1928 Article

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 88-91
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company


Mr. Kennedy was born in Boone county, Iowa, November 8, 1867, a son of
Justin C. and Ellen (Morgan) Kennedy, both of whom are deceased. His father
was in the railroad service for many years and was in the Union army during
the Civil war, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Charles D.
Kennedy attended the public schools to the age of thirteen years, when he
commenced work for the Western Union Telegraph Company as a messenger boy.
Later he went to Chicago, where he was employed as office boy by that company,
and later worked for a sewing machine company and also as messenger boy for
the Board of Trade of Chicago. In September, 1887, he came to the Pacific
coast, locating in Seattle, Washington, where he became connected with the
railroad and steamship transportation service as night clerk, in which
capacity, being the only man on night duty, he attended to all the ticket and
clerical work in relation to the trains and boats coming into Seattle. In
July, 1888, Mr. Kennedy entered the service of the Oregon Railroad &
Navigation Company as freight clerk, later serving as purser on several of
that company's early boats, including the Hayward, Olympia, Alaska and others,
under Captain J. W. Troup, one of the ablest and best known steamboat men of
the day. Afterward Mr. Kennedy entered the employ of the Great Northern
Railroad during the construction of its line through the Cascade mountains. He
served in the supply department during 1889-90 and later was in California and
British Columbia on railroad construction work. On the completion of that work
he entered the employ of the Columbia & Kootenai Steam Navigation Company as
purser on its boats, being again under Captain Troup until 1899, when he went
to Lake Bennett as purser on the S. S. Bailey, and in the following year was
purser on the Robert Dollar, the old and widely known steam schooner which did
such excellent service between Seattle and Nome, Alaska. In 1901 Mr. Kennedy
went to work for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, having charge of the steamship
desk in the passenger department at Vancouver, British Columbia, in which
capacity he served until 1903, when he entered the steamer service of that
company, again under Captain Troup, in coastwise transportation to Alaska. In
1905 he joined C. W. Cook, of the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, as
purser on the steamship Ramona, plying between Seattle and Vancouver, and in
the following year he was made agent for Cook & Company at Tacoma, Washington.
In 1907 he was transferred to Portland as manager of Cook & Company's office,
which in the following year was taken over by the American-Hawaiian Steamship
Company, for which corporation he has served as agent and northwestern manager
here continuously since, with the exception of the World war period, when he
was with the United States Shipping Board, being employed in the operating
department for a time. Afterward he was for one year resident manager at
Portland for Norton & Lilly, and then became president of the Oregon & Ocean
Corporation, which was engaged in doing stevedore work on the Columbia river,
and with which concern he remained identified until 1923. He then returned to
the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company as Portland agent, and was later
appointed northwestern manager, having charge of its northwestern business.
This company operates a fleet of twenty-three steam and motor ships, all cargo
carriers, in the intercoastal trade. They are also managing agents for the
oriental service for the Oceanic & Oriental Steamship Company. In every
position which he has filled Mr. Kennedy has proven capable and painstaking in
the performance of duty and has commanded the esteem of his superior officers
and the respect of those under him.

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