Kuykendall, Andrew J.

Born: 1815-03-03 Johnson County, Illinois

Died: 1891-05-11 Vienna, Illinois

Flourished: Johnson County, Illinois

Andrew J. Kuykendall was a lawyer, farmer, state legislator, army officer, and U.S. representative. After completing his preparatory education, Kuykendall read law, earned admission to the Illinois bar in 1840, and commenced practicing law in Vienna, Illinois. He became active in the Democratic Party, and in 1842, Johnson County voters elected him, as a Democrat, to the Illinois House of Representatives. Kuykendall won reelection in 1844, serving in the House until March 1845. In 1846, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Illinois Senate. In 1850, Kuykendall was practicing law and owned real property valued at $1,000. In November 1850, Johnson County voters sent him to the Illinois Senate, where he served from January 1851 to May 1861. In 1860, Kuykendall owned real property valued at $3,000 and had a personal estate of $1,000. He supported Stephen A. Douglas in the presidential election of 1860, and upon the commencement of the Civil War, Kuykendall joined Douglas in declaring himself a Unionist. At a special session of the Illinois General Assembly, Kuykendall voted in favor of supplying men and money for the Union war effort, and upon returning home, he began raising a regiment of troops. Kuykendall himself volunteered for military duty, becoming a major in the Thirty-First Illinois Infantry Regiment. In 1864, Kuykendall won election, as a Republican-Unionist, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in that body from March 1865 to March 1867. Upon the conclusion of his term, Kuykendall returned to his law practice in Vienna.

Kuykendall married Cynthia Simpson in August 1836. He was a Freemason.

Green B. Raum, History of Illinois Republicanism (Chicago: Rollins, 1900), 303-4; Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1353; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 376, 405, 411; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 211, 212, 217, 218, 220, 221, 222, 223; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Vienna, Johnson County, IL, 322; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Johnson County, IL, 234; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, Vienna Fraternal Cemetery, Vienna, IL.