Marshall T. Kennedy
Mendon Twp.

Marshall T. Kennedy, ex-Mayor, wholesale and retail dealer in drugs, books, stationery, wall-paper, etc., McGregor, was born in Erie County, Pa., May 25, 1836. His parents, John and Eliza (Deitz) Kennedy, had a family of three sons and one daughter, Marshall T. being the second son. He attended school until seventeen, and taught in Pennsylvania until nineteen, then taught one winter in Saline County, Ill. He then returned to Erie, Pa., and attended the academy until twenty-four, when he came to McGregor, Ia., arriving here the spring of 1861. He clerked in a hardware and tin store for Stowe & Hopkins one year, and in a drug store until 1964; he then traveled over Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado, returning in the fall to McGregor. He married Louisa L. Bowen, on Dec. 29, 1864. She was born in Massachusetts, and was a daughter of Liberty Bowen. After his marriage Mr. Kennedy went to Erie, Pa., and clerked in a drug store, and traveled for a wholesale grocery house until the fall of 1865, when he returned to McGregor, and formed a partnership in a drug store with S. J. Case for one year, then bought Mr. Case out and formed a partnership with O.M. Buck for three years, then purchased Mr. Buck's interest, and has since conducted the business alone. He occupies a two-story building eighty feet deep by twenty-five wide, with a basement, and carries a stock of about $15,000, and has had a traveling salesman for the wholesale department for the past fifteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are members of the Medthodist Episcopal church of McGregor. They have two children--Mabel E., and Grace L. Mr. Kennedy is a Mason and a member of Bezer Lodge, No. 135, Clayton Chapter, No. 27, and Honorious Commandery, No. 8. He has held the office of Township Trustee two terms, and was elected Mayor of McGregor in 1878, and re-elected in 1879. In politics he is a Democrat.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa, 1882, p. 991-992