Butte County
Biographies
GUY REYNOLDS KENNEDY
GUY REYNOLDS KENNEDY.--Among the
leading and aggressive attorneys of Northern California who each year give
promise of still greater and more enviable attainment, is Guy Reynolds Kennedy,
a native son, born at Chico on November 9, 1871. His father was John R.
Kennedy, a native son, born at Chico
on November 9, 1871. His father was John R. Kennedy, who hailed from Pennsylvania
and was of Scotch-English descent, being related to the Ellicotts
of Ellicott City, an old family of Maryland.
His
grandfather, Joseph C. G. Kennedy,
was three times superintendent of the United States
census, and was afterward interested in the formation of national banks, with headquarters
at Washington. He was also an
extensive operator in real estate. Joseph M. Kennedy, a son of C. G., and an
uncle of Guy R., served in the Civil War, and rose to the rank of colonel.
John
R. Kennedy was a graduate of West Point, and as an
officer in the Union army, served in the defense of Washington.
About 1867 he came to California for his health, and
stopping in Chico engaged in the
mercantile business; and here he died, on January 1, 1877. His sister was Mrs.
Annie E. Kennedy Bidwell, of Chico.
Mrs. Kennedy was Miss Cora Wayland before her marriage, and was born in Missouri,
the daughter of
Dr. Joseph F. Wayland, a native of Virginia,
who was a graduate of medicine. He practiced in Missouri,
came to California in 1868, by way of Panama,
and was a practicing physician in Chico
until he died, in 1881. Now Mrs. Kennedy resides in Chico,
the mother of two children, of whom the subject of our sketch is the eldest,
while the other son is Joseph J. Kennedy, a stockman of Chico.
Guy
Reynolds Kennedy was educated in the public schools, and continued his formal
education at Trinity School
in San Francisco. Thereafter he
went East, and attended Emerson Institute, at Washington,
D. C.; and on returning to San Francisco
he entered the boys' high school, from which he graduated. He then matriculated
at the University of California,
and in 1895 graduated from the law department with the degree of LL. B. Not
long after he began to practice law in Chico.
For
four years Mr. Kennedy was assistant district attorney under Warren Sexton, one
of the ablest members of the bar; and in 1896 he was elected city attorney, and
has held that position ever since, with the exception of a four-year term. This
is his fifth term in office. The present modern municipal improvements were all
accomplished during his terms in office. He has been very successful as a
lawyer, being very prominent in the domain of both civil and criminal law; and
for the past seventeen years there has scarcely been a notable civil or
criminal trial in Butte County in which he has not been employed as counsel on
one side of the case or the other.
Mr.
Kennedy has become interested in cattle-raising, and owns over five thousand
acres, operated as a stock ranch, three and a quarter miles from Chico,
where he is raising high-grade beef cattle. This activity as a man of commercial
affairs doubtless had much to do with his becoming a director and
vice-president of the Butte County Savings Bank, and also of the Butte County
National Bank, although he serves each as its attorney. In July, 1918, Mr.
Kennedy was elected president of the Butte County Savings Bank. A Republican in politics, Mr. Kennedy has
been a member of the Republican County Central Committee for many years past.
Fraternally, he is a Phi Delta Phi; a Native Son of the Golden West, connected
with the Chico Parlor, in which he is a Past President; an Eagle; and an Elk,
affiliated with the Chico Lodge. He is also an ex-member of the Deluge Hose
Company of the Chico Fire Department. In his participation in the social life
of these organizations, he is joined by his excellent wife, an Australian lady,
Miss Eva Sampson before her marriage, to whom he was united in wedlock at Alameda.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 644-647, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Sande Beach.
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