippah County, MS

The earliest known and definitive record involving John P. Kennedy is his marriage to Mary S. McClusky in Pontotoc County, Mississippi on July 26, 1870. His wife Mary had been born in Pontotoc in 1852 and was the daughter of long-time residents Benjamin McClusky and Sarah A. Howard.

John and Mary Kennedy would have eleven children together: Elizabeth (1876), Harriet (1877), James Hugh (1878), Josephine (1880), Ira (1882), Jennie (1884), Eber (1885), Edwin (1886), Effie (1888), William (1889), and John Pile (1891).

On August 16, 1884 the couple would purchase 160 acres of land from John T. Cruse for the sum of one hundred and sixty dollars. The parcel of land is described as being "the southwest quarter of Section 13, Township 10 of Range 2 east of the Basis Meridian of the Chickasaw Surveys". The money to purchase the land was acquired through a promissory note for the amount of one hundred and eighty dollars and forty cents from W. A. Rodgers and R. D. Wood on that same date. The property lay a few miles southwest of the town of Pontotoc and was primarily used for growing corn and cotton. The land is currently located between Hwy 341 and Old Airport Rd.

2010 Township & Range Map

showing location of John P. Kennedy's farm.

This same piece of land can be seen being used as collateral for monetary loans and referenced in a series of merchants' deeds of trust in the years 1892 and 1895-1899. The southern half of this section of land was later sold to O. C. Carr on January 23, 1903 for the sum of one thousand two hundred dollars. It is unknown what became of the northern half due to the lack of documents addressing it's sale.

At some point between the years 1892 and 1895, John's wife Mary would pass away due to unknown cause. Her burial location remains unknown, although I suspect she's buried in an unmarked grave located in the Jernigan Cemetery which lays just to the north of the family's property.

Jernigan Cemetery ~ Pontotoc County, Mississippi

John would eventually remarry on June 2, 1897. His new bride was a woman named Emma Lula (Rogers) Poe and together the couple would only have one child named Manilla Dykes Kennedy in December of 1898. The family was still residing in Pontotoc County by the turn of the century, but by 1903 or 1904 had set their eyes to the north and the newly opened cheap land in the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). The Kennedy family chose to resettle on the Creek Nation (present day McIntosh County) near the town of Eufala. Not long after arriving to the area, John Kennedy's second wife Lula would die in 1905 and be buried in Mellette Cemetery in Hanna, Oklahoma. John P. Kennedy would follow her in death seven years later, dying in 1912, and be buried next to her.

Grave of John P. Kennedy ~ Mellette Cemetery, McIntosh County, OK

(photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady)

Grave of Emma Lula (Rogers) Poe ~ Mellette Cemetery, McIntosh County, OK

(photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady)

1884 Pontotoc County, MS Deed ~ John T. Cruse to John P. Kennedy

1884 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to W. A. Rodgers and R. D. Wood

1887 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 1)

1887 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 2)

1888 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 1)

1888 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 2)

1889 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 1)

1889 Pontotoc County, MS Tax List (page 2)

1892 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to William M. Robenson

1895 Pontotoc County, MS Deed ~ J. R. Sloan to John P. Kennedy

1895 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to J. R. Sloan

1896 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to R. N. Price & R. B. Calloway

1897 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to R. N. Price & R. B. Calloway

1898 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to O. J. Knox & Jess Bell

1898 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to R. N. Price & R. B. Calloway

1898 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to B. D. Anderson & E. G. Boyd

1899 Pontotoc County, MS Deed of Trust ~ John P. Kennedy to J. W. Bell & Mrs, L. S. ???

1903 Pontotoc County, MS Deed ~ John P. Kennedy to O. C. Carr

  

William Kennedy (1889-1931)

William Kennedy 

(circa 1910)

Born on September 16, 1889 in Pontotoc, Mississippi, William Kennedy was the tenth child born unto John P. Kennedy and Mary S. McClusky. His mother was a native of Mississippi and his father an Irish immigrant. As a young man, he farmed cotton in southeastern Oklahoma in McIntosh County. It is here where he eventually meets and marries his wife Ollie Drucilla Jones on January 29, 1911 in the town of Eufala. As I discussed in my last post, William and his wife Ollie would have eleven children during their marriage.

William Kennedy

(circa 1920's)

Just prior to 1920, he would relocate his family to northeastern Oklahoma near the town of Mounds, where he would continue to farm. On the evening of December 9, 1931 after a supposed night of drinking and gambling, he was shot in the abdomen during a dispute with another local farmer named J. L. Sanders. He was brought to Morningside Hospital in Tulsa, where he would eventually die from his wound the following day. The incident was front page news in the Tulsa Tribune newspaper and his assailant would eventually be charged with murder. William was buried in Duck Creek Cemetery in Mounds, Oklahoma. His grave remained unmarked and lost until 2010 when I personally located it and arranged for a gravestone to be placed on the grave. 

William Kennedy World War 1 Draft Card

William Kennedy Death Certificate