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THE ILLmOIS FARMER. 



July 



Dr. JOHN A. KENNICOTT- 



Died — At the Grove, Cook county, IllinoiH, on 

 the morning of June 4th, 1863, Dr. Joun A. Ken- 

 KicoTT, aged sixty-three )-ears. 



Amid the blushing beauties of rose crowned 

 June, they laid him down in his narrow borne. No 

 warrior on the battle field with his country's flag 

 around him. could ask a prouder burial. 



A lover of the floral kingdom, and, above all, 

 the Queen of flowers, the rose, it is meet that he 

 shiiuld breathe out his last though.t of earth with 

 air laden with the aroma of his pat.ron flower, and 

 that his bier be strewn with its faded petals, — a 

 glorious shrouding and a fitting train for a lover cf 

 the beautiful to take his last look of earth. 



No wintry winds — no sleety rains shall wake him 

 from the vision that last caught his eye and pur- 

 fumed the breath of his last morn on earth, — 

 bright, glorious June, thy genial smiles and soft 

 showers had embowered his home with roses again 

 and again, as the years rolled on, but now for the 

 last time has he looked on thy opening beauties. 



A lovino; husband, a fond father, a truthful 

 brother, a kind friend, an obliging neighbor and 

 one with a heart and hand for the general good, 

 has gone home — his name needs no other monu- 

 ment than the living, waving, leafy treasures that 

 have been his care. His many virtues shall not 

 die, for his name is on the first page of the history 

 of rural progress in the North-west, and shall be 

 handed down to the time when floral decorations 

 and love of home shall have ceased on the prairie 

 and wood crowned slopes of the west. 

 He shall sleep on in the garden that his own 



hands had planted and where the summer winds 

 shall softly stir the leaves of his well loved trees, 

 nor will he reck when autumn winds shall gather 

 their leafy garniture in eddies about his tomb. 



His spirit has passed beyond the ken of mor- 

 tals, but his example and his advice are left behind 

 him, a legacy to those who would not lag in the 

 field of rural progress. 



We need not, we cannot, write his history, for 

 it is imprinted en the whole history of horticulture 

 since the first rose bloomed in the garden at the 

 "Grove" in 1837, until the morning that he 

 passed away from earth. Yet, from our long and 

 intimate acquaintance, we cannot refrain from 

 giving some of the leading points in his eventful 

 life. Months ago we intended to have given the 

 world something of his history and to make up 

 the deficiency of memoranda previous to the year 

 1831 we requested him to give us some data of 

 his early life. These notes he kindly furnished us 

 and which we shall add to the recollection of our 

 long acquaintance. 



Both of us were born in the same county, both 

 came t» this State in 1836, have been a long time 

 neighbors and have pursued the same calling — the 

 garden, the orchard, the farm, with a touch of ed- 

 itorial life. When residing near each other, we 

 have often met ; at other times a free interchange 

 lias been kept up by correspondence, and through 

 all the long years we stood shoulder to shoulder in 

 the building up of more pleasant homes in the 

 west, and to surround them with the beautiful. 



A dozen years our senior, we have always looked 





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