HI
I have looked for our illusive James Kendrick for a decade. He is tricky. Family
stories say his mother and father (both born Pa.), sailed the Great Lakes, and
were lost at sea when James (Jim) was a small child. That he was raised by friends or possibly and aunt and uncle, and possibly in the New York area. This
is unsure. He was supposedly born in Canada. This should have made it impossible to get land grant before naturalization, but you will see where he doesn't always state he was born in Canada. I sent for the paperwork for the land grant in Wa. (land is located in Valley, Wa, south of Chewelah) and in THAT
paperwork it states that he was born in U.S. I believe Jim was dead by the time
this paperwork went thru, and Amanda finished the grant, but I think they went around the legal system. Also, Susan McDonald was possibly part Indian. My grandmother stated in a short story that James Kendrick, her father , was of German descent. Although Quebec is mentioned, I have often
felt that James may fit in with the Kendricks from York, in Ontario. I cannot find the lead or clue. Also, it is said that James had a family before Amanda, that is why the Shannons didn't approve of the marriage, and he had two or three children previously. Possibly one girl named Della, that may have been an artist in Calif. None of this is proven, but collected from talking with the older generations and their memories. James and Amanda also lived in Wyoming, near Cokeville and then Idaho near Montplier. They had a land grant in Idaho that they didn't prove up on I think. Don't have that paperwork.
My grandmother, Mae Blanche Kendrick-Hafer-Eickmeyer, was born in Nashua, Iowa. Their next child in Nebraska, where she states they 'burned out'. I was never sure of the location in Neb. It appears that they lived along the pony express routes. The friend that carried my grandmother, and her mom Amanda and the other girls on to Wash, was a famous pony express rider. She called him Old Man Wilson. There was a book written about him called the
White Indian I believe. The men stayed behind in Wyoming or Idaho when the
girls first went to Wa state. They stayed with Amanda's sister, Sarah Barber, when they first arrived in Wa. Sarah and her family lived on the eastern side of the valley in what we knew as Betz Meadows. It was too far for the kids to get to school without a horse, they couldn't afford a horse, and the kids were eventually 'endentured out' to other families. Other families would take kids in to work for them, in return for room and board. My grandma was lucky. She was placed with a family, the Koontz family, that actually allowed her to go to school!!! This didn't always happen.
Kay Hafer-Neubauer nqh@earthlink.net