Kendall County, Texas

Geo. Wilkins Kendall  (as he always signed his name) grew up with his parents until he was seven, then went to live with his Wilkins grandparents in Amherst, New Hampshire, and decided to stay, living with them for the next ten years.  At age seventeen he set out to pursue his ambition to be a printer and writer. 

For the next eleven years he apprenticed in many cities—Boston, New York, Sandusky, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Mobile, Augusta, Charleston, Washington, New Orleans and more.  Horace Greeley, widely known journalist and a childhood friend of Kendall’s, was experiencing instant success with his new newspaper, the Daily Ledger in Philadelphia.  Kendall wondered, “Why not start one in New Orleans?”  In 1837 he and a partner, Francis A Lumsden, ran the first issue of the New Orleans Picayune.  It was described as “saucy little sheet which sold for its namesake, a picayune, a Spanish coin worth 6 ¼ cents.  The paper was noted for its witty, cheerful tone, its political independence, spirit of good will, and emphasis on local news.

Work in the New Orleans office kept George Kendall busy until 1841, when he went as an observer and reporter on the Texan Santa Fe Expedition into New Mexico.  As they approached Santa Fe, they were captured by Mexican authorities and were forced to march on foot to Mexico City, where they were imprisoned.  The release of George Kendall came about a year later.  His reports, written from memory, were published by The Picayune in a series, and later in a two-volume book set, which sold 40,000 copies.

George Kendall earned his renown as “the first modern war correspondent” during the Mexican American War.  In 1846-47 he covered the battles in Monterrey and Saltillo, then Veracruz through the victory in Mexico City.  His reports reached The Picayune faster than even the military dispatches, because he established his own relay of a courier system with horsemen, ships and telegraph.  After the war, he and a French artist, Carl Nebel, jointly produced the outstanding book, The War Between the United States and Mexico, Illustrated.  Kendall’s full, detailed account of the war, which he intended to write into a book, was left in manuscript form, unfinished and unpublished at the time of his death.  It is now part of the 34 boxes of Kendall papers that are owned by the University of Texas at Arlington.

Following the Mexican War, Kendall traveled to Europe with the idea to recuperate, to see the world, and to acquaint himself with the sheep industry.  While in Paris, he met Adeline de Valcourt, a beautiful nineteen year old.  They were married in France in 1849, where they made their home and had four children.  Finally, in 1855 he brought them to Texas and his ranch near New Braunfels.  In 1861 they moved to Post Oak Ranch just outside Boerne.

The greatest innovation Kendall gave to the sheep industry was crossbreeding the Mexican Churro ewes with the fine-fleeced Merinos, to produce a new strain with the stamina needed for the Texas hill country and the fine wool of the Merinos.  Not only were they prolific in breeding, but they increased wool production dramatically.  He found that the local Germans made excellent shepherds.  He paid them in sheep and taught them the skills of sheep ranching.  Thus, they built the sheep industry to its present day huge proportions in this area.

Geo. Wilkins Kendall died of pneumonia in 1867.  His dear friend and associate in the sheep industry, Henry S. Randall, said in his obituary, “He loved Texas with an absolute devotion.  He never was tired of writing or speaking in its praise.  He loved its vast expanses of solitude, its majestic plains, its noble rivers, the green hills of the county named after him, and its masculine energetic population. ----George Wilkins Kendall earned his place as the father of the Texas sheep industry through hard work and energetic promotion of that industry.  He did Texas and the sheep industry a great service.  He fully deserves the tribute cut into his tombstone:  Printer, Journalist, Author, Farmer, Eminent in All”…. Texas will deeply miss and mourn him.  Perhaps she had no citizen which she could so illy afford to spare.  She certainly has none who can entirely fill his place.”

Written for the George W. Kendall Chapter NSDAR yearbook by Frances W. Lipe.

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