Thomas J. Kennedy
Ironton, the flourishing metropolis and judicial center of Lawrence County, claims as one of its popular and representative citizens and successful business men Thomas J. Kennedy, who is here engaged in the insurance and real estate business, as representative of fourteen different companies of stability and high reputation, his attention being given specially to the underwriting of fire insurance, in which department of his business he has a large and important clientage.
Mr. Kennedy was born in the city that is now his home, and the date of his nativity was February 2, 1877. He is a son of Thomas and Adelaide (Chamberlain) Kennedy, the former of whom still resides in Ironton, where he is living, after having long been identified with the rolling mill industry, and the latter of whom died in 1889, at the age of forty-three years, the six children of this union having been James, William, John, Thomas J., Joseph and Edward. The father was born in Ireland, in 1847, and was six years of age at the time of his parents' immigration to America, the family home being established in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was reared to maturity and afforded the advantages of the local schools. He came to Ironton, Ohio, about the year 1865, and during the years of his long and useful business life he was identified almost consecutively with the operation of the iron and steel rolling mills in this section of the state.
Thomas J. Kennedy attended the parochial and public schools of Ironton until he had completed the curriculum of the high school, and at the age of seventeen years he assumed the position of clerk in the establishment of the McJoynt Hardware Company, by which he was employed two years. For the ensuing eighteen months he was an agent for the Prudential Insurance Company, of Newark, New Jersey, and in this connection he acquired his initial experience in the line of business in which he has since achieved marked success and precedence. After he had thus served as solicitor for the Prudential company there came distinctive recognition of his effective work and special ability, since the company then advanced him to the position of assistant superintendent of its agency at Portsmouth. Scioto County, where he remained three years. For the following three and one-half years he was a representative of the company in the Mansfield district of Ohio, and after an effective service of eight years with the Prudential he returned, in 1904, to Ironton, where he engaged independently in the general insurance business, to which he has since given his close attention and in which his success has been of unequivocal order. His agency is one of the largest in Lawrence County and its operations cover fire, life, accident and other lines of insurance indemnity. Mr. Kennedy is interested in several Ironton industries, and is secretary of the Home Building & Loan Company of Ironton. He is recognized as one of the alert and progressive business men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of his native city, and the secure place that he maintains in popular confidence and esteem is indicated by the fact that he served from 1912 to 1914 as mayor of Ironton, his administration being signally progressive and efficient, so that he was importuned to become a candidate for a second term, an overture which he felt compelled to decline, by reason of the demands and exactions of bis private business. Mr. Kennedy is a republican in his political allegiance. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is also a valued and popular member of the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 14th of September, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kennedy to Miss Emma Mettendorf, daughter of A. H. Mettendorf, a prominent business man and influential citizen of Ironton. The two children of this union are Lowell and Adelaide.
From "A Standing History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio" by Eugene B. Willard, Daniel W. Williams, George O. Newman and Charles B. Taylor. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, 1916