Throughout 2023 we’ll be exploring the origins of area place names. Kennedy Creek, on the border between Thurston and Mason Counties, is named for settlers Benjamin Franklin Kennedy and his wife Elizabeth Ann Kennedy, pictured here in a painting based on a photograph. The Kennedys were early settlers in Mason County. Image selected and captioned by Deborah Ross on behalf of the Olympia Historical Society, olympiahistory.org.
Painting based on a photograph from around 1900, Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society