Charles B. Kennedy Biography


	This biography appears on pages 136-141 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				CHARLES B. KENNEDY.  

	Charles B. Kennedy, capitalist of Madison, has left the impress 
of his individuality in large measure upon the history of his county 
and state. There is no feature of pioneer life in the county with which 
he is not familiar and from the period of early settlement he has borne 
an active and helpful part in the work of general progress and 
improvement.  

	A native of Maine, Mr. Kennedy was born March 28, 1850, a son of 
Bartholomew C. and Oliva S. Kennedy, both descended from old New 
England stock, their ancestors on both sides having participated in the 
Revolutionary war. Like all New England farmers of those days, his 
parents were not possessed of wealth but were honest, hard working 
people and their greatest desire was that their children should enjoy 
better advantages than had fallen to their lot. In early manhood 
Bartholomew C. Kennedy became a member of the Masonic fraternity, as 
had his father before him, and to the teachings of that organization he 
was greatly devoted. His wife was a member of the Freewill Baptist 
church.  

	Charles B. Kennedy acquired his early education in a log school 
house near his father's farm. The building was seated with long wooden 
benches, one row on either side with an aisle in the center. He was 
fifteen years of age when his father sold the old home farm in New 
England and purchased another five miles from Bangor, Maine. While 
living on the latter place Charles B. Kennedy walked four miles to 
attend high school, doing the chores night and morning. He afterward 
worked in a sawmill and earned sufficient money to enable him to attend 
the Pittsfield (Me.) Institute for one term. He afterward kept up his 
studies and at the same time taught school and later spent one term as 
a student in the Maine State College at Orono, working on the college 
grounds to help defray expenses, but ill health prevented him from 
completing his course. Soon afterward he was elected district 
superintendent of schools and held that position until his removal to 
the west.  

	On the 20th of May, 1873, Mr. Kennedy wedded Miss May Ella 
Williamson, a daughter of Judge Henry Williamson, of Maine. Coming to 
the Mississippi valley, several years were spent in Le Roy, Minnesota, 
where Mr. Kennedy taught high school for a year and was also deputy 
county superintendent of schools of Mower county. He then established 
the first newspaper published at that point, calling it the Le Roy 
Independent. After editing and publishing that journal for four years 
he sold out and on the 18th of March, 1878, came to Dakota territory, 
ninety miles beyond an operating line of railway. He secured a 
homestead and tree claim of three hundred and twenty acres, at which 
time there were but nine families in the county, located around the two 
lakes, Madison and Herman. There was not a white person west of them, 
save a few scattered settlers along the James and Missouri rivers, and 
those who had recently located in the Black Hills on the western border 
of the territory. They were indeed on the frontier. Not an acre of 
improved land nor a tree, building or sign of human habitation was in 
sight from their locality, nothing but wild prairie as far as the eye 
could reach. Deep Indian and buffalo trails led from every direction to 
the permanent spring of water on the land in what is now Lake Park in 
Madison. It was this spring of water that led Mr. Kennedy to locate on 
that particular tract and also the feet that the claim was only a half 
mile from the center of the county at the junction of two valleys which 
would naturally be sought by any railroads penetrating the county. His 
prescience found fulfillment, for both valleys have since been occupied 
by railroads.  

	After building a temporary sod house Mr. Kennedy began breaking 
prairie with a four-ox team and a little later built a small frame 
house and frame and straw stable, the lumber being drawn with ox teams 
from the nearest railway point about sixty miles distant. After two 
years a survey was made for an extension of the southern Minnesota 
division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad to near the 
center of Lake county, the survey crossing Mr. Kennedy's land. On the 
south shore of Lake Madison there had sprung up a little village of 
about a dozen little buildings, which was called Madison, and which was 
the county seat. The railway survey passed nearly three miles north of 
the village of Madison, but passed through the village of Herman on the 
north shore of Lake Herman. Bitter rivalry sprung up between the two 
towns for the county seat and also the village of Wentworth, which had 
just been platted on the new railway survey, ten miles east of Herman, 
was bidding for the honor. It was then that Mr. Kennedy saw his 
opportunity. His three hundred' and twenty acres of land was within a 
half mile of the center of the county, between two large lakes in a 
well drained valley with plenty of pure water - an ideal location for a 
town site. He had little difficulty in convincing the people of Madison 
that he had the place to which they should move and negotiations were 
soon completed to that end. He immediately platted a town, which he 
named New Madison, and before the platting was completed the first 
building to be moved from the old town was on its foundation in the new 
one. The rival town of Herman, however, did not give up the claim to 
the county seat without a struggle and the builders of the new town of 
Madison realized that two towns, only two and a half miles apart in a 
sparsely settled country, could not continue long to exist. The New 
Madison people, therefore, made a proposition to the townspeople of 
Herman that they would give them in New Madison an equal number of lots 
and as well located as they possessed in Herman if they would move 
their buildings to New Madison. The Herman townspeople made a similar 
proposition to the residents of the other town and so little progress 
was made in that direction. At length a committee of six, three from 
each town, met to arbitrate. An all night session ensued, without 
result, and other meetings followed which were equally unresultant. 
Then two other members were added to the committee from each town, but 
still without result. About this time the people of New Madison learned 
that three different buildings at Herman could be bought, and in a 
quiet way Mr. Kennedy and two others purchased these buildings and 
proceeded to move them, one at a time to New Madison, taking the 
smallest first. When the people of Herman saw what was being done they 
rose en masse, many armed with weapons of warfare, but the foresight of 
Mr. Kennedy and his associates had provided for the situation and a 
sheriff and several deputies were on duty. The people of the rival town 
saw that opposition would be useless and felt that this was only one 
building. What was their consternation when they saw the second and 
then the third building going to New Madison. They did not know what 
the end would be, nor how much property the New Madison forces had 
acquired and soon the two committees again met and Herman agreed to 
move to New Madison on the original terms, since which time the growth 
of the county seat has been uninterrupted.  

	In the winter of 1880-81 Mr. Kennedy represented Lake and seven 
adjoining counties in the territorial legislature and at that session 
secured the passage of an act vacating the old site of Madison and 
changing the name of the new town to New Madison and also designating 
it as the county scat of Lake county. He was likewise instrumental in 
securing the passage of an act establishing the State Normal School at 
Madison and he donated a twenty acre site for the school - the site 
being now occupied by four large stone buildings, while the campus is 
covered with fine shade trees. The winter of Mr. Kennedy's service in 
the legislature was a memorable one in the history of the state. The 
snow lay to such depths that no trains ran throughout the winter, and 
at the close of his service in the legislature it seemed impossible for 
him to return to his home, a distance of seventy-five miles in direct 
line and about one hundred and fifty miles by rail. Mr. Kennedy and 
three other of the legislators, however determined to brave conditions 
and hired a team and sled, starting upon the trip. There was not even a 
track through the drifted snow, which was three feet or more all over 
the ground and in some of the ravines was from fifteen to twenty feet 
deep, so that much of the way they had to shovel and tread a track to 
get the team through. They could only make from five to ten miles in a 
day and night found the team jaded and the men practically exhausted. 
The next day they would send home the team and driver of the day before 
and hire a fresh team and after eleven days of most terrible hardships, 
much of the way through blinding snow storms, they reached Madison, two 
of the party stopping at Sioux Falls and one of them dying in a few 
days from exhaustion on this trip.  

	In the spring of 1881 Mr. Kennedy opened a real-estate and 
private banking business in Madison and in 1884 became one of the 
organizers of the First National Bank and its first president. In 1885, 
in connection with his brother, William F. Kennedy, he organized the 
Kennedy Brothers banking, farm loan and real-estate business, which in 
1889 they merged into the Northwestern Loan & Banking Company, of which 
Charles B. Kennedy was president and his brother cashier and secretary. 
The increase in business demanded that the banking department be 
conducted separate from the farm loan and real-estate departments and 
in 1891 they organized the Madison State Bank, with the same officers 
as the Northwestern Loan & Banking Company, and both continued to do 
business in their several departments in their office building at the 
northwest corner of Egan avenue and Sixth street. In 1909, desiring to 
retire from the banking business, a consolidation of the Madison State 
Bank with the First National Bank was effected and the former merged 
into the latter. The Northwestern Loan & Banking Company, however, 
continues to conduct a general farm loan and real-estate business and 
as president Mr. Kennedy directs its interests.  

	His largest business concerns, however, are his farms, which he 
began to buy when the county was first settled. He now owns forty farms 
and much of the land is improved. In this process he has developed raw 
prairies, breaking the sod, fencing, tiling, constructing buildings, 
planting trees and doing other work that has transformed the unsettled 
prairies to a state of high cultivation. During the past six years he 
has erected nothing but solid concrete buildings, having many of them 
on different farms throughout the county at the present time. He 
derives his greatest pleasure from the development of his farms in a 
permanent manner and along scientific lines. He has always had the 
greatest faith in the future of farm lands in South Dakota and has 
utilized every opportunity for the advantageous purchase of such. All 
days in his career have not been equally bright. In fact, he has seen 
the storm clouds gather, but he has managed to turn threatened defeat 
into victory and has lived to see the prevailing prices of five and ten 
dollars per acre, which existed during the financial panic from 1893 to 
1897, advance until improved farms in the county today are worth 
usually one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. At the present time Mr. 
Kennedy is largely turning over his business to his sons, C. Le Roy and 
Dean M. yet he, still keeps supervision over his interests and, as 
indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature, could not be 
content without some business interests. His notable success may be 
attributed largely to his unfaltering diligence and his temperate 
habits, and now he has opportunity to enjoy rest if he so desires. In 
fact, he spends the winter months and indeed about half of his time at 
Los Angeles, California. He was for many years interested quite 
extensively in the raising of live stock and during that time was a 
member of the Dakota Fine Stock Breeders Association, of which he 
served as president for one term. He has been the leader in the 
erection of concrete buildings in his section of the state, being the 
first to follow this plan in Lake county and thus setting an example 
for others. He recognized the value of such buildings, which are cool 
in summer and warm in winter. Improving farms makes stronger appeal to 
him than anything else, and he rejoices in the change from crude nature 
to highly improved land.  

	In politics Mr. Kennedy is a progressive republican and has ever 
manifested a public spirited interest in the vital questions and issues 
of the day. He has membership with the Masons and the Odd Fellows, 
being a member of Evergreen Lodge, No. 17, A. F. & A. M.; Cyrus 
Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M.; Madison Chapter, No. 6, O. E. S.; and 
Madison Commandery No. 20, K. T., all of Madison, and Oriental 
Consistory, No. 1, Yankton; and El Riad Shrine Temple of Sioux Falls.  

	He has lived to witness notable changes throughout this section 
of the country. There were just nine families in Lake county at the 
time of his arrival and he went through the period of hardships and 
privations incident to settlement upon the frontier. At that period the 
nearest railroad was ninety miles from his home and all lumber for 
building purposes had to be hauled the entire distance with ox teams. 
Notable has been the change in methods of travel since that time; today 
Mr. Kennedy speeds over the country in a motor car and his progressive 
spirit is indicated in the fact that he was the owner of the first 
automobile in his part of the state. Mr. Kennedy may truly be called a 
self-made man. He started out in life without a dollar and even earned 
the money to pay the expenses of his education after leaving the common 
schools. He has never received a dollar by gift or inheritance from any 
source whatever. While his early advantages were limited, he has 
learned many valuable lessons in the school of experience and is today 
a broad and liberal-minded man, in touch with the world's advancement 
and exemplifying in his own life the progressive spirit of the age. He 
has always taken an active part in the welfare of this city which he 
helped to build, serving for many years as a member of the city council 
and for two years as its mayor. He has also been active in territorial 
and state matters, having been one of twelve or more men from different 
parts of the territory to spend several months in Washington, D. C., in 
the interest of the fight to secure in congress all act dividing the 
territory and admitting the two states, North and South Dakota. He was 
for several years chairman of the republican central committee of Lake 
county and a member of the state central committee, but in later years 
has been too much engrossed in business to give political matters much 
attention. In both political and religious views he has been quite 
liberal, being strenuously opposed to blindly following bosses and 
self-constituted leaders in either line. He has never adopted a belief 
simply because some one else advocated it or because his ancestors were 
devotees of it, but has always exercised his own judgment and rejected 
those ideas or theories which have not appealed to his reason. Such is 
the history of one of Lake county's foremost citizens and a man not 
unknown as a leader in the state. Great, indeed, are the changes which 
have been wrought since he came to Dakota. Advantages were few at the 
time of his arrival, but opportunities were many for the ambitious, 
industrious and energetic man, and these he utilized until he stands 
today as one of the most prosperous residents of South Dakota, strong 
in his ability to plan and to perform, strong in his honor and his good 
name.