Kendall
of
the
Picayune.
By Fayette Copeland. Norman (Uni-
versity of Oklahoma Press), 1943. Pp. ix+351. Illustra-
tions. $3.00.
George Wilkins Kendall was a descendant of Francis Kendall,
who came to Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1640, and of Bray
Wilkins, who landed at Salem, Massachusetts, with Governor
John Endicott in 1628. He was born on August 22, 1809, in the
village of Mont Vernon in present-day Hillsboro County, New
Hampshire, as the oldest son of Thaddeus and Abigail Wilkins
Kendall. He spent ten years in the home of his grandfather,
Deacon Samuel Wilkins, and subsequently acknowledged his
gratitude for the training which he received there by always
including "his middle name 'Wilkins' in his later famous signa-
ture."
At the age of sixteen he became an apprentice in the shop of
the Amherst (New Hampshire) Herald,
and once this interest
in newspaper work took possession of him he was not to lose it
until his death on October 21, 1867. In January, 1837, he and
Francis Asbury Lumsden formed a partnership in New Orleans
to engage in the newspaper business, and on January 25, 1837,
they distributed the first issue of The
Picayune
in New Orleans.
From that time on, newspaper journalism was the very life and
blood of George Wilkins Kendall, and, no matter what his
primary business was, news reporting and writing articles for
The
Picayune
always demanded some of his time.
For many years New Orleans was his legal residence, but
Texas has a claim on his citizenship for the period from 1856
to 1867. He owned a tract of land on the Nueces, had a ranch
home near New Braunfels, and finally moved to his ranch on
Post Oak Spring near Boerne, Texas, in the county that was
created and named for him in 1862. In Texas he did much to
improve the sheep on his ranches, and less than two months
before his death he was in San Antonio where he tried "without
success to borrow money to promote a factory for the manu-
facture of woolens in New Braunfels."
The circumstances of the times gave Kendall four full years
in which to build up the business of The
Picayune.
(Picayune,
by the way, comes from the French picaillon,
Spanish picayón,
a coin worth six and a fourth cents, the cost of one copy of
The
Picayune.)
Then, early in 1841, Kendall heard of the pro-
posed Santa Fe expedition which President Lamar was spon-
soring. New Orleans always heard of interesting and exciting
things that were happening or about to happen in Texas. Ken-
dall went to Texas and shared the trials and hardships of those
who went to Santa Fe. His experiences were recorded in his
Narrative
of
the
Texan
Santa
Fe
Expedition
(New York, 1844).
Kendall's next great experience was his reporting of the
Mexican war, and for this work the author correctly calls him
the "first modern war correspondent." He organized a pony
express to carry his war correspondence from Scott's forces to
Vera Cruz. It was a great good work that Kendall did and it
meant much for the circulation of The
Picayune.
The author's
treatment of this phase of Kendall's life is his real contribution
in this book.
A chapter on revolution and romance records Kendall's work
in France in 1848 on the revolution of that year and relates
the story of his courtship of and marriage to Adeline de Valcourt
in 1849. Seven years more Kendall's wife stayed in France,
while he went back and forth to Texas to make ready the ranch
home just a few miles from New Braunfels near Waco Spring.
When the Kendalls came to Texas they brought only Georgina
and William Henry along; Henry Fletcher, their infant son,
was too young to make the long journey, but came to Texas in
December, 1858, with his grandmother, Madame de Valcourt.
Caroline Louise, the oldest daughter, accompanied her parents
to Texas in 1866. Georgina married Eugene J. Fellowes, lived
for a while in Chicago, and now, at the age of ninety-three
years, is living in San Antonio, where she is well known as
Mrs. Georgina Kendall Fellowes. In his dedication the author
calls Mrs. Fellowes the "real biographer" of George Wilkins
Kendall.
The last three chapters of this intensely interesting and ad-
mirably written biography deal with Kendall's experiences as
a sheep rancher near New Braunfels from 1856 to 1861 and on
his Post Oak Spring ranch near Boerne, Texas, from February,
1861, until his death in October, 1867. These last eleven years
of Kendall's life were full but also hard. He still wrote for
The
Picayune,
but his weekly letter "dealt almost exclusively
with the past, as if there were no present and would be no
future." It is, however, this part of Kendall's life that will in-
terest Texans and will make them happy to own this book.
Mexico, Illustrated, in collaboration with Carl Nebel, who made
the drawings. This book, which appeared in 1851, was printed
in the Picayune shop and was marketed by D. Appleton and
Company. Kendall wrote a longer history of the Mexican War,
but one obstacle after another prevented the the publication of
this work, and finally Mrs. Georgina Kendall Fellowes "gave
the manuscript to The University of Texas."
The author gives various short personal and character
sketches of Kendall. Possibly the best of these reads: "This
was one of the evidences, increasing as the years passed, of the
impatience which stamped his character. Always he had chafed
at obstacles, but his energy and his resourcefulness carried
him past barriers which turned back less determined men.
These characteristics made him a versatile reporter, a success-
ful publisher, a great correspondent, and a pioneer who con-
tributed immeasurably to the development of his adopted state."
Just a little more must needs be said. The book shows up
well in its general appearance. It is remarkably free of typo-
graphical errors, and the illustrations, only nine in number,
are excellent and remarkably well chosen. The bibliography,
which is very lengthy and shows a considerable amount of re-
search, might have included a few more items on the Santa Fe
expedition, such as H. Bailey Carroll's dissertation, "The Route
of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition," Peter Gallagher and
Stephen Hoyle's "Journal of the Santa Fe Expedition," and
Peter Gallagher's "Diary for 1841-1842." All in all, this biogra-
phy is a good one and has its place in Texana, the history of
Louisiana, the history of the Southwest, and the history of
American journalism.
The University of Texas
R. L. Biesele
How to cite:
"Kendall of the Picayune", Volume 47, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v047/n3/review_DIVL5990.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 13:35:58 CST 2008]
