Clatsop-Multnomah-Statewide County OR Archives Biographies.....Kinney, M. D., Alfred C. January 30, 1850 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com February 14, 2011, 2:19 am Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 913 - 917 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company ALFRED C. KINNEY, M. D. One of the oldest physicians in the Columbia River valley, as well as one of its most highly honored citizens, is Dr. Alfred C. Kinney, of Seaview, Washington. A native of the valley and a member of one of its real pioneer families, he has been an interested witness of and an active participant in the wonderful development which has characterized this favored section of the country, and is recognized as an authority on many phases of its pioneer history. Fred Lockley, after an interview with Dr. Kinney, printed the following in the Portland Daily Journal of August 2, 3 and 4, 1921: "Dr. Alfred C. Kinney is one of the landmarks of Astoria. Recently, while sojourning in the foothills of the Cascades, I met Dr. Kinney. We met each other three times a day at the table. Occasionally we would steal away from the jolly bunch around the fireplace and, tipping our chairs back against the wall on the wide front porch, we would talk of the early days in Oregon. Dr. Kinney's father, Robert Crouch Kinney, was born in St. Clair county, Illinois, on the Fourth of July, 1813. Before he was of age he married Eliza Lee Bigelow. They moved to Muscatine, Iowa. Dr. Kinney's mother, Eliza Lee Bigelow, was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, where her family had migrated from Connecticut in 1767. She came to the United States when she was twelve years old. "My people came across the plains in 1847,' said Dr. Kinney. 'I was born on their donation land claim in the Chehalem valley, about five miles from Newberg, January 30, 1850. My father was a farmer and stockman. He was elected to the Territorial Legislature and later was a member of the state constitutional convention. His portrait now hangs in the state capitol at Salem. There were eight children in our family. My oldest sister, Mary Jane, married J. H. Smith, of Harrisburg. She was born December 16, 1839, in Iowa, and is now deceased. Our folks made the long journey by ox team to the Willamette valley. The second child in the family was Albert W. Kinney. Albert was born in Iowa, October 30, 1843. He married Virginia Newby, daughter of W. T. Newby. "'In 1852 W. T. Newby put in a water ditch from Baker creek to Cozine creek and put up a flouring mill. In 1854 S. C. Adams, who had a farm near by, suggested to Mr. Newby that he start a townsite on his farm, near the mill. Mr. Newby told Mr. Adams that if he would start the town he would give him a block of lots. Mr. Adams started the town in 1855 and built the first house near the Newby mill. Mr. Adams, who was a college man, decided to start a school at this point. Dr. James McBride, Mr. Newby and Mr. Adams went in together and started a school, Mr. Newby donating six acres for the campus. Mr. Newby had come from McMinnville, Tennessee, and so they named the school the McMinnville school, the settlement taking the same name. This school, of which S. C. Adams was the first teacher, became McMinnville College. It is remarkable, in looking back at the history of those early days, to see how many of the students of this early-day school became famous. George L. Woods, one of the first pupils, became governor of Oregon. John R. McBride became a congressman and later was chief justice of Idaho. L. L. Rowland was later a college president, superintendent of education and superintendent of the Oregon Insane Asylum. "'My next brother, Augustus C. Kinney, was born July 26, 1845, in Iowa, became a doctor, moved to Astoria and married Jane Welch. On January 31, 1847, my brother Marshall J. was born at Muscatine. He has an office in Portland and is an authority on the salmon question. I was the first of our family born in Oregon. Two years after I was born, my sister Josephine Elarena was born on our farm in Yamhill county. She married James G. Walker, of San Francisco and has three children: James G., Jr., of Portland; Mrs. Josephine Mitchell, of Los Angeles; and Mrs. Alice Leslie Kosmonpolis, of Athens, Greece, an archaeologist of some note. My brother William Sylvester, who died in 1898, was born on our home place in 1854. He married Mary Strong of Salem, who was elected senator from Clatsop county in 1920. My sister Eliza Lee was born in 1858. She married Dr. John E. Peyton and now lives at Placentia, California. "'In the late '50s, my father bought an interest in the McMinnville flouring mill, which was built by Newby & Edson. Shortly after securing his interest he bought out Mr. Edson, and a year later bought out Mr. Newby. In 1869 our family moved to McMinnville, but we retained the farm, which the older boys continued to run until 1868, when my father sold the mills at McMinnville, as well as the farm, and secured an interest in the Willamette Woolen Mills Company, of Salem, of which he became manager. Later my father and my two oldest brothers became owners of the mill. "'The first woolen mill erected in Oregon was put up in Albany in 1854. E. L. Perham & Company installed a carding machine there. In the spring of the following year Thorpe's mill was built on the La Creole, in Polk county, for the carding, spinning and weaving of flannel. In the next year, 1856, Joseph Watt, with several associates, organized a company at Salem to erect a woolen mill. William H. Rector put up the mill and secured the machinery in the east. The next woolen mill in Oregon was built at Oregon City in 1864. This same year a woolen mill was erected at Ellendale, in Polk county, on a farm owned by Judge R. P. Boise. It was not ready, however, to turn out cloth until 1866. "'My father died March 2, 1875. Five years later our family sold their interest in the Willamette woolen mills. I started to school in McMinnville in 1859. At that time my father was operating a flour and grist-mill at McMinnville. In those days we didn't have the frills in school they now have — athletics and all the rest of it. We couldn't sell the bran and screenings from our mill, so each winter my father would buy several hundred hogs and feed them the screenings. Helping take care of these hogs and working about the mill gave me scant leisure. When I was fourteen years old I used to drive a four-mule team to the steamboat landing at Dayton each morning before school. Returning in time for school, I would put in the rest of the day at school, and after school would take another load of flour to Dayton. That meant an eight-mile trip before school and the same trip after school each day, so you see I had mighty little time for play. As a matter of fact, I never played a game of ball in my life. During the winter the steamboat could come up the river as far as McMinnville to get the flour, but all the rest of the time we had to haul the flour to Dayton. If I happened to have any spare time my father would say, "Better go out and fill up the gopher holes in the ditch." The gophers were everlastingly boring holes in our ditch, through which the water would leak out, decreasing our power supply, so it was my job on Saturdays to go up one side of the five-mile ditch and down the other to plug up gopher holes. I went to McMinnville College from 1859 to 1867.' " * * "'McMinnville College was started by a group of men belonging to the Christian church,' said Dr. Alfred C. Kinney, of Astoria. 'The Rev. Ezra Fisher had inspired the Baptists to build a Baptist college, the Oregon City College, at Oregon City, in 1849, but the gold rush put that college out of business. In 1856 the Baptists started Corvallis Institute. The following year the legislature issued a charter to the West Union Institute, in Washington county. This West Union Institute was so near to the school at McMinnville that S. C. Adams and those associated with him proposed to turn the college at McMinnville over to the Baptists if they would not start their school at West Union. The Baptists agreed to this and accepted the six acres of land that had been given by W. T. Newby, and the school building. Ephraim Ford, Ruben Hill, J. S. Holman, James M. Folkerson, Henry Warren, A. N. Miller, Willis Gaines and Richard Miller took over the school and became directors. In January, 1858, the school was incorporated as McMinnville College and they became the board of trustees. The Rev. George C. Chandler was principal. Prof. J. W. Johnson was my teacher five of the eight years I attended the college. The first teaching he did after his graduation from Yale was his work at McMinnville. Later, when the people of Eugene started what is now the State University, Prof. Johnson was appointed president. This was in the fall of 1878. At that time there were only three or four teachers in the college. Prof. Johnson was president. Dr. Thomas Condon taught science, particularly geology. Prof. Bailey had charge of mathematics and Mrs. Mary Spiller and Miss Elizabeth Boise taught the lower grades. "'I doubt if the boys of today could do what we youngsters used to do sixty years ago. When I was nine years old, with my oldest brother and a hired man, I helped drive four hundred head of cattle over the Cascade mountains to feed on the unfenced bunch grass range around Birch creek, in Umatilla county. I rode a buckskin pony and was barefooted. I not only did my share of the driving, but I rustled the wood for a campfire, washed the dishes and did my share of camp work. "'My father was a very progressive stockman. He bought a Durham bull to improve the breed of the longhorn Spanish cattle from California. He also bought a good stallion, as well as some blooded sheep. "'My whole thought when a boy — in fact, up to the time I was eighteen— was to be a stockman. I loved the open range and I was at home on horseback. When I lived at McMinnville I liked to drop in to visit Dr. Watson. He told me if I was going to be a stockman and live in eastern Oregon I should know something about medicine and surgery, for I would find no doctors in the country east of the mountains and a knowledge of medicine would come in very handy. He talked to me so much about it that I decided to learn something about medicine. When I told him this, he said, "Don't try to 'pick up' something about medicine, but go to New York city, where you can secure the best instruction possible. After you have been graduated, spend a year in a hospital, so that when you come back and start in the stock business in eastern Oregon you will be well equipped to help out your friends and neighbors when they need medical aid." I took his advice and went back to New York city. I put in three years at Bellevue Medical College. After my graduation I put in two years in the hospital on Blackwell's island. There were twelve hundred beds there, so I had a good opportunity to treat all sorts of cases. "'I came back to Oregon in 1872. My health was very much impaired. That spring I went to Clear lake, with George Beatty and my brother. We stayed there until the snow drove us out. We brought back a big load of jerked venison and elk meat. I had put in the whole summer hunting and fishing and sleeping in the open and I came back with restored health.' " * * * "'In the fall of 1872, I started my practice as a physician in Portland. I decided to get a few thousand dollars ahead so I could go up to eastern Oregon and follow out my original intention of owning a stock ranch. Dr. Ralph Wilcox, who has the honor of being Portland's first teacher, was also the first physician to come to Portland. He came here in 1847. He was a graduate of the Geneva Medical College of New York. He later became county judge in Tualatin county and a member of the Provisional Legislature, of which he was elected speaker. He was also speaker of the Territorial Legislature. "'One of the leading physicians of Portland when I started to practice was Dr. Robert Bruce Wilson, who came from Virginia and was a graduate of the University of Virginia. Before coming to Portland he practiced medicine in San Francisco for a short time and then became surgeon on the steamship "Goldhunter." In December, 1850, he resigned his position with the steamship company and began the practice of medicine in Portland. Within a few years after coming to Portland he married the daughter of Captain John H. Couch. Two of his sons, Dr. Holt Wilson and Dr. George F. Wilson, followed in their father's footsteps. "'Dr. R. B. Glisan was another prominent physician when I came to Portland. He was a most charming man. He had been in the army some years as a surgeon. You can get an excellent idea of army life in the early days by reading his book, "The Journal of Army Life." "'Dr. William H. Watkins, a native of New York and a graduate of Buffalo Medical College, came to Oregon in the early days, practicing in Josephine county in the early '50s. He was a member of the state constitutional convention. In the late '50s he settled in Portland. He was an ardent Methodist and was also one of the founders of Oregon Medical College. "'Dr. J. A. Chapman, another man who was practicing in Portland when I started my practice fifty years ago, had served through the Civil war as a surgeon in the Union army. He and Dr. Watkins later became partners and, by the by, he was mayor of Portland for several terms. "'Dr. I. A. Davenport was a brilliant Englishman, a graduate of London Medical College. He founded the Skidmore drug store. Dr. John Wells, Dr. Cardwell and Dr. James Giesland, who was an old-time army surgeon, were also practicing in Portland when I was here. Dr. Mary Thompson was the first woman to practice medicine in Portland. On the east side of the river the two best known doctors were Drs. Day and Charles Rafferty. "'I stayed in Portland until the fall of 1876, when I went to Astoria with the intention of going in with my brother Marshall in the salmon business. He was operating the Astoria Packing Company. My father having died not long before, it was up to me to go up near Heppner, which at that time was in Umatilla county, to sell the land and sheep owned by my father there, to settle the estate. I went up in 1877. I had married Miss Louise P. Dickenson, of Virginia, on January 24, 1874. While we were in eastern Oregon the Bannock war broke out. The Indians killed several neighbors of ours on Butter creek, just a few miles from our place. My wife insisted that we sell out at once and move to some more peaceful neighborhood; so I closed my practice, disposed of my holdings and moved to Salem. "'I opened an office at the corner of Liberty and Chemeketa streets in Salem. At that time there were more physicians in Salem than in Portland. Among those I remember best were Dr. W. A. Cusick, Dr. C. H. Hall, Dr. John Reynolds, Dr. Reace Holmes, brother of Billy Holmes, of Polk county, one of Salem's ablest and most distinguished attorneys; Dr. J. W. McAfee, Dr. J. C. Shelton, Dr. A. A. Jessup, and Drs. Wade, Carpenter, Chance and one or two others. I practiced at Salem till 1885, when I returned to Astoria. Strangely enough, up to this time my practice had consisted very largely of surgery. "'Right here is a good place to tell a bit of history in connection with the State Medical Association. In 1875 I decided there should be less jealousy in the medical profession, and that the way to bring this about was to organize a state medical association. I wrote to the doctors all over the state and also issued a call in the newspapers, inviting the doctors to meet at Salem to form such an association. I was much younger than many of the other physicians. My choice for president of the association was Dr. Carpenter. However, on account of minor jealousies from some of the other physicians, it was thought he could not be elected. Dr. L. L. Rowland, of Yamhill county, Dr. Ruben Hill, of Albany, and Dr. J. A. Richardson came to me and said, "If this association is to be a success there must be no friction in the election of a president. We have canvassed the situation and find there is no opposition to you, so you will have to become tine first president of the association. So I was elected the first president of the Oregon State Medical Association. We held the second meeting of the association in July, 1876, in Portland. "'Since 1898 I have drifted away from surgery and have taken up the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. In 1894 I was elected mayor of Astoria and served two years. A year prior to that time I was elected a member of the state board of health and served twelve years. "'I have two children. My elder son, Albert W., who was born in Salem in 1880, was graduated at the North Pacific Dental College in Portland and has an office in Seaview. He has two children, Harold Black and Margaret Virginia. My younger son, August, was born at Salem in 1882. He was graduated from the medical department of the University of Oregon, after which he was an interne at the Good Samaritan hospital. From there he went to St. Mary's hospital, London, after which he spent a year in Berlin and six months in Switzerland. He and I have an office together in Astoria. (Dr. August Kinney died in Astoria on October 30, 1927. He married Maude Buxton and is survived by a son Maurice, who is at present a student in the University of Oregon Medical School.) "'If you will look over the list of doctors of the state during the past twenty years you will find that most of them have been willing to devote time to the advancement of their communities and of the state. I believe the doctors of the state realize as much as those of any other profession their civic responsibilities, and respond accordingly.'" As supplementary to the foregoing interesting and valuable reminiscences, it should be stated that Dr. Kinney was not only the first president of the Oregon State Medical Association, but was also the association's fiftieth president, having been again elected to that office in 1924, a very graceful and well deserved expression of the high regard in which the Doctor is held by his professional brethren throughout the state and a recognition of his distinguished and unselfish services in behalf of suffering humanity over a long period of years. This holding of the presidency again after an interval of a half century is probably the only instance of its kind in the history of the medical associations of this country. In 1928 the Doctor was made an honorary member of the American Medical Association, and is also an honorary member of the Oregon State Medical Association. A man of broad general culture, an able physician and skilled surgeon, who has always kept in close touch with the latest advances in the healing art and has been remarkably accurate in diagnosis, he has honored his profession by his loyal and faithful service, and has long been regarded as one of the representative men of the Columbia River valley, commanding the unqualified confidence and respect of his fellowmen. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/clatsop/bios/kinneymd1488gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 19.8 Kb