(6 June 1875-10 March 1968), promoter of shelterbelts. (Peter Kennedy, P.H. Kennedy, Peter H. Kennedy) Born near Apple Hill, GC. Parents (whose farm was on Lots 9-11 of the 13th Concession of Indian Lands): John Kennedy and his wife Catherine McDougall. His formal education extended to two years at Alexandria High School. In early life, Kennedy worked in Michigan and farmed in the Apple Hill area before moving to Saskatchewan in 1904. Settling near the present town of Conquest, he was a farmer who between 1904 and 1912, “broke 4000 acres of prairie sod.” (Proud Heritage)

     Troubled by the problems of western farming, he sought for solutions. During the 1930s he was active in promoting the planting of shelterbelts of trees to conserve soil and moisture. He planted a tree belt on his own farm as early as 1922. In the early 1930s he urged the federal Minister of Agriculture, Robert Weir, to promote prairie tree planting. P.H. Kennedy helped to organize the Conquest Field Shelter Belt association, which was formed in 1935. Over the next quarter century more than 800 miles of shelterbelts were planted in the Conquest area. P.H. Kennedy served for many years as the secretary of the Association and was one of the original planters. From about 1950 the Saskatchewan Dept. of Agriculture, benefiting from the Conquest example, promoted shelterbelt planting provincewide. Kennedy also advocated continuous cropping and the abandonment of summer fallow. Under contract with the federal Dept. of Agriculture, he operated his farm from 1946 to 1960 as an experimental sub-station. He has been called “the Father of the Shelterbelts.” In 1978 he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame .

     P.H. Kennedy was one of the first directors of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, and was reeve of Fertile Valley Municipality, and chairman of the school board. For many years he served on the board of his local Protestant church, which was Conquest Union Church, 1911-1925, named Conquest United Church from 1925. He died at Lutheran Sunset Home in Saskatoon. Burial was in Fertile Valley Cemetery, Conquest. He was married in 1910 to Sarah Elizabeth Doupe (1880-1969). (four children) The section on P.H. Kennedy in Proud Heritage draws on his recollections of his early days on the prairies. P.H. Kennedy’s brother William A. (Will) Kennedy was also an early settler and long-term resident at Conquest, and another brother, Daniel Howard (Dan) Kennedy, lived at Conquest more briefly. They were brothers of John Wilfred Kennedy and were first cousins of Sir Edward Peacock, Prof. Frank MacDougall, Mrs Ada Johnston, and Mrs Violet Pollard.

Proud Heritage (1969?) 123-126 and This Conquest of Ours: 1904-1948 p. 33 (n.d.) [these are histories of Conquest, Sask.] * private information * Campbell (1986), 86, 112-132 (portrait) * Campbell (1990), 503-504, 556-571 (portrait) * biog. sheet on Kennedy (with line portrait) from Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, Saskatoon * Grant MacEwan, “Tree Planter’s Toil Helped Change Face of Prairies,” Calgary Herald 5 Dec. 1987 (appraisal, appreciation) * death notices & brief obituary (undated clipping & probably from GN 28 March 1968)