Will The Real Isaac Jones Please Step Forward?: 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.