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History · Kennard

Kennard’s post office opened in 1882, and 39% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1960 on, and the census since 1900.

1882first post office

0on the National Register

39%homes built before 1940

1old photo or paper

1famous people

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From Kennard’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Kennard began

When was Kennard founded?

1882

The Kennard post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 417 in 19002020 census: 451144 years

Founding year: the first Kennard post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Kennard’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Kennard’s homes were built before 1955.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kennard’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kennard’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2 Retake an old viewKennard-indiana-from-above: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

The story

How Kennard came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Kennard.

Read it all →

Kennard was platted in 1882, and named for Jenkins Kennard. Cyrus Hinshaw helped to found the town and was instrumental in having the town named for Jenkins Kennard. Hinshaw Street was named after Cyrus and his family.

On April 3, 1974, a multi-vortex F4 tornado hit Kennard, Indiana. The storm removed the entire second-story of the Kennard High School and destroyed 70% of the Town, including the Kennard Town Hall and fire station. 17 people were injured and one newborn child was killed in the storm.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Kennard in 1906

Passages that mention Kennard, cut from the printed page as they were published.

the Civil War and are buried in Elm Grove Cemetery, west of Spiceland, in Wayne Township. William Chew first established a home of his own near Ogden but afterwards moved to Greensboro Township, in 1851, and settled on a farm, a half mile west of the present town of Kennard. He was a public spirite… — **Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906**1906 · page 365Read the page →
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the Civil War and are buried in Elm Grove Cemetery, west of Spiceland, in Wayne Township. William Chew first established a home of his own near Ogden but afterwards moved to Greensboro Township, in 1851, and settled on a farm, a half mile west of the present town of Kennard. He was a public spirited man, highly esteemed and did much to build up and advance the interests of the community. He served as a Justice of the Peace for almost a quarter of a century.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

This office was located in the northwest corner of Wayne township, at the old town of Elizabeth City, six miles from Knightstown. After the establishment of the towns of Kennard and Wilkinson on the railroad, the business of the place gradually fell off, and upon the establishment of the Rural Free… — **Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906**1906 · page 40Read the page →
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This office was located in the northwest corner of Wayne township, at the old town of Elizabeth City, six miles from Knightstown. After the establishment of the towns of Kennard and Wilkinson on the railroad, the business of the place gradually fell off, and upon the establishment of the Rural Free Delivery System, the postoffice was finally discontinued.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Kennard, 1882 to 1960

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1882Post officeThe Kennard post office opens
20th century
1904Born hereR. Norval Garrett is born here
1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey

By decade

Kennard, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date

Date?Kennard-indiana-from-above

On the map

Kennard on the map, 1960 to 1986

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kennard. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1960Shirley sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Kennard.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewKennard-indiana-from-above

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Kennard’s page.

Retake this view · +15

People over time

Kennard, census by census

Between 382 and 541 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kennard’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Kennard’s history

What year was Kennard founded?

The Kennard post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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