U. G. Kennedy, a well known farmer and stockman of El Dorado township, and a member of a Butler county pioneer family, is a native of Pennsylvania. He was born in Jefferson county in 1864, and is a son of H. H. and Mary M. (Shirley) Kennedy, both natives of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, and descendants of old Pennsylvania stock. The father was a school teacher in early life in his native State, and in 1872, the Kennedy family came to Kansas. They spent the first winter at Manhattan and the following spring came to Butler county, and settled in the southern part of El Dorado township, where the father preempted 160 acres of land, and followed general farming and stock raising until his death, which occurred in February, 1911, and the mother died in November of the same year, the former being seventy-four years of age and the latter seventy-three. They were the parents of the following children: Alice, married T. M. Hopkins, Cushing, Okla.; U. G., the subject of this sketch; E. M., Harlem, Mont.; M. W., Oklahoma City, Okla.; T. H., Harlem, Mont.; Belle, married George Leedham, Spring township, Butler county; Blanche, married William Glaze, Grandee, N. M., and Erma, deceased.

U. G. Kennedy was about eight years of age when the family located in Butler county, and many of the events of pioneer days made a lasting impression on his mind. Butler county was then comparatively a wild and unbroken country, and considered well on the border, or in the vanguard of the westward march of civilization. Mr. Kennedy remembers seeing deer and antelope in the vicinity of his home, and recalls many other native conditions of the West. He received his education in the pioneer public schools and remained at home until he was twenty-three years of age, when he engaged in farming and stock raising for himself and now has a fertile and productive farm of 240 acres and he also operates the home place of 290 acres, in which he has an interest, where he successfully carries on general farming and stock raising and is one of Butler county's most progressive and prosperous farmers and stockmen.

Mr. Kennedy was united in marriage in 1889 to Miss Alda H. Berner, a daughter of J. G. Berner, a Butler county pioneer, now residing on his old homestead in El Dorado township. To Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy have been born five children, as follows: Vesta, married Ben Smith,

Leon, Kans.; Frank G.; Katie; Alice, and Icy, all at home except the married daughter. Mr. Kennedy is independent in politics and takes a keen interest in public affairs, and is one of Butler county's representative citizens.

His place is located about half way between the recent oil development of the El Dorado and Augusta fields and promises a profitable future. This land is leased and, no doubt, operations will begin in the near future.

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