Jacob Kerlin McKenty

Jacob Kerlin McKenty (January 19, 1827 – January 3, 1866) was an American attorney and Democratic politician, most notable for his service as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. His single term in Congress coincided with a critical period in the nation’s history on the eve of the American Civil War, during which he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his constituents in southeastern Pennsylvania.

McKenty was born in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, on January 19, 1827, the son of Henry McKenty and Eleanor (or Elenor) McKenty. He grew up in Berks County, an area with a strong agricultural base and a significant German-American population, which would later form an important part of his political constituency. His early life in Douglassville provided the local grounding and community connections that informed his later legal and political career.

Pursuing higher education at a time when relatively few Americans attended college, McKenty enrolled at Yale College and graduated in 1848. He continued his professional preparation at Yale Law School, from which he graduated in 1850. After completing his formal legal education, he further refined his training by reading law under William Strong, a prominent Pennsylvania jurist who would later serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. This combination of elite academic credentials and apprenticeship under a leading legal figure positioned McKenty for a significant role at the Pennsylvania bar.

McKenty was admitted to the bar in 1851 and commenced the practice of law in Reading, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Berks County. Establishing himself as a capable attorney, he quickly rose in local legal circles. From 1856 to 1859 he served as prosecuting attorney of Berks County, a role that placed him at the center of the county’s criminal justice system and enhanced his public profile. His work as a prosecutor, coupled with his Democratic Party affiliation in a region that often leaned Democratic, helped lay the groundwork for his entry into national politics.

A member of the Democratic Party representing Pennsylvania, McKenty was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat to the Thirty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative John Schwartz. He served from December 3, 1860, to March 3, 1861, a brief but momentous term that coincided with the secession crisis following the election of Abraham Lincoln. During this single term in office, he contributed to the legislative process at a time of intense sectional conflict, participating in debates and votes as the Union began to fracture. McKenty was not a candidate for reelection in 1860, and at the close of his term he returned to Reading to resume the practice of law.

Although he did not continue in Congress, McKenty remained active in Democratic politics. He sought to return to the House of Representatives as an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress in both 1862 and 1864, years marked by the ongoing Civil War and shifting political alignments in Pennsylvania and nationwide. These efforts reflected his continued ambition for public service and his ongoing engagement with the political life of his state, even as he maintained his legal practice.

In his later years, McKenty divided his time between his professional work in Reading and his ties to his native Douglassville. He died in Douglassville on January 3, 1866, just shy of his thirty-ninth birthday, at a time when the nation was beginning the difficult process of Reconstruction after the Civil War. He was buried at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church Cemetery in Douglasville, Pennsylvania, close to the community where he had been born and to which he remained connected throughout his life.