He then went to Texas and northern Mexico, where he helped get many steamboats to the Rio Grande area during the First Cortina War (1859–1860).

Using the Corvette, he transported General Zachary Taylor and his soldiers on the Rio Grande and then overland to Camargo, Mexico.

Kenedy operated ranches and invested in railroads in Texas, some of them in partnership with Richard King.

Between the two teaching positions, he was a cabin boy on a ship destined for Calcutta, India named the Star of Philadelphia.

He then began to work as acting captain on steamboats on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers for six years.

[4] While piloting the Champion, he stopped for repairs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he met John Saunders, a major during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).

[1] In 1850, he established a partnership with Richard King, James O'Donnell, and Charles Stillman called M. Kenedy and Company.

[9] During the Civil War, M. Kenedy and Company were successful in transporting goods down the Rio Grande.

The cotton was put onto foreign ships for Europe, avoiding the Union Army's blockade.

[4] In 1876, Kenedy and King invested in the construction of a railroad line built by Uriah Lott between Corpus Christi and Laredo called the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Gauge Railroad.

He provided financial backing for Lott's construction of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in 1885.

[1][2] On April 16, 1852, Kennedy married Petra Vela de Vidal in Mier, Mexico.

[3] Kenedy died suddenly of a heart attack[9] in Corpus Christi on March 14, 1895, and was buried at Brownsville,[1][2] as was his widow.