C.E. Kennemer was a local businessman for close to 50 years. Clarence Erskin Kennemer was born in Alabama, but moved to Dallas when he was 18. It was in 1901 that he began his career in the ice business as an iceman's helper. In only ten years he would have his own delivery business and he would also enter into the ice manufacturing and storage business. His main enterprise, in which he was owner and president of, was the City Ice Delivery Company. He also owned the Oak Lawn Ice and Fuel Company, later to become the American Ice Company, as well as Western Ice and Utilities which he operated in several states.
As a businessman and leader in the comunity he also served on the board of directors and committees for several organizations throughout his life. For a time he was a director for the Utility Insurance Company, the Gulf Insurance Company, and he also served on the board of the National Bank of Commerce beginning in 1937. Several of the committees he was involved with included the traffic advisory committee, the advisory committee from the public to co-operate with the North Texas Milk Producer's Association in 1932(to which he was appointed by the State Commissioner of Agriculture, J.E. McDonald), the executive committee of the Southwestern Ice Manufacturers' Association, and in 1946, the building committee for the expansion of Highland Park Baptist Church of which he was a member.
Kennemer passed away on October 26, 1947 in Dallas and was survived by his wife and two children.
The collection contains a small amount of correspondence, some financial receipts from Kennemer's ice business, motor vehicle registration receipts and headlight certificates, tax statements, and the purchase receipt for a Packard automobile.
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
MA08-2, C.E. Kennemer Collection, Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library
Processed by Jeff Parker