JAMES A. KENNEDY , attorney at law, is a native of Huntingdon - now Blair - county, Pennsylvania; was born in 1833. David Kennedy and Mary A. Miller, his parents, were also of that State. They came to Illinois about 1840, and settled in Calhoun County, where Mr. Kennedy died soon after. They had three children, of whom James is the only one alive. Soon after his father's death, the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and he was there reared and educated, completing a course in the St. Louis University in 1852. He then went south and engaged in teaching school in New Orleans and interior Louisiana, until 1857. Returning, he remained in St. Louis, till the following year, then located in Waterloo, Monroe county, Illinois; read law with Hon. William R. Morrison, and was admitted to the practice in 1859. He was elected County Superintendent of schools in 1860, and filled the office by successive elections, eight years. He was appointed Master in Chancery about the same time, and held that position till he moved to Sangamon county in 1870. Here he taught the first year as assistant in the city high school, at the close of which he opened a law office; was elected city attorney on the Democratic ticket in 1874; the following year was chosen Justice of the Peace to fill a vacancy, was re-elected in 1877, and served till May, 1881. Upon retiring he resumed the practice of law. Mr. Kennedy is now serving his second term as supervisor from Capitol township; was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, first term, is now at the head of Committee on Pauper and Poor Accounts. In January, 1879, he, with several others, printers, issued the "Catholic News," a weekly publication which was suspended about six months later, from lack of proper support. In 1858 he married Miss Clara Vanderburgt, a native of Belgium, Europe, but came to America at ten years of age. They have two adult daughters, Mary E. and Emma. Mr. Kennedy is a member, and for several years was successively President and Secretary of the Union of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Societies, of Springfield.