Kenedy County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Kenedy County. Out here in deep South Texas, you're lookin' at a place with a story that starts on the water, not the land.

The county was created on April 2, 1921, carved out of three neighbors, Cameron, Willacy, and Hidalgo counties. Three counties gave up a piece of themselves, and what they made was Kenedy County, with Sarita as its county seat. Now, the name on the county, that's the part worth sittin' with.

Mifflin Kenedy, born in 1818, gone in 1895. The marker tells us he was sent to Texas in 1846 on United States Army supply boats. So before most folks had ever set eyes on this corner of the world, this man was already movin' through it on the water, doing the hard logistical work of an army on the move.

And then he kept at it. From 1848 to 1860, Mifflin Kenedy was a commercial navigator of the Rio Grande. That river, that long winding ribbon between two nations, he knew it.

He worked it. And decades after he was gone, when three counties sat down to sort out their boundaries and pick a name, his was the one they chose. The Rio Grande carried him here, and this county carries his name still.

What the marker says

Kenedy County, Created April 2, 1921 out of Cameron, Willacy and Hidalgo counties. Named for Mifflin Kenedy 1818-1895, sent to Texas in 1846 on United States Army supply boats, commercial navigator of the Rio Grande 1848-1860. Sarita is the county seat.