Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Bernard A. Kennepohl
Bernard A. Kennepohl, a member of the city council of Richmond, was born March 17, 1848, at Muennigbueren, a village in the kingdom of Hanover, Germany. His parents were Herman J. and Helena M. A. (Lulman) Kennepohl, the former a farmer by occupation. Between the ages of six and fourteen years the subject of this sketch attended the parochial school. At the latter age he was confirmed in the Catholic church, to which he has since adhered. He then went to Holland and worked on a dairy farm near Delft, his salary being twenty-five dollars for six months, or twenty-six dollars if he gave good satisfaction. At the end of the half year he received the twenty-six dollars, which was indeed well earned. He then obtained employment with another dairy farmer near Leihen, at the same wages, and at the end of a year had saved more money than many a young man who made a dollar per day. His parents had given him clothing sufficient to last him for a year or two when he left home, and none of his money had been squandered on useless things. The following spring he returned to his first employer, working for a year for eighty-five dollars, and on the expiration of that period entered the service of another farmer in the same neighborhood, receiving eighty-six dollars for a summer's work. In the fall of 1865 he returned home, spending the winter with his parents. There were four children in the family, each having his special work to perform at nights; and when Mr. Kennepohl's father asked him what he intended doing through the winter he replied that he would like to attend night school. Accordingly his father made the necessary arrangements, and through the winter of 1865-6 he spent the evenings in study.
In the spring of 1866 Mr. Kennepohl started for America, sailing from Bremen and landing at Castle Garden, May 18, 1866, after six weeks and five days spent upon the water. He went direct to Cincinnati, where he had a brother and sister living, G. B. Kennepohl being proprietor of the Brookville House, at the corner of Front and Central avenues. The brother employed our subject as bar-tender, at a salary of twenty-five dollars per month, which then seemed to him a munificent salary. In 1869 he was stricken with typhoid fever and was ill for seventeen weeks. He began to work when able to labor for only half a day. Not regaining his strength his physician advised him to secure out-door work, and after driving a milk-wagon for a time he drove a carriage for J. L. Haven and later for Joseph Selow Avendale. Eventually he began working in the grocery and saloon of J. H. Walking, and on the 18th of October, 1872, arrived in Richmond to accept a position in the grocery of Anton Averbeck, a brother-in-law of Mr. Walking. On the 4th of May, 1873, he became driver of a milk-wagon for J. H. Berheide, and in December, 1876, he established a saloon on South Sixth street. The following year he bought out Jim Shaw, who was carrying on business in an old shanty that was supplanted by the handsome block now owned by Kelly & Hudgeson. In 1891 he erected a one-story building on West First street and Richmond avenue. This district was then out in a cornfield, but within five years there was a population of over twenty-five hundred on the west side. In 1896 the people of that district made opposition to the saloon, and under the Moore law it was declared that the seventh ward was a residence district and therefore the saloon must be moved. Mr. Kennepohl then established his place of business at No. 307 North D street. He has owned altogether nine saloons in Richmond, having on two different occasions two at a time. He has been very successful in his business ventures and has accumulated a handsome capital.
On the 1st of July, 1873, Mr. Kennepohl married Miss Emilie J. A. Berheide, eldest daughter of J. H. Berheide, and to them have been born twelve children, nine of whom are yet living. Three of the sons served in the Spanish-American war; John A., who enlisted in Company K, First Missouri Infantry, April 28, 1898, and was mustered in May 13, 1898; and George W. and Harry B., who were in Company K, Third Tennessee Infantry, enlisting May 13, 1898. All joined the service as privates, but when discharged John and Harry were corporals and George was an artificer.
In politics Mr. Kennepohl has always been a Democrat and believes in a government of the people, for the people and by the people. In 1890 he was elected to represent the first ward in the city council of Richmond, and by re-election filled that office until 1896. He afterward removed to the seventh ward, was again elected councilman in 1898, and if he finishes his present term will have held the office altogether for ten years. He belongs to the order of Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Mannerchor, and has belonged to a number of political societies. He has always taken a very active part in political affairs here, and is one of the recognized leaders of the Democracy. He has traveled extensively in the United States, visiting the various leading cities of the Union, and in 1881 he returned to the Fatherland, renewing his acquaintance with the scenes and friends of his youth. He also visited the more prominent cities there and the principal places of interest, went to the exposition in Hanover and there saw the first ice machine ever constructed, it being there used in the manufacture of ice. He spent about three months abroad, leaving Richmond on the 9th of June and returning on the 1st of September, 1881. The trip across the water consumed twelve days, and from the time he sailed from Bremen on the return trip until reaching Baltimore it was fourteen days. Such in brief is the life history of one who, coming to America empty-handed, has steadily worked his way upward to a position of affluence.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899