Kennedy (1861-1930) was born in Leeds to Irish parents. From the age of 6 until about the age of 20 he worked in cotton mills and machine shops in Manchester, England. At age 20 he left England, working as a deckhand on a cargo ship which landed him in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Illiterate and with no money or formal training, he used the force of his strength (and fist) to "tramp" his way westward across North America. He worked at various laboring jobs including as an oysterman on a skipjack on the Chesapeake Bay; a miner in New York; building railroad sheds in the Canadian Rockies; and panning for gold in the Klondike.He eventually ended up in California where he had various jobs in the theater, including as a singer and actor, before returning to England where he married in 1897.
