Max J. Kennedy, of Fredonia, Kan., is a young man of exceptional business ability who has become well known throughout Kansas and other states through his connection with the Kennedy Printing Company, and through his interests in fine bred horses and English bloodhounds. He is a native of Wilson county, Kansas, born Dec. 27, 1883, to James M. and Mary E. (Stivers) Kennedy. After completing a common school education he entered active business life at the age of nineteen by engaging in the breeding of registered horses and has continued his interests in that direction to the present time. He now has fifteen standard bred horses, among them being Parolo 44353, colts from Baron Wilkes, Symbaleer, Silver Thorn, Askey, and many other noted horses. He is a dealer and also a breeder of English bloodhounds and sells more of them than any other fancier in the United States. He has made it a very profitable business. Many of the hounds are imported from England and at the present time he has fifty of them. He is a large advertiser in this line and owns two large farms near Fredonia, where in every way he is fully equipped to care successfully for both his horses and hounds. In 1902 Mr. Kennedy started a daily paper at Fredonia, known as the "Daily Herald." After publishing it four years he sold it, in 1906, and established the Kennedy Printing Company. This plant furnishes bank supplies and its products are sold in all parts of the United States. In five years' time it has developed a large trade, mostly a mail order business, and the plant requires from twenty to thirty men in its corps of employes. Besides the interests enumerated Mr. Kennedy has other property holdings of value. This is a remarkable record for a young man who is not yet thirty years of age and stamps him as a man of unusual energy, business acumen, and enterprise, one who knew the direction of his native ability and thus along unusual lines has already won a distinct success.

In 1905 Mr. Kennedy wedded Bessie F., daughter of John H. Wolever, a veteran of the Civil war, who now lives retired in Fredonia. Two sons—Kenneth and Conrad—have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy affiliates fraternally with the Masonic order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the Modern Woodmen of America. In the Masonic order he has attained the Knights Templar degree. Politically he is a Republican and is aligned with the progressive branch of that party.