Joseph  Kennerly

            Joseph Kennerly  was born in Augusta County, Va., January 12, 1822, and is the son of  Jacob and  Amanda (Cravens) Kennerly; his parents were natives of the same State.  Jacob Kennerly was born April 5, 1796; emigrated to Jefferson County, Ind., in 1830, and two years later moved to Shelby County, where he resided until his death, in 1867.  He was for some years an Associate Judge of Shelby County, and is remembered as one of the most prominent early settlers of this part of the State.  Mrs. Kennerly was born on the 6th of October, 1804, and died at her home in this county in the year 1884.  Joseph Kennerly enjoyed the advantages of a common school education, spent the years of his youth and early manhood on the farm and at the age of twenty-three began life for himself, choosing agriculture for his vocation.  In this he met with much more than ordinary success, having by diligence and industry succeeded in accumulating a handsome competence by means of which he is enabled to spend his declining years in ease and comfort.  In his early life he was a hard working man as is attested by - the fact that he cleared and prepared for cultivation about 200 acres of land.  In 1886, he disposed of his farm and removed to Shelbyville, where he is now living a retired life. He was a soldier in the war with Mexico, serving twelve months in Company H, Third Regiment, which he accompanied to and from Mexico. He is a Democrat in politics and deserves mention as one of Shelby County's representative citizens.
History of Shelby County, Indiana, Brant & Fuller, 1887, "Shelbyville Sketches,"  page 500-501.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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