My Genealogy Hound

Edmund McKenna, general merchant and cotton buyer, was born in Manchester, England, February 5, 1843, and is a son of Owen and Bridget (McAdams) McKenna, natives of County Monaghan, Ireland, and descendants of the McKennas of Truke. Edmund lost his father when six years old, and his mother died when he was eleven. She had previously come to America with her children, Edmund and Agnes, her uncle, James McAdams, and an elder brother, Frank, having located in Philadelphia. Mrs. McKenna was buried in a cemetery near Norristown, Penn., and Frank died from a wound received while serving as fist lieutenant of the Second California Cavalry. Agnes is now the wife of Matthew Mooney, of Philadelphia. In 1857 Edmund started west in the service of a Unites States officer, and in 1859, on his return to Philadelphia, stopped at Fort Smith, growing to manhood in the home of J. K. McKenzie. He entered the Confederate army, in Cabell’s brigade (Gordon’s regiment), and served until wounded at Mark’s Mills. He lost an eye, and was laid up in the hospital until previous to Price’s raid, in which he participated. After the war he clerked three years at Fort Smith for Capt. H. Stone, and then for seventeen years did business as his partner. He then bought Capt. Stone’s interest, and has successfully conducted the business up to the present. In the spring of 1888 he started a store at Cameron, Ind. T., which is paying him a good interest. He is the secretary, treasurer and financial head of the Farmer’s Alliance Cotton Yard, and is a stockholder in the Western Arkansas Fair Association. He was foreman of the first hook and ladder company organized in Fort Smith, has served his township as alderman, and in 1884 was a candidate for the mayoralty. For some time he served as president of the board of sewer commissioners, but resigned that office on account of his business interests demanding his attention. In 1870 he married Miss Mildred Bostick, who has borne him four sons and one daughter: Jerry, who works in the store; Frank, deceased at the age of five; Hubbard Stone, Edmund, and Agnes, who died at the age of two. In religion Mr. McKenna is liberal. He is Past Master of the Belle Point Lodge of A. F. & A. M., and is Past Dictator of the Knights of Honor.