A History of the Russell and Kennedy Families

Date: 26 Sep 1858 to 23 Nov 1858
Location: Clay, Indiana, United States
Surnames/tags: Kennedy Russell

"A History of the Russell and Kennedy Families" by William Kennedy dated 23 Nov 1858

A short account of the ancestry of William Kennedy of Clay County, Indiana, originally of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. This embraces his ancestry, paternal and maternal as far as my knowledge goes, then the ancestry of my wife Sarah Kennedy's, as I have information. This is written at the request and for our son, Joseph Russell Kennedy. William Kennedy Sept. 26th, 1858.

As far back as I have any account is my great grandfather's father. William Kennedy was born and raised in Scotland. When 18 or 19 years old he came in an army to Ireland and was in the famous Siege of Derry by James, the Catholic King.

After the Battle of Boyne which established Protestantism, he adopted Ireland as his country and married an Irish girl and had a numerous family. My great grandfather was of these. The balance I have no account of.

This William Kennedy married Jane Gray by whom he had four sons, James, Hugh, William, and Robert, and two daughters Rebecca and Isabel.

I shall now follow the course of Hugh. His father and family moved to America when he was 17 years old and landed at Philadelphia when it was yet a new place. He married Catharine Hughes an Irish girl, the daughter of John Hughes (an old sea captain of Baltimore) . They were in high life. One or two of the sons of John were lawyers. Grandfather and grandmother had four Sons, William, Martin, Henry, and James, and four daughters Rebecca, Mary, Jane and Catharine.

Grandmother died and Grandfather married a widow, Elizabeth Scullion. They had two Sons Hugh and David and one daughter Isabel. Of this family Martin my father married Rebecca Sill his cousin. She was my mother and I think a greater tree of human perfection never fell to the lot of one woman. She was very quiet and always cheerful. Never under any trial of a despairing turn nor much elevated by prosperity. She emphatically looked well to the ways of her household and ate not the bread of idleness. My father was kind hearted, high tempered, of ready wit and dauntless courage. I reckon he never was known to shrink from danger of any kind. Though a little man he had many trials of his fortitude against the Indians previous to Wayne's victory over them.

I should have said in honor of my precious mother that I am indebted to her for all I have as to the groundwork of learning and morals. Thanks to her care I don't remember when I could not read nor repeat the Lord's Prayer.

They raised nine children, Catharine, William, Isabel, Mary, James, Martin, George, Rebecca and Marinda. These all had families less or more.

William (myself) married Sarah Russell an Irish girl and I thank to God she ever was mine. She has ever been a chaste prudent faithful companion in prosperity or adversity always ready to prompt to good never to evil. I will give her parentage when I get through my own fathers down to my grandfather were Seceders for the Presbyterians of the Established church of Scotland. Not believing the solemn league and covenanteered into by the church of Scotland to resist papacy and Prelacyobligatory on their posterity.

My grandfather, Hugh Kennedy, joined the Methodists when a little over twenty one. His father resented it so much that he disinherited him. He gave all his other sons a home but him. Methodism in those days was considered a disgrace to a family, but grandfather lived and died a good man. My father's [siblings] were strictly moral but did not profess religion until 1800. They professed and I have no doubt possessed religion from that date on. They lived Holy and died happy members of the Methodist society.

My sister Catharine professed religion when about fifteen and joined the Methodists. I think a more blameless character could not be found. She married Absalom Monks a worthy man. They left a numerous family in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

Isabel married Joseph Richardson, a moral good natured man but a poor manager. She died happy and left three children in the same county and state.

Mary married James Norton, a cousin. She died happy and left one son, Martin. He and his father are now in Brown County, Illinois.

James you know and his course in life. I have no knowledge of his prospect at last.

Martin you know. I have good hope in his end.

George, I think, is trying to make heaven his home.

Rebecca married Robert Stuart. I am not acquainted with him. From what I gather he is a poor manager-and of a sour and morose temper.

Marinda married a cousin, Joseph Kennedy. I am told there was good hopes on her end, she Left some children, I don t know how many.

As for William I guess you know him. May the Lord have mercy on him and make him wiser and better than.

I will go back to my grandfather [Hugh] Kennedy's brothers and sisters.

James Kennedy I know almost nothing of. They went south in an early day. They preferred being Quakers. I think from what I can gather he was apt to get drunk.

William Kennedy: his father set him up well to the exclusion of my grandfather [Hugh] and while young drinking and neglect of business reduced him to poverty but in his old days he reformed and became a Methodist professed religion and was believed to die happy.

Robert was a quiet inoffensive man of poor health. He married Polly Thompson a tyrannical tyrant. They had no children. She was thought dishonest. She was an aunt to the Thompson in Bowling Green. Robert fell dead in the road. [Allegheny County Deed Book 10-K, p. 494, settlement of the estate of Robert Kennedy names siblings Hugh Kennedy (and wife Elizabeth), William Kennedy (and wife Sarah), Isabella Sill (and husband George Sill), and Rebecca Ryan (and husband James Ryan). The siblings signed a quit claim to deed their share of their brother Robert Kennedy’s estate to brother William Kennedy’s oldest son, Robert Kennedy Jr (b. 1773).]

Isabel married George Sill. I shall have more to say of her when come to speak of my mother's parentage.

Rebecca their sister married James Ryan. They had a numerous family. They were all wicked and never improved any that I know of.

[Returns to grandfather Hugh Kennedy’s children]

My father[ Martin]'s brother William, I know little about. I never seen him but twice. He was a poor manager, tended mills nearly all his life. He had no out breaking that I know of. Of his latter end I have no account. [William married Ann Strawbridge, had three children, and tended mills in St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.]

The next was Rebecca. she married Joseph Edmundson. He was very rich and remained so until the Revolutionary war. He took an active part in that though brought up a Quaker and was made an officer. This brought in company he was not used to. He commenced drinking and gambling till he ran through the immense estate and became insolvent and died a wicked man. They had eight sons Caleb, William, Joseph, Hugh, Isaac, John and Thomas and two daughters Catherine and Rebecca.

Next sister, Jane, married Isaac Webb a Quaker. They had a family. I cannot give their names. They and the Edmundsons moderately wealthy and wicked when I knew them. I am since that many of them have since become religious Methodists.

The next was Mary. She married Isaac Norton, a Quaker. I never saw them nor their family. I am told they were honest moral people.

Martin my father was next.

Catharine next. She married Thomas Martin a worthy Presbyterian. I saw her and him and they had a numerous family. He bought a large body of land near Cleveland Ohio near the lake.

The next was Henry Kennedy. He was crippled when young. The smallpox turned to something like white swelling all over him. Many of his joints slipped out of place. He married Isabel Sill my mother[ Rebecca]'s sister. They had a numerous family. I think they all nearly were members of the Methodist society.

The next was James. He married Elizabeth Bailelet [possibly Bailey]. They both died in Brown County Ohio [actually Adams County, Ohio]. They had a numerous family. I think the old folks and all their family belonged to the Methodists.

The next was Hugh by second marriage. He married a worthy Irish girl Nancy Kelly. They were Presbyterians. I am informed they have a numerous family in good credit and good circumstances.

The next was Isabel. She married James McAfee. He was fornically wicked. I have heard in their old age they became religious and joined the Methodists.

David the youngest was very wild I am informed he took up and married in a good family and he and wife and family belong to the Presbyterians.

Of my mother[ Rebbeca]'s ancestry I am not able to trace back farther than my grandfather George Sill. Whether he was born in America or England I have now forgot. All his Ancestors were English. I heard him say his Aunt Rachel Baker and family came to America in the ship with William Penn.

Grandfather Sill married Isabel Kennedy my Grandfather [Hugh] Kennedy's sister in Chester County near Philadelphia and there both my father and mother were born. Grandfather was a Quaker and for honesty and uprightness in all his dealings he was remarkably plum and unnecessarily blunt. It was a saying among his neighbors that old George Sill had fewer lies told to him than anybody else. The reason was, no matter what their standing he would reprove them sharply at once.

Nancy [Ann] their oldest married Robert [G]ray a man of Enterprise and was thought rich till he died insolvent and ruined my father he being surety for him. They had several children. I know little about them. She then married a cousin Joseph [Joshua] Kennedy a son of old James. I said would get drunk and he was a drunkard and lazy and they lived and died poor.

Mary, the next married William Rarden. He was a good man an elder of the Presbyterian society. She and he lived and I believe died happy. They left several respectable children in Rush County [, Indiana].

The next was Rebecca my mother.

The next was George. I don t remember who he married. They had a numerous family though of little account. The old man would drink and frolic and managed to cheat all the rest of the heirs out of a clever estate of their father.

William Sill. He also made a poor out would frequently take drinking sprees. I am informed that after he moved to Peoria Illinois he reformed and became religious.

The next was Isabel. She married Henry Kennedy my father[ Martin]’s brother. They were both professors and the most of their family among the Methodists.

So ends the original stock of my ancestors paternal and maternal some was good and some was very bad. May the Lord help us to avoid the errors of the one and to pattern after the virtues of the others.

I will now give what information I am possessed of of your mother’s Ancestry paternal and maternal as far as I am able. My information is mainly from your Grandmother Russell and that is so long past much it has slipped from my memory I began with your Grandfather Joseph Russell. He was born in the Isle of Kail near Down Patrick in the County of Down in the north of Ireland. Down Patrick is the County Seat. His parents were bigots to the Church of England and their religion consisted in going to church on Sunday and read prayers and feast and visit or receive visits the balance of the day.

Till finally Joseph your grandfather heard John Wesley at a place called swadling bar hence the Methodists by way of division got the name swadlers. So it was that your grandfather was struck with and never rested until he was soundly converted. The family consisted of five sons and one daughter Margaret. I don t know the names of any of the sons only one called Hugh, except your grandfather’s. But they were rich and aristocratic and felt their dignity so much injured by one of the family becoming a Methodist that they gave him his choice to leave the swadlers or to leave their house and home. He like Moses of old chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and they carried their threat so fully into effect that they would not correspond with him by letter after he moved to America.

It was near Christmas when he was expelled from home. He went to an Uncle Gilliland some distance off. This was Christmas night. When he got there he found fiddling and dancing in different rooms. They were appraised of what had taken place and determined to assist in carrying it out. Therefore they immediately urged him to dance and when they could not prevail, they expelled him from the house in a very cold night. This without money or friends. He kneeled down by a solitary bush in the snow and prayed to his Heavenly Father and there received the blessing of sanctification. He then went to a tolerably wealthy man who had become a Methodist and he found himself a home and employment that he could provide for himself.

He not long afterward married your grandmother Jane Patterson whose religious course was also singular and shows the ignorance and prejudice then existing.

After they had three children, your grandmother at the breast they moved to America and landed at Philadelphia. From thence they moved north of the Alleghenies River some seven miles in Allegheny County on a stream called Bull Creek. There they settled entirely in the woods on a new place. He worked hard and had about thirty acres under cultivation and died. I suppose as happy a man as ever left the world.

I will now give you the history of your grandmother, Jane Patterson. They lived but a few miles from the Russells. There were four girls and two sons. Jane your grandmother, Nancy, Sarah and Martha, the sons James and John. The three first girls were found at swadling bar hearing John Wesley. They were all three convicted and converted. The old folks were members of the Church of England and figured in tolerably high standing and now three of their daughters would not attend the dancing school the main establishment of high life in that day. The parents being anxious to save their daughters from disgrace went to their minister, he came and conversed with them and found their conversation all on religion. He did not know what to make of it having none himself. He told the parents they were going into a state of melancholy and advised them to make balls and parties at home inviting such young company as they were willing should unite with them in marriage. They went at it with energy, made a great feast and procured a fiddler and thought all in order. But when the company met the girls were missing. They were called but they had locked themselves in a room and kept the key and would not come out. All was confusion. The company went home and the old folks were raging but still not willing to go to extremes; reluctantly agreed they might go to hear the swadlers but not join them. Then they could not have the benefits of class meeting without becoming members and they and the preacher compromised so that the two youngest could join and Jane the oldest to have the privilege on parole so that when the old folks asked if they had joined Jane could speak out she had not and they took it for granted that the younger ones had not. So it passes on a year or two. The old folks finally became reconciled and Jane and Joseph Russell were married with their consent and after they had three children Father Joseph and all the Patterson family came to America together. Father Russell went to say farewell to his father's house they scarcely recognized him as an acquaintance let alone a son and brother. They set a bottle of brandy and water on the table. He took a glass of water and drank to them all wishing them to meet him in Heaven and left with a heavy heart. Though an old man Patterson was tolerably wealthy. He done but little for his girls and gave nearly all to his two sons James & John. James made a poor out and drank a considerable. The last I heard of him he was in or near Winchester Virginia. John settled in Fort Cumberland in Cumberland County Pennsylvania. He followed merchandising and was very rich, Of Jane I shall more when I speak of her family. Nancy married John Farris in Ireland. They were both professors among the Methodists. They had three children Jane, Hugh and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth married Lewis Bright, I think a brother to Jesse Bright in Indiana. They were rich and had ten or a dozen negroes. The other two never married though in good credit.

Sarah lived to be old then married Patrick Milligan a professed convert from Catholicism to Methodism. They were mostly unhappy owing to his violent temper. Martha married also in Ireland a man by the name of Irvine the given name I don't know and but little of the family. They were well off, whether professors or not I don't know. They have a son Oliver living in St. Louis. He gave old Martha and Nancy thirty dollars as they went to Iowa.

I return now to Grandmother Russell and family. She was left a widow with six children all small. Nancy, Sarah, James, Hugh, Margaret and Jane. Mother Russell was an uncommon good manager and raised her family as well and in as good credit as any in that neighborhood. Nancy married George Power. He was not a good manager. He and she both died sudden, I think with milk sickness. The children were taken back to his father's in Pennsylvania.

Sarah, you have some knowledge of the poor out she made.

James married Susannah Richardson. She was handsome but a poor housekeeper and kept them poor. He was religious and died at a place called Blue Rock on the Big Miami. I don t know the number of children.

Hugh, you know his history and also Margaret’s. Jane married George Galaway. I am told they are wealthy. He is mean and cross.

Mother Russell died with James some thirty years ago. She lived and died a holy woman. I was acquainted with some of those William that turned your grandfather out because he would not dance. They were rich, proud and uncommon handsome.

Barnard a cousin was county surveyor and colonel of the regiment and was said to be the handsomest man in two counties. Old David the father of Barnard and uncle of Father Russell asked my father who I was married to. He told to Sarah Russell. He answered What to a daughter of old Joe's the grunting old Methodist devil?

Thus in a confused manner I have given a true account of my own and your mother's ancestry as my memory and means enable me to do. I am becoming so nervous and trembling that it is tiresome and sometimes even painful to write.

This is the twenty-third day of November 1858. Since the twentieth I am in my 70th year. I find I am fast going as my ancestors to that land whence there is no returning. This I do at your request. Try to practice the good and avoid the evil of them that are gone before is the earnest prayer of your father and mother.

William & Sarah Kennedy