Young, Kendall (1820-1896)

YOUNG, UNDERDOWN

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 10/27/2016 at 12:44:31

Webster City Freeman, Webster City, Iowa, Wednesday, July 1, 1896

THE PASSING OF ANOTHER PIONEER

Kendall Young, one of Webster City's Most Prominent and Respected Citizens Passes to the Great Beyond. - An Honored Career Ended. -President of the First National Bank for Twenty-Five Years.

A dispatch was received by friends here yesterday from F.D. Young, stating that Kendall Young, of this city, died at Battle Creek, Mich., yesterday morning, whither he went two or three weeks ago for medical treatment.

Kendall Young has been closely and actively identified with the business interests of Webster City for thirty-seven years, and no man who ever lived in the community enjoyed the respect and esteem of his fellowmen in a greater degree than he. He was scrupulously honest in all business transactions and had the fullest confidence of those who were associated with him in financial matters. He was a good financier, and has been president of the First National Bank of this city since its organization in 1871. His high character, strong individuality, fidelity to principle and strict integrity in business matters, won for the financial institution of which he was the head, the implicit confidence of the people of Webster City and Hamilton county.

Kendall Young was born in Eden, Maine, January 19, 1820, and was raised on a farm. He remained at home until he reached the age of 19, when he started out to make his own way in the world. Soon after attaining the age of 21 he became a sailor and in this capacity visited the West India Islands, England and many ports along the coast of the United States. Quitting the sea and returning to Maine he engaged in merchandising, doing a sort of barter trade with the fishermen. After a few years he emigrated to Wisconsin, settling upon a farm in 1844. He caught the gold fever in 1849, and in company with six others crossed the plains in search of the yellow metal. He engaged in mining at Mormon Island in the American river, and after two and a half years in the mines returned to his home in Maine, taking with him several thousand dollars worth of gold, which was the foundation of the adequate fortune which he now leaves behind. His taste of western life rendered him restless in the "slow and easy-going cast," and he again turned his face toward the setting sun. A few months later found him located at Rockton, Ill., where he entered into a sort of general business, loaning money, selling merchandise, and owning a part interest in a paper mill. These enterprises did not suit the old sailor-miner, and he again took up the journey to the westward. Soon afterward Mr. Young is found located at Albion, Marshall county, Iowa, associated in business with L.L. Treat, now of this city. A few years later Mr. Young and Mr. Treat removed to Kossuth county, where they laid out the town of Irvington. In 1859 the subject of this sketch settled in Webster City and has made this his home continuously ever since. In 1871 the First National Bank of Webster City was founded with Mr. Young as president, which position he held at the time of his death.

Charles Aldrich, in closing an extended biography written six or eight years ago of Mr. Y., and to whom we are indebted for the data in the foregoing, says:

Kendall Young started out in life with the best possible mental equipment for a young man who had to "paddle his own canoe." His habits were excellent; he was willing to work at any honorable employment; had no false ideas about labor; no "wild oats" to sow, and was determined to win a good name in whatever community should become his home. He has fully achieved what his early ambition so laudably craved - a handsome competence, and a character and standing in the community above and beyond reproach. In the discharge of his labors as President of the First National Bank, he has always been thoroughly informed in regard to its business and responsibilities - fairly trusting his subordinates, who have always been most fortunately selected, but never leaving his own duties to be performed by others. Under his charge the bank has prospered until its original capital stock has about doubled. His name has become a synonym for trustworthiness and reliability, and hundreds of people seek his advice in matters of investment, or general business. While he is most undemonstrative, conservative, and by many, perhaps, deemed in some directions too conservative, it is universally conceded that no interest entrusted to his care or guidance ever suffered from inattention or an error of judgment.

The remains of our honored fellow-citizen will arrive here today, and the funeral will be held at the family home tomorrow forenoon at 10 o'clock, Rev. Amos Crum conducting the services.

Hamilton County Journal, Saturday, July 4, 1896

KENDALL YOUNG PASSES AWAY

Another Pioneer Dies and Leaves a Most Fitting and Appropriate Monument to his Memory.

Kendall Young died Tuesday, June 30, 1896, at Battle Creek, Mich., where he has gone but recently for medical treatment and his remains were brought here Thursday and buried in the city cemetery, being followed to the grave by a large concourse of people.

Probably no man has been any more closely identified with the business interests of Webster City than Mr. Young who has been a resident of this place for thirty-seven years, the past twenty-five of which he has been president of the First National Bank, in which capacity and in his other business transactions he had won the fullest confidence and esteem of all who were associated with him in any way.

He was born on a farm in Maine in 1820, where he remained until 19 years of age, when he left home to look out for himself and in a short time embarked as a sailor, which occupation he followed for some little time. In 1844 he moved to Wisconsin on a farm and in '49 he pushed on in company with others to the gold mining camps of the west where he was successful and laid the foundation for his large fortune. He went back to Maine for a short time but soon returned west and settled in Illinois, where he was in a general business for a short time when he located in Marshall county, Iowa, and formed the acquaintance of L.L. Treat, with whom he then began business relations which have been kept up since in some manner or other. Mr. Treat and Mr. Young left Marshall county and laid out the town of Irvington, up near Algona, but their venture not being as successful as desired they moved to this city in 1859, where Mr. Young has remained. He was married in 1858 to Miss Jane Underdown, who survives him. She has been in very poor health the past few years and was at Battle Creek in a sanitarium at the time of his death.

Mr. Young has been a successful business man during his eventful life and leaves a fortune estimated at from $150,000 to $200,000, which he disposed of in a truly beautiful and appropriate manner as was brought out by his will, which was filed at the County Clerk's office last Thursday. The conditions of his will are substantially as follows: He bequeathed $500 to Susan Dorheugty who has taken care of the Young residence here for some time, the house and furniture to his wife and the balance he set aside as a trust fund for the establishment and maintenance of a public library in Webster City. Of this amount $25,000 is to be used after his wife's death for the erection of a building to be located either on Seneca street or on the beautiful ground where his home now stands, on Willson Avenue, and $10,000 is set aside for the purchase of books. Out of the balance his wife is to be supported in as good a manner as she has lived during the past few years and after her death the whole estate goes to the public library fund. Mesrs. W.J. Covil, Sam'l Baxter, F.D. Young, J.W. Young and Ed Burgess are named as trustees of the library fund to hold office for life and Mr. J.W. Young is appointed executor of the will. It was truly a handsome gift and the "Kendall Young Library" will be an enduring monument to one of Webster City's most beloved and respected citizens.