The City of Kennedy was named after John Stewart Kennedy, a native of Scotland who came to America in 1856, at the age of twenty. His connection with northwestern Minnesota came through his business associations with J.J. Hill. John Stewart Kennedy helped finance several railroads during the age of the American railroad building boom, including Hill’s St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway.
The Gale Encyclopedia’s J.S. Kennedy biography states it was by Kennedy’s own choice that nothing was ever named after him to perpetuate his name. The exact details of how the village of Kennedy became the exception is not known at the time of this writing.
On June 21, 1879, the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company conveyed to John S. Kennedy, John S. Barnes and James A. Roosevelt (Trustees) all lands and franchises owned by the Railway Company, including those in Kittson County, as security for bonds in the sum of $8,000,000. On June 14, 1897, the bond indebtedness was paid off and the land was reconveyed back to the Railway Company. The Railway Company again used some of its Kittson County assets as collateral on a $50,000,000 bond in 1898.
M. A. Goar was the first mayor and chairman of Kennedy. He also served in the Minnesota state legislator in 1897.
Civil War Quartermaster Sergeant Hugh W. Donaldson, Army, 3rd Minnesota Infantry Regiment (1861-1865). Photographer: White's Photograph Rooms, Forms part of Cartes-de-visite of Minnesota Volunteers, 1861-1866 photograph collection, I.379. Photographer located in DeVall's Bluff, Arkansas.
Odin E. S. Langen, a Kennedy farmer, served in the Minnesota state legislator from 1950 to 1958, and later served as a U.S. Congressman from 1959 to 1971.