Terrell-Stewart-Irwin County GaArchives Biographies.....Kenyon, Owen Thomas 1866 - living in 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 20, 2004, 1:15 pm Author: William Harden p. 853-855 OWEN THOMAS KENYON, M. D. Engaged in the practice of a profession which is one of the most exacting of all the lines of occupation to which a man may devote his time and energies, Owen Thomas Kenyon, M. D., of Dawson, holds a position of note among the leading physicians and surgeons of Terrell county. A son of Dr. Solomon H. Kenyon, he was born, May 7, 1866, in Stewart county, Georgia, on a farm situated seven miles west of Lumpkin, coming from excellent New England ancestry. The immigrant ancestor of that branch of the Kenyon family from which Doctor Kenyon sprung was one John Kenyon, who was born in England in 1657, came to America as a young man, and settled in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, where he married Elizabeth Remington. George Kenyon, the next in line of descent, was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, February 4, 1733, and there spent his entire life. He married Martha Hoxie, whose birth occurred in the same place, May 2, 1735. Their son, Solomon Kenyon, grandfather of the doctor, was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, and there resided until his death, September 1, 1857, during his active career having been prosperously engaged in agricultural pursuits. Both he and his wife, whose maiden name was Eunice Sheffield, were birthright Quakers and reared their children in that faith. Solomon H. Kenyon was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, May 19, 1793, and there acquired the rudiments of his education. A natural mechanic, he learned the trade of a carriage maker, and subsequently earned enough money as a carriage manufacturer to pay his way through the state university at Burlington, Vermont, graduating first from the literary department, and later from its medical department. After taking a post graduate course in Boston, he was for three years engaged in the practice of medicine in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1829 Dr. Solomon H. Kenyon started for Florida, making the journey in a sailing vessel and being on the water six months, the voyage having been long and rough. A very few years later he came to Georgia, settling in Irwin county, where he became engaged in the practice of his profession and with a Mr. Bowen improved a water power on House creek, near Ocilla. South Georgia then had comparatively few inhabitants, neither the Indians or the wild beasts of the forest having yet fled before the advancing steps of civilization. A few years later he moved to Talbot county, where he practiced medicine until 1852, when he bought land in Stewart county, seven miles west of Lumpkin, and turned his attention to farming, retiring from his professional labors. He was a great reader and student, and when, after he had passed the allotted three score and ten years of man's life, a new grammar was introduced into the county schools, he attended school once again, and memorized the work. He died at the advanced age of four score and four years. The maiden name of the wife of Dr. Solomon H. Kenyon was Luticia Pierce. She was born, August 18, 1820, a daughter of Allen and Sarah (Mulkey) Pierce, and died in 1895, at the age of seventy-five years. Her paternal grandfather, John Pierce, was a native of Ireland and a pioneer of Burke county, Georgia, of which her Great-grandfather Mulkey was also an early settler. Of the union of Dr. S. H. and Mrs. Kenyon, ten children were born, as follows: John, Solomon, Allen, Mina, George, Sally, Amos Hoxie, Martha, Eunice, and Owen Thomas. The four older sons served in the Confederate army, John and Solomon losing their lives while in the service. Laying a substantial foundation for his future education in the public schools of Lumpkin, Owen Thomas Kenyon was graduated when young from its high school. Having inherited in no small measure the mechanical talent of his father, he earned enough money while yet a student to pay his college expenses, and in 1886 was graduated from the medical department of Tulane University, with the degree of M. D. Commencing the practice of his chosen profession in Webster county, Doctor Kenyon remained there until 1900, when he removed to Dawson, where he has since continued, having built up an extensive and highly remunerative practice, and has won an enviable reputation as a physician and surgeon. An attentive reader and close observer, the doctor has kept pace with all of the important advances made in medical and surgical science, and has taken a post graduate course at Tulane University, a course of six weeks in the Rhode Island state hospital, a special course at the Atlanta Medical College, and a course in the New York City Polyclinic. Doctor Kenyon married, February 14,1889, Mary Almira Kimbrough, who was born at Weston, Webster county, Georgia, a daughter of C. A. Kimbrough. Her paternal grandfather, Stephen P. Kimbrough, was born in Greene county, Georgia, but when a young man removed to Webster comity, where he bought a large tract of land, which he operated with slave labor, owning a large number of slaves. He subsequently settled in Stewart county, where his death occurred when he was eighty-three years old. He married Agnes Peak, who lived to the age of eighty-nine years. C. A. Kimbrough enlisted in the Confederate army in 1864 and with his command went to Florida. At the close of the war he located in Webster county, where he still resides. He married Matilda Paschal, who was born in Putnam county, Georgia, where her father was an extensive farmer and a slave owner, who married Mary Ingram, a life-long resident of Putnam county. Dr. and Mrs. Kenyon have two sons, namely: Stephen P. Kenyon, who was graduated from Mercer University in 1912 and now fills the chair of science in the Gainesville high school; and John C. Kenyon, a student. The doctor and Mrs. Kenyon are members of the Baptist church. Fraternally the doctor belongs to P. T. Schley Lodge, No. 229, Free and Accepted Masons. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/terrell/bios/gbs362kenyon.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 6.6 Kb