Kenney (also Kinney) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northern Austin County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had a population of 200 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

History

The area around Kenney was first settled in the 1820s, with German immigrants arriving from the 1830s through 1900, but the community itself was not started until 1880, when a station on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway between Brenham and Bellville and a post office was established. The community was originally named Thompson for its first postmaster, JE Thompson. After four years under that name, the community was renamed Kenneyville in 1884, in honor of evangelist John Wesley Kenney; the name was shortened to Kenney in 1892. The community thrived in 1885 with a steam-powered

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

and

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

, three churches, several businesses, and 150 residents. Its population shrank to 75 in 1890. The community's first

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

was established by William Schill and a general store was managed by John Chernosky. Its population rose to 202 in 1904. The

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

organized a chapter here in 1917 and included 76 black residents on its 178-member roster. It lost two people in 1936, but had 12 businesses in operation. It had a church in the late 1980s. Its population remained at 200 from 1990 through 2000.Kenney, Texas

Handbook of Texas Online The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, 2008-01-17. Accessed 2008-08-11. Although Kenney is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code of 77452.

Geography

Kenney is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 2754 and Texas State Highway 36 on the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

, north of Bellville and south of Brenham in far northern Austin County.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by relatively high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year. The Köppen Climate System describes the weather as humid subtropical, and uses the abbreviation ''Cfa''.Climate Summary for Kenney, Texas
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Education

A school was established at Kenney in 1885. It then had two schools in the late 1980s. Today, the community is served by the Bellville Independent School District.

Notable people

* Nolan Luhn, wide receiver for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

* Red Lynn, former MLB pitcher

Gallery

File:Kenney TX US Post Office.JPG, US Post Office is located on Loop 497 in Kenney. File:Kenney TX Historic Marker.JPG, Historical marker gives a short biography of the town's namesake, Methodist preacher John Wesley Kenney. File:Kenney TX Downtown.JPG, Looking southeast at some businesses on Loop 497. BNSF Railway is at left. File:Kenney Store WS (1 of 1).jpg, Old Kenney Store.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Austin County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas