Ep. 10 - Kensington Falls Turns 150 Years Old Today

Kensington Falls was founded in 1857 by Congregational missionaries who wanted to convert the native population and save their heathen souls by killing them off as they refused to see the light. How convenient for them that the land they were now on had access to the Mississippi River and was close to towns that were starting to grow into major city points. They had no qualms about writing the President and Governor with their intention to form a town on that land for the purpose of being able to practice their morals in peace from what they perceived as a corrupt world.

The problem with an isolationist society, the economy becomes stagnate and unless there was a flow of people wanting to do business among them, the town they founded would soon be history. Slowly they allowed others into their community, just as long as they agreed to abide by the main religion of the town. While not all who came into town were believers at heart, they were good Sunday Christians and went along with the crowd. More or less, everyone was an equal according to the standards of the day in the mostly Caucasian, Christian town. There were no permanent residents who were of different faiths or race. Almost everyone was from a working middle class family or farmers. Diversity was something unheard of in the humble beginnings of the town.

Kensington Falls of today had changed in many ways, but still the same in others.

Today there sat a very powerful African-American woman who was mayor of the town, Ms. Tonya Johnson, a great-granddaughter many times over of Ada Johnson. She is a divorced woman with two boys who attended Kenzie University.

William Cannon, named after one of his ancestors, was one of the professors at Kenzie University teaching religious history along with Ahmed Hussein, a transplant from Pakistan and Abraham Braunstein from Boston. All three men are single and live in homes next to each other on Industrial Lane. Needless to say the conversations get awkward among the colleagues at block parties when work, values, and historical opinions collide.

Kenzie University, the hospital, the park and the cemetery were legacies left from Wayne Brecklin as a gift to the town on the condition those names would remain in honour of the memory of his beloved friend. As time passed, no one remembered the history behind the names and assumed it was because it sounded very much like Kensington it was named in that manner. Although there were many motions made at the town council to sell the property to save the taxpayers money, it was somehow always defeated.

There were the constant fights over on Michigan Street in the properties owned by the descendants of the Gannette and Brecklin family. This was property given to the bad seeds of both clans and had a reputation of where the most rowdy things went on. It was where the poor people of town lived, the drunks came to party, the junkies came for a hit, and young college students and struggling families tried to turn a blind eye to the problems that went on around them.

Franco Gannette-Brecklin, Jeffrey Brecklin and John Stanton-Brecklin owned the slum apartments on Michigan Street where they all charged a lot of money for very little in decent accommodations, but this was the best most of these poor people could afford in town and it was not really easy for any of them to pack up and leave town.

Various members of the Gannette clan lived on the other side of Michigan Street in the trailers or the shacks and ran the seedy businesses both inside and outside of the buildings they owned. Parker Gannette was a notorious drunk and abusive man who lived in a trailer behind the club he owned with his third wife, Brenda and their three teenagers who attended Kensington High. His brother, Donnie Gannette lived next door with his live-in girlfriend, Susan Braccio-Gannette and her teen daughter Teena who also attended Kensington High and was an honor student. Donnie and Susan ran the bar and on the side dabbled in dealing drugs and running numbers. Leon Gannette lived in a shack at 205 North Main Street with his partner William Bryant, an African-American lawyer who was disbarred and scandalized in Washington, but found refuge in this small town where no one really knew his past and Leon would never hold it against him. In fact, his shady manners is what attracted him in this relationship. Together they run the pawn shop where they not only give cash for goods, but they run the underground trade in hot goods which often get stashed away in the storage facility behind the police station.

At 301 W Brecklin Manor lived the unfortunate Miss Bridgette Jensen. She was born to Mike and Sami Jensen who were renown heart surgeons who came to teach at the university, but decided there was an evil feel about the town and made plans to move. The day after they put their home on the market, they were killed in a terrible car accident by Parker and as part of the settlement was granted her parent's home and a plot of land where she currently runs the Dearly Departed Funeral home on Michigan Street.

The Santiago and Morales families lived next door to each other on Main Street. They both came into the country from Mexico back in the 1950s to work as servants hired on and off by both the Gannette and Brecklin family as their whims seen fit. Saving their money and keeping their family under one roof, they struggled to see the American dream for the sake of their children, but were often manipulated out of what little they could save by the vindictive Gannettes or Brecklins who wanted to keep them down so they would forever be their servants.

Descendants of the Mayson and Smythe went on to a tradition of public service. Many became police officers, fire fighters, doctors, ministers, teachers, and served in public office when needed.

Between Post Street and Founders Lane were the hub of town that all the people visited on a regular basis. The Gannette family was still very much in charge of the major media while the Brecklin family owned most of the property where the stores would pay them rent and a percentage of their commission.

The feud between the Gannette and the Brecklin clan still raged on, but people have long forgotten what started it, including members of both families. In fact, there was only one person who can still remember the reason for the feud and the way the town seemed cursed - Agatha.

Agatha Kenzie was the strange lady that always seemed to be around, but no one questioned it too deeply. Even Meade Johnson, the town's historian, found her presence eerie and would not dare air his suspicions that something was not right about her. He had all the documentation about an Agatha Kenzie who owned the land where she resided, but the original owner had the deed since the 1880s. All the research he has ever done did show a history of Agatha Kenzie present on the land, but she explained it away as being a traditional family name and most of her relatives lived in other cities.

As it would seem, every 60 years or so, Agatha would go on a long journey to visit her family and her death would be reported to the town. A few months later, a relative named Agatha who looked like a younger version of herself would show up to claim the land.

All the original land owned by one Enid Kenzie had been dwindled down to one acre where Agatha resides today. The deeds to the surrounding properties have passed hands, confusing laws and red tape and through so much scandal and corruption, the rightful owner could never be declared until the courts made final decisions in the 1960s when they developed the streets of what is now downtown Kensington Falls.

As a gift which was meant for her protection, before Hestia left for better adventures, she gave Agatha a cat named Felix, an ageless cat groomed as a personal pet of the Babylonian King she married many centuries ago. Felix had the ability to talk and change features as needed because he was blessed with the gift of magic.

Agatha kept to herself as her closest neighbours were polite but fearfully distant from the strange woman who acted oddly in manners they could not quite put their finger on. They chose wisely to keep comments about Felix getting into their garbage, terrorizing their pets, and screeching songs at night. They felt silly about entertaining the notion that a black cat caused them bad luck, but trouble always seemed to follow them after a visit from Felix.

Agatha lived on 104 North Agatha's Path, a street named by the town's committee back in the 60s in honour of her family legacy and confused issue of the property which probably belonged to her, but she caused no fuss when they took it over anyway. Around her acre of land, they built 11 tract houses each on their own acre yard which was built in the early 1970s for the up and coming young professionals. Mayor Tonya Johnson lived in the home directly across the street from her at 103 and her ex-husband, Martin Kennedy, lived in the house next door at 106. William Cannon lived on the other side of her at 102 with his wife and children.

Tonya's neighbour to the north was Peter and Debbie Smythe who served as teachers in the public school. Peter taught high school science. Debbie was a kindergarten teacher. To the south of Tonya was Colette Gannette, who moved into town from Reims and fell in love with the wrong person, got married, had a daughter, divorced and without a way to leave town had a settlement to run her jewelry store on Brecklin land.

Behind her property on Park Avenue lived Doctor Keith Brecklin at 105 who was rarely at home unless it was his time of custody with his daughter, Megan Gannette-Brecklin which seemed to be the only time when Colette was free from work to cause them as much grief as possible. Next door to him was Amanda Parker and her son Daniel, a French boutique owner with a reputation for being a home wrecker and sorority sister with Colette. Next to her was Ciecily Johnson, sister of the mayor who is rarely on speaking terms with her family for her chosen career as a singer who hit her heyday back in the late 1980s, but with drugs and alcohol was lucky to get a steady gig at the Brecklin Club on Michigan Street.

For whatever reason, everyone in this section of town were considered the pillars of the community. Most of them were legacies of the town while the few outsiders achieved their greatness before coming to the area and their fame proceeded them. It behooved Mayor Johnson to include all of her neighbours in the town celebration.

Everyone gathered at Kenzie park for the parade, music, dancing, plenty of food and a historically inaccurate version of the founding of the town in the manner of a play put on by the elementary school children. The respected professors of religion and history presented an ethics debate for the benefit of their students and other interested citizens. Dr Brecklin was in charge of the blood drive. Ciecily sang "Stars and Stripes Forever" during the fireworks ceremony. Debbie Smythe ran an arts and craft section for the younger children. Peter Smythe presented fun science experiments to entertain the crowds. Agatha decided to run, what everyone assumed was just for amusement, but was a true psychic reading booth. All the other neighbours were too caught up in their own shallow lives to participate in serving the community.

To be continued...