Page:History of the newspapers of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.djvu/115

 THE WESTERN ARGUS. 91 business in. fine work. In a short time it passed into the control of James M. Phillis and M. J. White, both Beaver printers, and was soon discontinued. On October 5, 1877, Dr. E. S. Kennedy took up the work laid down by the publishers of the "Beaver County Post," and began the publication of the "Commoner." Mr. Kennedy was bom in Independence township, Beaver county. Pa., April 7, 1841. On the paternal side his grandfather was of Irish descent, and his grand- mother whose maiden name was Inman, was Scotch; on the maternal side his grandfather Shannon was of Irish descent and his grandmother Thomson was Scotch, all of whom and some earlier ancestors, being bom in. America. The Doctor is the son of William A. and Eosa Kennedy, was educated in the common schools and Beaver Academy, later attended the University of Michigan and was graduated at the Jefferson Medical College, Phila- delphia March 1866. He was married April 1874 to Mary A. Patton, a daughter of David Patton, Esq., who at that time resided at New Sheffield in Beaver county. He practiced medicine for about ten years in Inde- pendence and Hopewell townships, in 1874 was one of the Democratic nominees for Assembly, Joseph Graff of Beaver Falls, being the other. He afterwards resided for two or three years in New Brighton, but has lived since 1879 in Beaver, where he is now practicing his profession. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy have two children, Dr. Oliver M. Kennedy a practicing dentist of Beaver, and Mrs. George I. Park of Beaver. The name "Commoner" was never entirely satis- factory to Mr. Kennedy, and at the end of two years he dropped it and went back to the name associated with the traditions of his childhood, calling it the "Star." The office was enlarged, and new type and presses added. It was then published in a frame building near the comer