Keeney, Benjamin K.

KEENEY

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:03:39

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.840

BENJAMIN K. KENNEY [KEENEY]
B. K. Kenney was born on the 28th of November, 1848, on the farm where he now resides on section 6, Allen Township, his parents being S. T. and Eliz­abeth (Kessler) Kenney, the former a native of Hendricks county, Indiana, and the latter of Virginia. The father was reared and married in his native state, and in 1848 brought his bride to Warren County, Iowa, entered land from the government and made his home here until the time of his demise, which occurred near Carlisle in 1900, when he had attained the age of ninety‑two years. In addition to his farming interests he preached the gospel as a minister of the Baptist Church for almost a half century, his earnest labors proving an important factor in the moral development of this county. His widow, who is now eighty years of age, resides at Liberty Center.
B. K. Kenney, the eldest of nine sons, was reared on the old homestead farm and acquired a common-school education. Subsequent to his marriage he operated a rented farm for fourteen years and for three years rented another tract of land. He then purchased sixty acres on the Middle River, later bought twenty acres more,, erected a house and farm buildings and de­veloped a good farm. In 1891 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of the farm where he now resides on section 5, Allen Township, and subsequently bought forty acres more, so that his home place now comprises two hundred acres of well improved and valuable land. He has here erected a commodius and substantial residence, as well as outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock, has fenced the fields and altogether has a model farming property. For the paste sixteen years he has also operated an additional tract of two hundred acres of rented land. In addition to the work of general farming he also raises good graded horses and feeds about two carloads of hogs annu­ally. He likewise raises the Percheron horses and has a male called Black Joe at the head of his herd. Starting in life on his own account without financial assistance, the success which has crowned his efforts is entirely the result of his unfaltering energy and unwearied industry, guided by good bus­iness judgment.
In September, 1873, Mr. Kenney was united in marriage to Miss Martha Randelman, a native of Indiana, by whom he has eight children, five sons and three daughters. The record of the family is as follows: Alfred B., who oper­ates a hundred-acre farm in Allen Township and who wedded Miss McDaniel, by whom he has two children; Carrie Dell, who has four children and is the wife of J. F. Kline, an agriculturist of Polk and Warren counties; Ernest F., who follows farming in Warren County and who wedded Miss Lyons and has two children; George H., who is a graduate of Drake University and is a physician, now being engaged in hospital practice at Des Moines; Ira J., who is on the home farm; Levi M., who married Miss Fisher and also resides on the home farm; Nina O., who is a graduate of the Carlisle high school and Drake University and who has been a school teacher for several years; and Pearl Q., who is still under the parental roof.
Mr. Kenney gives his political allegiance to the Republican Party where questions of national importance are involved but at local elections casts an independent ballot. For two years he served as justice of the peace and has been a member of the school board for fifteen years, the cause of education ever finding in him a stalwart champion. Fraternally he is connected with the Yeomen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at. Carlisle, having passed through all the chairs in the latter order. He is an official member of the Christian Church at Carlisle, with which his wife is also identified. Throughout his entire life or for a period of sixty years he has resided in this county, being a worthy representative of one of its oldest and best known families. He still has in his possession the deed which was issued to his father by the government in 1848, and from that early day to the present time has been an interested witness and active participant in the work of development and progress here.