James J. Kenney
Encyclopedia
James J. Kenney was the first fire chief
Fire chief
Fire Chief is a top executive rank or commanding officer in a fire department, either elected or appointed...

 in the city of Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

.

Biography

Kenney was born in 1869 in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, one of 3 children. His father, James Kenney Sr., an Irish Australian immigrant, served for a year (1871) on the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, and was also a fire commissioner there from 1871-75. Kenney's mother Nellie was born in Massachusetts of native-born parents. It's unknown what became of her, but by 1880, Kenney's father moved to the East Bay where he ran a saloon while his son attended school. Kenney Sr. died and his son was taken in by one of the boy's aunts, Mrs. Sarah (Kenney) Landers who operated a concession at the Berkeley Station of the Central Pacific
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...

's Berkeley Branch
Berkeley Branch Railroad
The Berkeley Branch Railroad was a long branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad from a junction in what later became Emeryville called "Shellmound" to what soon became downtown Berkeley, adjacent to the new University of California campus. The line opened on August 16, 1876. The initial...

 line on Shattuck Avenue in what became the downtown
Downtown Berkeley, California
Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and east to Oxford Street...

 section of Berkeley. Upon her death in 1882, James and another aunt, Miss Elizabeth Kenney, took over the concession. When the railroad (by then, the Southern Pacific
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....

) forced them out in 1891, his aunt acquired another location nearby on Center Street. The Kenney store sold books, stationery and candy, and even operated a small lending library. James lived with his aunt and two of her brothers in a small, kit-built cottage in the rear of the Center Street store fronting on Addison Street.

James subsequently joined the local volunteer fire company which had established a station next to the cottage. By 1896, he'd been elected chief of the association of Berkeley volunteer fire companies. In September 1904, a fire destroyed the new city hall. The following month, the city of Berkeley decided to create a paid, professional fire department and James Kenney was chosen as its first fire chief.

Under Kenney's leadership, the department was mechanized by 1914, the first west of the Mississippi, and Berkeley was the second fire department in the United States to adopt the two platoon system of staffing. Kenney also succeeded in getting a retreat for Berkeley firemen established in the resort area of the Russian River
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...

.

Kenney married Mary Mulbey of Oakland in 1901, but in the 15 years they were married, there were no children. He was a close friend for many years before becoming fire chief of August Vollmer
August Vollmer
August "Gus" Vollmer was a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He was also the first police chief of Berkeley, California.-Youth:...

, who became Berkeley's first police chief and a nationally renowned pioneer of modern police work.

On the evening of March 23, 1916, Chief Kenney drove to a fire at the El Dorado Oil Works (a processor of coconut oil and copra) located at the foot of University Avenue in Berkeley. He ran his car into a telephone pole, disabling the car, but emerged from the wreck uninjured. He then proceeded on foot to the fire a few blocks away. After assisting with a hose, Kenney led a group of firefighters into the burning plant, but they were forced to retreat from the heat and smoke. Kenney collapsed on the sidewalk, and his cousin, Stephen Kenney, a fire captain, got him to a car and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital (later called Herrick Hospital, today, a part of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center). He was dead on arrival.

A huge public funeral was held on March 27. Firefighters from throughout the Bay Area marched through downtown Berkeley, and a funeral mass was held at St. Joseph's Church. Kenney was laid to rest at Saint Mary Cemetery
Saint Mary Cemetery (Oakland, California)
Saint Mary Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery in Oakland, California, adjacent to Mountain View Cemetery.-People interred:*Juan Bautista Alvarado Mexican governor of California...

 in Oakland.

The City of Berkeley honored Chief Kenney by creating a public park, James Kenney Park, in 1917. The park is located on the block bounded by 8th, Virginia, 7th and Delaware Streets in the neighborhood of West Berkeley. The park was a favorite of local kids, such as baseball's Billy Martin
Billy Martin
Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin, Jr. was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager. He is best known as the manager of the New York Yankees, a position he held five different times...

, in what was for many decades a predominantly working class section of Berkeley. It remains in use and includes a baseball diamond, a recreation center and several basketball courts.

External links

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