This week in Texas Methodist History--Jan. 9

This week in Texas Methodist history

January 9, 1865

John Wesley Kenney, one of the 'grand old men" of Texas Methodism died of pulmonary failure at his home in Travis, Austin County, Texas. Kenney had been born in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1799. His father Peter was a recent immigrant from Ireland where Mrs. Kenney had been converted by John Wesley on one of his missionary trips to that country. After the War of 1812 made the Ohio Valley safer, the Kenney family immigrated to Ohio. John Wesley Kenney became acquainted with Martin Ruter who was in charge of the Methodist Book Concern in Cincinnati.

Kenney was admitted O.T. in the Ohio conference in 1818, and when the Kentucky Conference was organized from the Ohio Conference in 1820, Kenney became a member of the Kentucky Conference. He transferred back to the Ohio Conference in 1824 and married Maria McHenry in 1825. Maria's father was the Rev. Barnabas McHenry, one of the first Methodists to itinerate west of the Appalachians.

Kenney assumed a local pastor's relationship and moved to Rock Island, Illinois. When that region became engulfed in the Black Hawk War, Kenney sent his family back to Kentucky and fought in the militia. At the end of the war, Kenney returned to Washington County, Kentucky, to retrieve his family. Unfortunately the Ohio Valley was in the grip of a cholera epidemic transmitted by the movement of troops in the war. On one terrible weekend, Kenney watched helplessly as his father-in-law, mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and a daughter all died within a three day period.

In October, 1833, the Kenney family, including Maria's sister Lydia, set out for Texas. They arrived in Washington on the Brazos in December. Early the next year, he located his land grant in northern Austin County and moved there. He was instrumental in organizing a camp meeting in September, 1834, on Caney Creek, just a few miles from his home. He cleared the grounds with his own hands. Another camp meeting near the same location in 1835 resulted in the famous call for missionaries and the organization of a missionary society.

The first missionaries to respond to the call, Martin Ruter, Robert Alexander, and Littleton Fowler, used the Kenney residence as a sort of headquarters upon their arrival in Texas. A prominent layman, David Ayres lived a few miles away, as did another local preacher, William Medford.

Kenney preached at regular church services and camp meetings in settlements along the Brazos and Colorado Rivers with occasional forays as far as the Trinity and San Antonio Rivers.
He joined the Texas Conference and received a regular appointment for one year, but most of his service was as a local preacher.

Travis, where he was buried, was bypassed by the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe RR in the winter of 1879/80. Most merchants relocated to the rail line, and a town grew up around the depot and post office. That small town was later named Kenney in honor of the pioneer Texas Methodist preacher.