(25 Dec. 1845-12 April 1928), lumberman. (J. J. Kennedy) Born in the 9th Concession of Charlottenburgh, GC, north of Munroes Mills. Parents: John Kennedy and his wife Mrs Christina Munro, a widow whose maiden name was also Munro. He attended the local school. One of his early schoolmates was the future Mgr George Corbet. According to an obituary (Glengarry News) “After leaving Glengarry the late Mr. Kennedy followed lumbering enterprises for many years, and spent the greater part of his business career at Rib Lake, Wisconsin, where he accumulated a comfortable competence.” An obituary from Taylor County, Wisc. (Star-News) said, “J. J. Kennedy, former lumber manufacturer at Rib Lake and the founder of that village, died…[in Oregon] He had been gone from Taylor County for twenty years, living out west throughout that time. Mr. Kennedy established the saw mill at Rib Lake in 1880 or 1881. He sawed many thousand feet of white pine and hemlock there, operating the mill for quite a number of years. He later acquired an interest in the Rib Lake Lumber Company.” Rib Lake is in Taylor County. Before settling at Rib Lake, Kennedy had lived in Oswego, N.Y., and Spencer, Wisconsin.

     After his years in business at Rib Lake, Kennedy moved to Washington state, and then to Portland, Oregon. At the time of his death he had three sons living in Portland. In an obituary (Glengarry News) he is described as having “retired from active business many years ago.” He died at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Portland. Roman Catholic. He was married in 1868 at Oswego, N.Y., to Flora McLennan (28 Oct. 1847-31 Jan. 1909), daughter of Murdoch McLennan of Williamstown. She was the niece of Donald McLennan, of the Tonquin voyage and of Java. In her early years Flora McLennan was a schoolteacher, one of her pupils (at Glen Donald) being, it is said, R.R. (Big Rory) McLennan. (The fact that Big Rory was older than she was is a problem in this story, but still the situation was not uncommon in the schools of the time.) She died in Spokane, Wash., almost 20 years before her husband. Their daughter was married to Natt McDougall, the son of the contractor A. D. McDougall. John J. Kennedy was among the “close relatives” (Glengarry News) of the banker Alexander B. McDonell of Chippewa Falls, Wisc. For a Kennedy business transaction, see McDonell’s life. Hugh A. Mcdonald, another Glengarrian, was an employee of the J. J. Kennedy Lumber Co. at Rib Lake.

Taylor County Star-News (Medford, Wisc.) 26 April 1928 * Glengarry News 4 May 1928 (repr. Fraser Obits., 94-95); same obituary Cornwall Standard 3 May 1928 * record of marriage of parents and of John’s birth, Fraser Obits. 95 * obituaries, resp., of his mother-in-law, mother, and wife: Star-News 18 May 1895, Rib Lake Herald 7 Sept. 1906 & 12 Feb. 1909 * In June 1888, “J.J. Kennedy, the well known lumberman of Wisconsin, arrived in Glengarry to visit old friends.” (20 Years Ago column, Cornwall Freeholder 26 June 1908, based on CF 29 June 1888)