James Lawrence Kennedy, LL. M.

JAMES LAWRENCE KENNEDY, LL. M. Among the native sons of Westmoreland county who have here attained to success and worthy prestige in connection with the practice of law is Mr. Kennedy, who is one of the representative younger members of the bar of the county, being established in the practice of his profession in the city of Greensburg. He has worked his way to the front through earnest and well directed endeavor, and in his course has held no obstacle as insuperable, so that his advancement has been consecutive and well defined. 

James Lawrence Kennedy was born at Penn's Station, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, June 15, 1866 and is a son of Denis and Ellen (Keefe) Kennedy, both of whom were born in Ireland. The father immigrated from the Emerald Isle to America in 1849, and here began his active career as a day laborer, while he eventually accumulated a good property through his faithful efforts and provident methods, while his intrinsic integrity gained and retained to him the respect and confidence of his fellowmen. He died August 3, 1905. His widow resides in Penn Station. Both he and his wife were communicants of the Catholic church. They became the parents of five sons and two daughters, of whom James L. is the fifth in order of birth. 

James L. Kennedy secured his early education in the public schools of the borough of Penn, and later continued his studies in the high school at Greensburg, while he early formulated plans for his future career, determining to adopt the profession of law. After careful preliminary reading under able preceptors he entered the law department of Catholic University of America in the city of Washington, D.C., where he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Laws, after he had taken special post-graduate work. He studied economics under Charles P. Neil and Carroll D. Wright, while other instructors were men of distinction in their assigned departments. As private legal preceptors Mr. Kennedy was favored in having Messrs. Vincent E. William and William A. Griffith, prominent members of the Westmoreland county bar, and he was duly admitted to the bar of his native county in 1892, at which time he was incumbent of the office of the court stenographer. This position he continued to retain until 1896, in which year he began the active practice of his profession, opening an office in Greensburg, where he has since maintained his headquarters and where he has proved significantly successful in the various departs of his professional work, having a clientage of distinctively representative character. Though he has never been ambitious for public office Mr. Kennedy is a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, in whose local ranks he has been more or less active in the various campaigns. He clings to his ancestral faith and is a communicant of the Catholic church, while in a fraternal way he is affiliate with the K.C. and the B. P. O. E. He is held in high regard in the professional and business circles of his home city and is well entitled to this recognition as one of the able and popular members of the bar of Westmoreland county. 

Source Page 68 & 69 History of Westmoreland County, Volume II, Pennsylvania by John N. Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906 
Transcribed April 23, 2000 by Marilynn Wienke for the Westmoreland County History Project 
Contributed for use by the Westmoreland County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/)

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