Grafton Clagett Kennedy

As printed in 1909

GRAFTON C. KENNEDY.

Among the men whose records have reflected credit and honor upon the history of the Ohio bar Grafton Clagett Kennedy was numbered. In his law practice and his business interests his work was characterized by an intelligent anticipation of possibilities and a recognition of opportunities that others passed by heedlessly. Lie displayed, too, that commendable confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception of things and a habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities. He was prominently known in the business and religious world and for years his memory will be cherished by those who were his associates and friends while he was still an active factor in the world’s work.

Born on a farm in Harrison township, Montgomery county, Ohio, March II, 1859, Grafton C. Kennedy is a representative of a southern ancestry on his mother’s side. Elis great-grandfather, Gilbert Kennedy, came from Scotland in the eighteenth century, locating first in South Carolina, whence he afterward moved to Pennsylvania, while later in the same century he became a resident of Warren county, Ohio, where he died in the opening years of the nineteenth century. It is thought that he was a soldier of the Revolutionary war.

Joseph Kennedy, the grandfather of our subject, came from Shippensburg, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in 1805 and settled on a farm of three hundred acres, four miles north of Dayton, which he had purchased from a cousin, the original owner of the land. His birth had occurred in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, but the greater part of his life was passed on his Ohio farm, where his death occurred about 1854, when he was eighty years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Nancy Kerr, was also of Scottish lineage and died in 1861. They were parents of three sons and a daughter but the latter died about 1855. The elder son, Gilbert Kennedy, became a distinguished lawyer of Dayton and Cincinnati and died some time during the ’80s. The other sons, John and Joseph, became farmers.

Joseph Kennedy, father of Grafton C. Kennedy, was born and reared on the old homestead farm in Harrison township in 1826, early becoming familiar with the hardships and privations of pioneer life and with the arduous work incident to the development of new fields. At the time of the Civil war he was instrumental in raising a company for the One Hundred and Thirty-second Regiment of Ohio Infantry and drilled his company for some time on the Fair grounds. It was the understanding that the one reporting to camp the largest number of enlisted men should be made colonel. Mr. Kennedy reported the largest number of men present but the commission was given to another who reported a larger number of men enrolled though all were not present in person. His men, as well as Mr. Kennedy himself, were disappointed over this decision, yet Mr. Kennedy manifested his willingness to go to the front in any capacity but, when the governor learned the true state of the case, he thought it best that Mr. Kennedy be given an honorable discharge and be permitted to return home. In early manhood he had wedded Catharine Clagett, a native of Maryland and a daughter of Grafton A. Clagett, also born in that state. Mr. Kennedy followed farming as his life work, retaining his residence on the old family homestead. His wife died in 1866. There were two sons and a daughter in the family: Grafton C.

and Gilbert, both now deceased; and Caroline, the wife of Edward Martin, of Chicago.

On the farm which came into possession of his grandfather in the opening years of the nineteenth century, Grafton C. Kennedy spent the days of his boyhood and youth, working at different times in the fields, while the winter months were devoted to study in the district schools. He also spent two years as a pupil in the public schools of Dayton and in further pursuit of knowledge, qualifying him for life’s practical and responsible duties, he entered Wittenberg College, in which he spent five years in the preparatory and college courses, being graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in June, 1879.

An earnest desire to become a member of the bar led him to take up the study of law in September, 1879, in the office of Conover & Conover, with whom he read for one year, while later his reading was directed for two years by Warren Munger, then a distinguished member of the Dayton bar. In May, 1882, he was admitted to practice and in February, 1883, opened an office and entered upon the active work of the profession. In March of the same year he was appointed United States commissioner at Dayton for the southern district of Ohio and held the position until October, 1894, when he resigned.

Mr. Kennedy practiced law alone until May, 1888, when he formed a partnership with his former preceptor, Mr. Munger, under the firm style of Munger & Kennedy and, when at the Tst of January, 1893, Harry L. Munger, son of the senior partner, was admitted the firm name was changed to Munger, Kennedy & Munger, so continuing until the death of Warren Munger on the ist of June, 1894. Later Eugene G. Kennedy, a brother of Grafton C. Kennedy, was admitted to the partnership and the firm remained Kennedy, Munger & Kennedy until the death of the subject of this review. From the beginning of his practice he made continuous progress until the consensus of public opinion placed him in the foremost rank of Dayton’s leading lawyers. He possessed a mind of singular precision and power. It was in a marked degree a judicial mind, capable of an impartial view of both sides of the question and of arriving at a just conclusion. In his practice he was absolutely fair, never indulged in artifice or concealment, never dealt in indirect methods but won his victories, which were many, and suffered his defeats, which were few, in the open field, face to face with his foe. He achieved the highest distinction and he deserved it. He was always careful to conform his practice to a high standard of professional ethics and in his work exemplified the theory of the law that the counsel are to aid the court in the administration of justice.

On the 30th of April. 1889, Mr. Kennedy was united in marriage in Dayton to Miss Louise Achey, a daughter of John J. Achey and unto them were born two children: Katharine Louise and Grafton Sherwood. The death of the husband and father occurred January 10, 1909, when he was in the fiftieth year of his age. Throughout his life he had been an active factor for good in the communities in which he labored. Public-spirited, he was interested at all times in the welfare of the community and for four years did effective work for public education as a member of the Dayton school board, serving from 1897 until 1901 and acting as president of the board during the last three years of that period. In 1892 he organized the first county board of elections. He was also president of the board of sinking fund trustees of the school funds and whenever his aid was needed for the performance of any beneficial public project it was immediately and heartily given. Pie found recreation in golf, and his religious faith was sustained and strengthened through his membership in the Third Presbyterian church, in the work of which he took most active and helpful part. His grandfather, Joseph Kennedy, was one of the founders of this church, and the family have remained in active connection therewith to the present time. Grafton C. Kennedy was one of the elders of the church and clerk of the sessions and was deeply interested in all religious work. He was an able, faithful and conscientious minister in the temple of justice and a devoted adherent of every cause which he believed would benefit humanity, while in private life he was endeared to all who knew him by the simple nobility of his character.

As printed in History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.