Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 290
ALEXANDER KENNEDY, one of the leading citizens of Sweetland Township. residing on section 8, is numbered among the honored pioneers of Muscatine County of 1842. He first came to America in 1831, and worked as a tanyard in Philadelphia for nearly a year, when, owing to the prevalence on cholera, he left that city and returned to Ireland, of which country he was a native, born in County Tyrone in 1808, where his boyhood days were passed. He was educated in his native country, and there formed the acquaintance of Miss Mary Ann Dunn. Amid the scenes of his childhood, he wooed and won the lady, and in 1835 their marriage was celebrated. They began their domestic life in Ireland, making that their home for seven years, but in 1842 a desire to cast his lot in the New World stirred in the breast of Mr. Kennedy, and, accompanied by his family, he embarked for America. When his voyage across the broad ocean was completed he came directly to Muscatine County, where he has since continued to reside. At that time the settlements were very few, wild game of all kinds abounded, deer roamed over the prairies, and bands of Indians were often seen. But time transforms everything; the wild and uncultivated land has been transformed into beautiful homes and farms, cities and villages have sprung up, and the iorn horse has taken the place of the rude vehicles of former days.

By the union of Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy thirteen children were born, but again and again the death angel has visited the home until only one is left, Alexander, born May 1,1857, who married Miss Mary Lefever, Dec. 9, 1880, a native of Bloomington Township, Muscatine County, and a daughter of Daniel and Sarah Lefever, who came from Ohio to this county at an early day. Two children have been born of their union; Guy V., born Sept. 28, 1881, and Mabel B., born Feb. 14, 1883. Alexander, Jr., is in charge of his father's farm, which is pleasantly situated in Sweetland Township, and comprises 280 acres of fine land under a high state of cultivation.

After a happy married life of forty-one years, although shadowed by the ruthless hand of death, which so ofter came unbidden to take one of her loved ones, Mrs. Kennedy died Feb. 15, 1876. She was a woman loved and respected by all who knew her.

Mr. Kennedy on coming to this country allied himself with the old Whig party, with which he affiliated until its dissolution, since which time he has been an earnest advocate of the principles of the Republican party. Religiously, he was reared a Presbyterian, but for many years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a citizen, he has always been willing to aid in any enterprise which he believed for the public good. Few men have more friends than Alexander Kennedy, the subject of this sketch.

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