IDENTIFICATION:
Isaac VanBibber and Hester Op den Graeff
Jacob Isaacs VanBibber and Christinia ___
Isaac Jacobs VanBibber and Frances Schumacher
Peter VanBibber and Anna ____
John VanBibber and Chloe Staniford
Marjory VanBibber and Andrew Donnally
Caroline Donnally and John Lewis
Margery Lewis and John Edward Kenna

John Edward Kenna

IDENTIFICATION:
Isaac VanBibber and Hester Op den Graeff
Jacob Isaacs VanBibber and Christinia ___
Isaac Jacobs VanBibber and Frances Schumacher
Peter VanBibber and Anna ____
John VanBibber and Chloe Staniford
Marjory VanBibber and Andrew Donnally
Caroline Donnally and John Lewis
Margery Lewis and John Edward Kenna

John Edward Kenna

At the opening of the extra session of the Forty-fifth Congress, October 10,
1877, a broad shouldered young man, six feet tall and well proportioned, with
a good-humored but resolute countenance and a wide-awake, determined
expression on his face, took a seat on the Democratic side of the House of
Representatives.

He had an easy, off-hand way about him that captured the attention of the
reporters at first sight, and his youthful appearance, in comparison with the
grave and reverend seniors who sat around him, at once had the effect of
making him an object of interest to the galleries and floors as
"Representative Kenna, of West Virginia, the youngest member of the House."

John E. Kenna was born in Kanawha county, Virginia, April 10, 1848. His
father, Edward Kenna, came from Ireland to American when fourteen years of
age, and was employed at Natchez, Mississippi, by an extensive firm, of which
the venerable Felix La Coste, now of St. Louis county, Missouri, was the chief
member, when the great tornado of 1840 swept over the town, almost entirely
destroying it, killing several hundred residents and leaving many of its
inhabitants to escape barely with their lives. Among the latter was Edward
Kenna, who wrote a description of the great hurricane, which has been
preserved and republished on several recurring anniversaries of the dread
event.

From Natchez, Edward Kenna made his way to Cincinnati, where he took such

employment as he could command. He was thus engaged when some providential
circumstance brought him in contact with Charles Fox, a respectable lawyer,
who kindly tendered him the use of his library and advised him to study law.
This advice was readily accepted, and Mr. Kenna began the study of law with
Mr. Fox, finding among his associates in his early career at the Cincinnati
Bar, George Hoadly, Wm. S. Groesbeck, George H. Pendleton, and others who have
since risen to National distinction.

In 1847 Mr. Kenna married Margery, the only daughter of John Lewis, of Kanawha
county, Virginia, a grandson of General Andrew Lewis, and soon afterward
settled in that county. Here for eight years he successfully practiced his
profession, devoting a large part of his time also to enterprises connected
with the development of the Kanawha and Coal river valleys. In 1855 he earned
a State reputation by a speech in the Staunton Convention, seconding the
nomination of Henry A. Wise for Governor. He was absolutely a self-made man
and is remembered as being of indomitable will, extraordinary energy,
brilliant mind and public spirit. He was one of the largest and finest
specimens of physican manhood the writer ever saw.

This much is here said of him, because it is known that his own struggles,
single-handed and alone in life, had inspired him with the hope that he would
live to see an only son armed and equipped by his aid and encouragement for a
successful career. Among his intimate friends he often gave expression to this
deep desire. Little did he then realize that his boy had the same difficulties
before him which he himself had confronted, and would conquer them as well. In
1856, in the prime and vigor of a splendid manhood, at the age of only thirty-
nine years, with so much of life and promise before him, he met an untimely
death. He left two little girls, aged respectively four and six years, and
John Edward Kenna, the subject of this sketch, an orphan boy at eight years of
age.

In 1858, Mrs. Kenna, with her three children, removed to Missouri where her
brother resided, and where she remained until the breaking out of war. She had
a governess for awhile, under whose tutelage her children were trained in the
branches of an English education; but the failure of her husband's estate,
which largely consisted of unmarketable lands, in the absence of judicious
management, to realize funds, took away this advantage and her son began
active employment. He continued his labor to the opening of a new farm, and
often Senator Kenna now refers with pride to the fact, that he can look upon
one of the finest plantations in Missouri, and remember that he redeemed it
from its natural state with a prairie plow and four yoke of oxen, when he was
but eleven years of age. While so engaged he became an expert teamster and did
much of the heavy hauling and opening up of new habitations on the then
Western prairie.

The fact that he was an only son led his mother, during her widowhood, to rely
greatly upon him, notwithstanding his youth; and this dependence had a
tendency to give self-reliance and fit him, more rapidly than is usual, for
the sterner duties of life. A gentleman who was acquainted with him in those
days tells me that he was a brave, manly boy, and shirked no responsibility in
any form. Indeed, this may be said of his entire career.

In early life Mr. Kenna exhibited a special liking for field sports -
especially hunting. Game was plentiful in Missouri when he resided there, and
nearly always, when the weather was unfit for farm work, he was most sure to
be in the field with his dog and gun. In this way he acquired skill in
handling the rifle, which has given him a State reputation in West Virginia as
an expert marksman, and has afforded him rare opportunites for sport in the
mountains adjacent to the Great Kanawha Valley, where he has for many years
resided. Every fall he spends several weeks in the hill country in search of
game, and it is well known that he is not excelled in such sports by the old
resident hunters in the district that he so often frequents.

At sixteen years of age Mr. Kenna enlisted in the Confederate army, and
followed its fortunes to the end of the war. In an engagement in which he was
on detached service from Gen. Shelby's brigade, he was badly wounded in the
shoulder and arm, but declined to be retired on account of his wounds, and
therefore remained with his comrades in active service in the field. The
retreat of General Price from Missouri, in 1864, has gone into history. It was
a series of skirmishes and battles with both the main army and its detachments
from the Missouri river to the Kansas line. In all this constant and pressing
march, though but sixteen years of age, and suffering from his wounds, he
never failed of a task that any other soldier performed, and never lost a day
from active service. From Missouri the command to which he belonged retreated
into Arkansas, endured hardships that are indescribable. The severe exposures
of the hurried march caused a serious illness which drove him to the hospital
at Washington, Arkansas, where he lay in a dangerous condition for six weeks.
Careful nursing, however, brought him through. He rejoined his command, and in
June, 1865, was surrendered to the Federal forces at Shreveport, Louisiana;
and in August of that year he returned to his native Kanawha, where his
mother, stepfather and sisters then resided, and where he has since remained.

He secured employment at the salt-making firm of Thayer & Chappell, soon after
his return to West Virginia, and remained with them until February, 1866.
Realizing the incompleteness of his education, and possessing a strong desire
to rise in the world, through the assistance of kind friends, notably the Rt.
Rev. Bishop R.V. Whelan, Mr. Kenna entered St. Vincent's Academy, at Wheeling,
and there earnestly took up a course of study, running through two and a half
years, that gave him such an insight into books as to enable him to
successfully pursue his studies alone at home. Many young men of Wheeling were
his schoolmates at St. Vincent's, who have watched with interest his
successful career.

After leaving school in 1868, Mr. Kenna studied law at Charleston, in the
office of Miller & Quarrier, and was admitted to the Bar, June 20, 1870. In
the practice of law he seemed to have discovered his calling. From the
beginning he rose rapidly in the profession. In 1872, he was nominated by the
Democratic party and elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Kanawha
county. In that capacity he rendered acceptable and efficient service. In
1874, he came within a few votes of being nominated to Congress. His practice
extended into all the counties surrounding Kanawha; and in 1875, in the
absence of the Circuit Judge, Mr. Kenna was elected by the members of the Bar
to fill the position of Judge of the Circuit, pro tempore. This was a marked
compliment to the ability of one of his years, and was made the more so by the
acceptable manner in which he discharged the important obligations of the
Bench.

In 1876, Mr. Kenna was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for
Congress by the Third District of West Virginia. His competitors were Hon.
Frank Hereford, who had represented the district for three successive terms,
and Hon. Henry S. Walker, a man of great brilliancy as a writer and public
speaker. The only objection urged against Mr. Kenna was his lack of age and
experience in public affairs. He had courage, and, though young in years, he
had learned much of the world from associations with men. A number of leading
members of his party in his native county issued a circular letter in favor of
the re-nomination of Major Hereford. While this did not daunt Mr. Kenna, it
greatly wounded his pride. He announced a series of public meetings and
addressed the people in behalf of his own candidacy. At one of these meetings
in Charleston, at which a number of the signers of the circular letter were
present, Mr. Kenner, in the course of his speech, said: "I have no word of
unkindness for these distinguished men {referring to the signers of the
circular}. But you will pardon me when I say that if I could exchange places
with any one of them; if I could stand, a matured, successful, established
man, in all that the terms imply, and look upon a boy left in orphanage at
eight years; if I could watch the pathway of his childhood, with the
obstructions confronting it, and witness his struggles, his hardships, his
labors and his prayers; if I could see him marching on through adversity until
kinder stars seemed to shine upon him, and he was about to attain through
trial and vicissitude a position of honor to himself and of usefulness to his
fellow men - before I would sign a paper whose only effect would be to break
down and ruin that young man, I would be carried to one of your lonely
hillsides and there laid to rest forever." The effect of this speech was seen
and felt. A primary election was ordered in Kanawha county, and Mr. Kenna
carried the county, on a full Democratic vote, against both of his
competitors. This led to his triumphant nomination August 10, 1876. He was
elected by a splended majority, and accordingly took his seat as stated in the
beginning paragraph of this brief biography.

In Congress, Mr. Kenna rapidly developed peculiar faculties for legislative
duties. He was appointed to a conspicuous place on the Committee of Commerce,
in which position he served four years, suceeding in a most satisfactory
manner in securing appropriations for the improvement and development of the
commercial arteries of his District and State, and rendering valuable service
to the country at large. December 5th, he delivered his maiden speech in the
House of Representatives; and the 29th of January, following, he presented to
the House from his Committee, the first bill under his charge. His management
of this measure attracted general attention and resulted in its passage. He,
therefore, developed at the very threshold of legislative life an aptness for
it, and a coolness of judgment meriting the testimonials he received from
other members, and from many of his constituents. He never spoke except when
he had something to say. His splended physique - standing full six feet - his
smooth diction and clear enunciation, and his self-poise, never failed to
attract attention and command respect. He was re-elected in 1878, '80 and '82

four times in all. His growth, during the six full terms he served in the
House of Representatives, was continuous and steady. But few who served
contemporaneously with him developed as rapidly. He always represented the
progressive, liberal and vigorous elements of his party, and consequently
holds the respect of those agressive, working members of his own party and the
esteem of his political opponents in legislative councils.

Mr. Kenna is a natural leader of men. He possesses wonderful power over his
associates, especially in political campaigns. Because of this fact, he was
made Chairman of the Democratic National Congressional Executive Committee in
1886, and was re-elected to the same important position in 1888.

The legislative session of West Virginia in 1883, was the theater of a great
conflict in the choosing of a Senator to succeed the Hon. H.G. Davis, who
declined a re-election. Mr. Kenna, who had but a few months before been
elected a fourth time to the House of Representatives, announced his desire to
become a Senator to Congress. The contest was a vigorous one, and although
several able members of his party were competing with him for this exalted
prize in politics, Congressman Kenna, with apparent ease, carried off the
caucus nomination, and was thereupon duly elected by the Legislature to that
honorable position.

He promptly resigned his seat in the House, and, March 4, of that year, took
his seat in the highest legislative chamber of the land. His long experience
in the lower House qualified him for great efficiency in the Senate, and from
the very beginning he took a leading rank among the able members of that
distinguished tribunal. Ready and foreful in debate, he found no trouble in
sustaining himself upon any question he undertook to discuss.

He was re-elected to the Senate in 1889. There was but one of a Democratic
majority in the Legislature on joint ballot, and one member, the Hon. C.P.
Dorr, announced at the opening of the session that he would not support
Senator Kenna for re-election. This made the contest interesting, especially
to Senator Kenna's political opponents; but the well known qualities of
leadership which were known to be possessed by the Senator served him well in
that historic campaign, and after a month's balloting, his friends remaining
true to the last, Delegate Dorr came to his resuce, and his election was
accordingly secured. It was a great triumph, and could only have been won by
one who possessed the ability to hold to him, with hooks of steel, his party
leaders.

Senator Kenna is six feet tall; weighs one hundred and eighty-five pounds; is
light complected; naturally social and genial; has a large following of
personal friends; is industrious and energetic. In politics his success is
almost phenomenal. He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Rose A.
Quigg, of Wheeling, whom he married September 27, 1870, and his second was
Miss Anna Benninghaus, also of Wheeling, whom he married November 21, 1876.

Taken from Prominent Men of West Virginia, Geo. W Atkinson and Alvaro F
Gibbens, W.L. Callin Publishing, Wheeling, WV, 1890.