George Wilkins Kendall, the famous writer, part-owner of the Picayune newspaper and sheep rancher, for whom the county is named, gets all the ink. But his wife, Adeline, was a very remarkable woman who also achieved great things.
Kendall, internationally known for his coverage of the Mexican-American War, visited Paris in 1849. The American Consul introduced Kendall to 19-year-old Adeline, the beautiful, blue-eyed, musically talented daughter of an aristocratic family.
Adeline Suzanne de Val-Court was born in Paris in 1830. Her father, Auguste Joseph Dieudonne Poirot de ValCourt, had been an officer in Napoleon’s Old Guard and survived the disastrous 1812 retreat from Moscow.
Adeline was swept off her feet by the dashing American celebrity and they were married shortly after. However, there was a problem with the marriage: Adeline was Catholic and Kendall’s mother, Abigail, was a fanatical, anti-Catholic Presbyterian.
Fearing that the publicity surrounding a marriage in Paris might reach Abigail in Louisiana, Kendall took Adeline to Antwerp for a secret marriage with Catholic service and with a Presbyterian ceremony.
The Kendalls settled into a Paris apartment and raised a family of four children: Georgina, born 1850, George William, born 1852, Caroline Louise, born 1853, and Henry Fletcher, born 1855.
Kendall bought land in Texas and invested in sheep ranching in partnership with A.M. Holbrook and others, even while living in France.
Kendall established a sheep ranch near New Braunfels. He owned land near Boerne, but it was considered too dangerous to live there due to hostile Comanches. Kendall brought his family to Texas to his New Braunfels ranch and moved in 1861 to his Post Oak Springs Ranch in Boerne.
Initially, Adeline was not told about the Comanches.
The land near Boerne, including the Post Oak Ranch, was formed into a new county on Jan. 10, 1862, and named “Kendall” after its leading citizen. Only a week later, Kendall returned from a brief trip to find Adeline had gathered all the ranch workers and guns into the ranch house. The shepherds had returned that evening and, fearing an attack, Adeline had dressed in Kendall’s overcoat and hat and patrolled the porch carrying his rifle.
Kendall searched and found one of the shepherds seated against a tree, his body pierced with 17 arrows, and another facedown in a creek with four arrows in his back. The body of the third shepherd was found much later.
Kendall died in 1867, leaving Adline with four young children to raise (one of whom was deaf) and a 4,000-acre ranch with 8,000 sheep to manage, as well as his extensive business interests.
Kendall’s Will gave his estate to “his wife” but Adeline had no proof that she was his legal wife and had to fight to win the right to her half of the lands that Holbrook had purchased for the partnership.
Six years after Kendall’s death Adeline married Benjamin Dane.
Adeline won the admiration of her neighbors for her courage as she prevailed through all adversities. She was active in charities and received a medal from the French government for her work aiding fatherless children from WWI.
The director of the French Symphony and other dignitaries made the pilgrimage to Texas to honor Adeline. When she died in 1924, the schools in Boerne were closed and the students lined the route to the cemetery to honor the great lady.
Adeline lies in Boerne Cemetery next to her famous husband.
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