John Quincy Adams was president of the United States when Emily Permelia Sheffield was born on June 20, 1826 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. I’ve not been able to find definitive records of who Emily’s parents were, though I believe her father was a man named John Sheffield, and her mother, Anna Minor. The 1880 census indicates both Emily’s mother and father were born in New York state. If my information is correct, then Emily was the youngest of ten children.
The first record I find where I know for sure, yes–this is our Emily, is a marriage record from June 20, 1853 when Emily married David Kenison in Bowens Prairie, Jones County, Iowa. Emily was twenty-seven years old and David was a fifty-one-year-old widower with four children.
The 1860 federal census found Emily and David living in the area of Scotch Grove, Iowa where David is farming. Since their marriage, they have added three children to their family – John A. Kenison, Mary Ann Kenison, and Abram Martin Kenison. Over the next few years, Emily would give birth to three more children–Samuel Peter Kenison, Silas David Kenison, and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Mariah Kenison–six children total.
For the 1870 and 1880 censuses, the Kenison family remains in Scotch Grove while the children grow up and David continues to farm their land.
When Emily was fifty-six, she became a widow. David passed away from severe gastritis on April 7, 1883.
In 1885, the state of Iowa took a census and found Emily still in Scotch Grove, with son Silas farming her land. Her address was listed on the census as SE SE.
Some historians mention that David had purchased land in Kansas, but died before he and Emily were able to make the move. Emily must have been a woman of resolve, because by the 1900 census, at the age of 73, she had moved to Center Township, City of Ashland, Clark County, Kansas where she owned her own home on 6th Avenue. (That home is shown in the photo at the top of this page.)
In the Thursday, Nov. 24, 1910 issue of the Ashland Clipper, we find a notice of Emily’s youngest daughter visiting:
Mrs. Carl Lockhart and two children came in last Thursday from their home in Higgins, Texas. Mrs. Lockhart is a daughter to Mrs. Emily Kenison.
Emily lived in Ashland until her death on December 12, 1911 at the age of eighty-five. Her cause of death was listed as “Senility.”
From The Leader-Tribune (Englewood, Kansas), dated Thursday, Dec. 14, 1911:
Mrs. Emily P. Kenison, an early settler of this county, died at her home in this city Tuesday morning about one o’clock, at the advanced age of 85 years. She was born in Ohio in June, 1826, and has lived alone here for several years. Her illness was of short duration and she peacefully passed away. Funeral was held from the Christian Church, Thursday.
Emily Permelia Sheffield Kenison is buried in the south part of lot 143 in St. Joseph’s and Highland Cemetery in Ashland, Clark County, Kansas.
A year before her death, Emily created a handwritten will:
Know all men by these presents that I, Emily P. Kenison of Ashland, Clark County, Kansas being of sound and disposing mind and memory and in my eighty-fifth year of age, do make and declare this my last will and Testament hereby revoking all former wills by me made on this 13th day of December A.D. 1910.
First, I will and desire that all my just debts and funeral expenses be paid and out of the funds remaining. I direct that my Executor erect a suitable stone at the head of my grave.
Second: I give, devise and bequeath my beloved son, John A. Kennison, the sum of five ($5.00) dollars.
Third: I give, devise and bequeath my beloved daughter, Mary A. Kennison, the sum of five ($5.00) dollars.
Fourth: I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved son Abram M. Kennison, the sum of five ($5.00) dollars.
Fifth: I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved son Samuel P. Kennison, the sum of five ($5.00) dollars.
Sixth: I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved son Silas D. Kennison, the sum of five ($5.00) dollars.
Seventh: I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved daughter, Elizabeth M. Lockhart, all the rest and residue of my property both real and personal that I may own or devised at my death wheresoever found, to have and to hold as her own to be disposed of as she may choose.
Eighth: I constitute, appoint, and declare my daughter, Elizabeth M. Lockhart, Executrix of this my last will and Testament and that she have power to collect all debts due my estate and transact all business pertaining to my estate and that, she have the power to sell and dispose of all my property and convey title on such Executrix to all my real and personal property.
In Testimony of I hereunto have set my hand and seal this thirteenth day of December A.D. 1910 at Ashland, Clark County, State of Kansas and do hereby acknowledge this to be my Last Will and Testament and hereby revoking all former wills made by me.
Signed, Emily P. Kenison Witnessed by Lettie M. Snyder and Effie P. Smith
(Note: In 1910, $5 was equivalent to approximately $155 in 2023.)
Finding Promise 