Mary Philomena Kendall (maiden name: Irwin) was born around 1817 in Mississippi. She married William G. Kendall on June 3, 1835, and they had at least six children: John, born around 1841; Annola, born around 1844; Kate, born around 1849; Mary, born around 1851; Robert, born around 1851; and Lenze, born around 1856. They lived in Jackson County, Mississippi, and her husband worked as a lawyer. By 1850, they owned $5,000 of real estate. A decade later, they owned $2,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property. The Civil War proved deeply disruptive to her life, and in May 1864, she wrote that her “finances are getting very low and I cannot see how I am to get money to live upon.” Nonetheless, she maintained that “God will show me some way to provide for our wants.” She died sometime after 1864.

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