John Kennaday
John Kennaday [1]
a noted minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in the city of New York Nov. 3, 1800. In early life he was a printer, devoting even then, however, his leisure, as far as practicable, to literary pursuits. He was converted, under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Heman Bangs, in the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church; was licensed to exhort the year. following; joined the New York Conference in 1823; was stationed on Kingston Circuit in 1823; 1825, Bloomingburgh Circuit; 1826, transferred to Philadelphia Conference, and appointed that and the following year at Patterson, N. J.; 1828-29, Newark, N. J.; 1830-31, Wilmington, Del.;' 1832, Morristown, N. J.; in 1833, retransferred to New York Conference, and stationed in Brooklyn; 1835-36, preacher in charge of New York East Circuit, embracing all the churches east of Broadway; 1837-38, Newburgh, N. Y.; 1839, retransferred to Philadelphia Conference, and that and the following year stationed at Union Church, Philadelphia; 1841-42, Trinity Church, Philadelphia; 1843-44, second time to Wilmington, Del.; at the close of his pastoral term the Church was divided peacefully, and a new Church organized, called St. Paul's, and for the two following years Dr. Kennaday was its pastor; 1847-48 again pastor of Union Church, Philadelphia; 1849, Nazareth Church, in that city; 1850, transferred to New York East Conference, and that and the following year was pastor of Pacific Street Church, Brooklyn; 1852-53, returned to Washington Street Church; 1854-55, First Church, New Haven, Conn.; 1856-57, second time to Pacific Street Church, Brooklyn; 1858-59, third time to Washington- .Street Church, Brooklyn; 1860-61, reappointed to First Church, New- Haven, Conn.; 1862, Hartford, Conn.; and in 1863 he was appointed presiding elder of Long Island District, which office he was administering at the time of his decease. The noticeable fact of this record is the number of times Dr. Kennaday was returned as pastor to churches that he had previously served. Of the forty years of his ministerial life, twenty-two years, or more than half, were spent in five churches. No fact better attests his long-continued popularity and his power of winning the affections of the people. "As a Christian pastor," says bishop Janes, "Dr. Kennaday was eminent in his gifts, in his attainments, and in his devotion to his sacred calling, and in the seals God gave to his ministry. In the pulpit he was clear; in the statement of his subject, abundant and most felicitous in his illustrations, and pathetic and impressive in his applications. His oratory was of a high order. ... Out of the pulpit, the ease and elegance of his manners, the vivacity and sprightliness of his conversational powers, the tenderness of his sympathy, and the kindness of his conduct towards the afflicted and needy... made him a greatly beloved pastor." He died Nov. 13,1863. -Conference Minutes, 1864, p. 89. (J. H.W.)
