Background
Kennedy, Robert Patterson was born on January 23, 1840 in Bellefontaine, Ohio, United States. Son of William G. and Mary E. (Patterson) Kennedy.
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Kennedy, Robert Patterson was born on January 23, 1840 in Bellefontaine, Ohio, United States. Son of William G. and Mary E. (Patterson) Kennedy.
Born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, Kennedy attended the public schools and Geneva College in Northwood, Ohio.
He was studying at Yale University when the American Civil War broke out. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 23rd Ohio Infantry on June 11, 1861. He served as a captain and assistant adjutant general dating from October 7, 1862, and was promoted to major and assistant adjutant general on November 16, 1864.
He resigned April 8, 1865.
Kennedy was commissioned as colonel of the 196th Ohio Infantry, on April 14, 1865. He was brevetted as lieutenant colonel of volunteers and brigadier general of volunteers, both dating from March 13, 1865.
Upon the end of the war and his resignation from the volunteer army, Kennedy returned to Bellefontaine. He studied law with judge William H. West.
He was admitted to the bar in 1866 and commenced practice in Bellefontaine.
He was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes as collector of internal revenue for the fourth district of Ohio, serving from 1878 to 1883. He was the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from 1885-1887. Kennedy was elected from Ohio"s 8th District as a Republican to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1887 – March 4, 1891).
Robert P. Kennedy died in Columbus, Ohio, and was interred in the Bellefontaine City Cemetery, Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio United States of America. She died in 1893, leaving four children.
She survived him.
Despite his name and profession, he was not related to the Kennedy political family. Kennedy was the author of The Historical Review of Logan County, Ohio, published in 1903 by The South. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago.
He was not a candidate for renomination in 1890.He was appointed by President William McKinley in 1899 as a member of the Insular Commission, which was directed to investigate and report upon conditions existing in Cuba and Puerto Rico and served as its president
Married Maria L. Gardner, December 29, 1862. Married second, Mistress.