He was the son of Thaddeus Kendall and Abagail Wilkins Kendall.
In 1849, he married Adeline Suzanne de Valcourt, a citizen of France in Paris, France.
They were the parents of four children.

In 1837, he co-founded the New Orleans Picayune newspaper. In 1841, he accompanied the Texas Santa Fe Expedition. He covered the United States-Mexican War from 1846 to 1848 and is considered the first modern war correspondent for his reporting. In 1862, Kendall County, Texas was named in his honor. The Kendall family records are archived at the University of Texas at Arlington.
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GEO. WILKINS KENDALL
Mr. Kendall never took any interest in politics, except so far as it is the duty of everyone to take and interest in public affairs. History shows that ever since the battle of San Jacinto, Texas has been afflicted with a horde of blatant politicians, who frequently did a great deal of harm to the State both materially and in fair name. The antics of these men were sometimes quixotic in the extreme. For example, during the Republic the population was yet small and the annual taxes amounted to $180,000, yet the salary of the President was fixed at $10,000. He was surrounded by an official family -- a Royal Court with cabinet, commander-in-chief, adjutant general, inspector, general and a standing army of a few hundred men. Instead of inaugurated a policy of peace as advocated by Sam Houston, wars and military expeditions against the Indians and Mexico were continually hatched out with the result of a mountain of debt and the Republic was thus forced to become a member of the United States. By some political hocus pocus, Next Mexico, which was then considered part of the Republic but which it never owned, was sold to the United States for 10 million dollars, which was soon squandered and little left when the Confederate war broke out. No wonder a man like Mr. Kendall eschewed politics and preferred the contemplative life of a farmer. In the Court Records of the County his name appears only once and that is as a member of the grand jury. It is significant that the grand jury found no bills of indictment.
An extract from Olmstead's book may be worth reprinting:
"Kendall Ranch. We had the pleasure of spending an evening at New Braunfels with Mr. G.W. Kendall, of the New Orleans Picayune, who has a sheep ranch five or six miles north of the town. Upon it he has a good stock of mares, some cattle and a large flock of sheep under charge of an imported Scotch shepherd. Owed to some mismanagement, in cold weather, his first experiment was not favorable. Now the farm was in a fair way to be extremely profitable. He uses no negroes, but hires all extra labor done by Germans from the town."
In those days it was fashionable to employ negro slaves for farm work. Mr. Kendall was a reformer in this respect and found it profitable and had the satisfaction of not losing his "property" at the close of the war. It did not ride off on his mules.
In 1862 Erastus Reed, who resided in Boerne, was a member of the Legislature and mainly through his efforts a new county was created, carved out of the counties of Bexar, Comal, Blanco, Gillespie and Kerr and in honor of G.W. Kendall, who resided within its bounds and who had done so much in settling up the country it was named Kendall. Mr. Kendall continued to reside here until he died at his home in 1867 at the age of 56. He died young when we count life by years, but old, when we contemplate his varied and active life in a hazy daze; his mind must have been a thinking machine on the perpetual motion order.
Epitaphs sometimes lie; but nothing could be more truthful and fitting than the inscription on the marble slab that covers his grave in the Boerne cemetery "Printer, Journalist, Author and Farmer; eminent in all. Clear head, stout heart, strong hand; a man of many friends; most beloved by those who knew him best."
(The Boerne Post, Boerne, Tex, April 14, 1898

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KENDALL, GEORGE WILKINS
New Orleans, October 22 - George Wilkins Kendall, senior associate editor of the Picayune, died at his residence, Port Oak Spring, near Boerne, Texas, yesterday evening, of congestive chill. He leaves a wife and four children. (The Charleston Mercury, Charleston, SC, Oct 23, 1867 - vm)

Death of George Wilkins Kendall - The veteran editor and proprietor of the New Orleans Picayune, George Wilkins Kendall, says a New Orleans dispatch of the 22d, died at his residence at Postoak Spring, near Boerne, Texas, at 9 o'clock on the evening of the 21st inst, of congestive chill. He was sixty years of age. He leaves a wife and four children. (The South-Western, Shreveport, La, Oct 30, 1867