Lunenburg-Spotsylvania County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Kendig, Edwin Lawrence 1881 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 28, 2008, 2:55 pm Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) EDWIN LAWRENCE KENDIG DR. E. L. KENDIG, of Victoria, Virginia, a young man not yet thirty-four, has achieved success in his profession as well as in the business and public life of his community. He comes of that Pennsylvania German stock which has made all Southeast Pennsylvania a garden. He was born in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, October 11, 1881, son of Samuel E. Kendig, a farmer, who married Minerva Eudora Fleming. His early education was received in public and private schools of Spottsylvania County, and he graduated from the Bel-Air School of that County in 1899. Electing to become a physician, he entered the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond, from which he was graduated in 1905. For one year, 1905 to 1906, he served as an interne at the Retreat for the Sick Hospital at Richmond, and at the same time as lecturer on anatomy to the nurses attached to that institution. From 1906 to 1907 he was surgeon for the J. G. Wright Construction Company, Cochran, Virginia. In 1907 he located at Victoria for the general practice of medicine, and since that time has been Division Surgeon of the Virginia Railway. Dr. Kendig stepped at once into an active practice, made character in the community, and since 1911 has been health officer of Lunenburg County. He served as a member of the Town Council in Victoria from the date of its incorporation until 1912. In 1913 and 1914 he was chairman of the Lunenburg County Electoral Board. He is now chairman of the Lunenburg County Democratic Committee. His business capacity has won recognition, and he is a Director and First Vice-President of the Bank of Victoria. It will be noted that Dr. Kendig's activities cover a wide range aside from his profession, and that he is making a most useful citizen. He is also active in church work, being deacon of the Victoria Baptist Church. He holds membership in the American Medical Association, Medical Society of Virginia, Seaboard Medical Society, South-side Virginia Medical Society and Lunenburg County Medical Society. He was elected by the physicians of the Fourth Virginia Congressional District, in 1915, to represent the district in the Executive Council of the Medical Society of Virginia, for a term of three years. He is affiliated with the Omega Upsilon Phi College Fraternity. Dr. Kendig was married at Lunenburg Court House, on June 23, 1910, to Mayme McGuire Yates, a native of Lunenburg County, born June 24, 1883, daughter of John L. and Molly (Cooksey) Yates. The only child of this marriage is Edwin Lawrence Kendig, Jr., born November 12, 1911. In our public affairs he believes that the best interests of the country are to be promoted by the practical application of the old democratic doctrine of giving an equal opportunity to everyone. This is very sound doctrine, which so far has been found to be very difficult of application. In a professional way, he believes that the health conditions are to be promoted by giving absolute control of health work in every part of the country to a National Board of Health, thus insuring uniformity and effectiveness of work. That he is clearly right in this is evident to every man who has given it the least thought. Very many men are beginning to see that our State lines breaking us up into forty-eight petty governments interfere in many ways most seriously with the common welfare, and it is becoming clear that there are some things which can only be handled successfully by the National power. In addition to his professional studies, historical and classical reading both appeal to him, and he keeps well informed as to public matters through our current periodicals. Dr. Kendig has taken an active interest in the good roads movement, which is now becoming so prominent all over the United States, and in which Virginia, it must be admitted, is not keeping up with some of the other States. His interest goes beyond mere sentiment. He is chairman of the Road Board of his district, which has in hand the spending of $40,000 for the permanent improvement of local roads, the proceeds of a bond issue for that purpose. In fraternal circles he holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, the Odd Fellows, the Masons, the Order of Eastern Star, I. O. O. F., Knights of Pythias, and Junior Order of American Mechanics. He is medical examiner for the local camp of the Woodmen, for the Insurance Department of the Knights of Pythias, Woodmen Circle, and fifteen old line insurance companies. Enlarging upon his governmental ideas, as to equal opportunity for all men regardless of social grade, he maintains the position that the country should be put on a fair competitive basis; the trade combinations should be rigidly controlled by government; tariff should be only levied for revenue that an income tax system should be thoroughly worked out; that in the selection of officials, character should have first consideration; that unsparing warfare should be waged on the spoils system; and that public education should be absolutely impartial and unbiased by any other consideration than the mental training of pupils in essential facts. He enlarges somewhat upon his idea about the National Board of Health with two suggestions that have great merit. One suggestion is that governmental hospitals for the needy should be maintained. This is a strong point, as many of us know that private hospitals are making ill* ness a great burden upon people of limited means. The other suggestion is to the effect that universal examining boards should be established to license physicians to practice medicine, and that this examination should be fully recognized in every State, thus doing away with the multiplicity of examining boards which involve so much trouble even to the properly trained physicians, who find it necessary at times to change location. Dr. Kendig has accomplished so much in the ten years since his graduation that one runs no risk in prophesying for him an influential and useful life, should he be spared to the normal length of days. A great-uncle of Dr. Edwin L. Kendig, Dr. Benjamin S. Kendig, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, deceased, has compiled a genealogy of the Kendig family. The following facts are taken from Dr. Benjamin Kendig's compilation. According to his account, owing to violent persecutions because of their religious convictions, a Colony of Protestants, disciples of Menno Simons, the leader of the sect in the Netherlands called the Mennonites, fled from the Palatinate to Berne, Switzerland. But finding the persecutions there intolerable they returned to the Palatinate. Then, under their preacher and leader, Hans Herr, about twelve of their prominent members, including Herr, were sent to Pennsylvania to select a home for their persecuted friends. They came to Lancaster, Pennsylvania (at that time, Chester), and patented ten thousand acres of land in Pequea and Beaver Valley. Among the list of these pioneers were Hans Herr, Martin Kendig, Hans Mylin and his two sons, John R. Bundely, Jacob Miller, Wendell Bowman, and others. When the land was secured Martin Kendig returned to Germany, bringing in the families, about twenty in number. This little Colony increased in a few years to about thirty families, but most of the later additions were in straitened circumstances, and the Colonists were obliged to pay their passage. A wise apportionment of the ten thousand acres was distributed among the Colonists in tracts of from one hundred and fifty to six hundred acres, in proportion to their ability for meeting the payment. These tracts of land are recorded in the Patent Office at Philadelphia. This pioneer Martin Kendig, a wealthy business man, who patented large tracts in his own name, many of which he conveyed to other parties, is the paternal ancestor of Dr. Edwin L. Kendig. The name Kendig in the German is Euendig, Eundig or Kundlich. As there is no letter in the English alphabet to give the sound of the German "u" and "g" in anglicising the name, each member of the family spelled it to suit himself. Of three brothers there was one who spelled the name Kindig, another Kendrick, and the third, Kendig. The records bear out the statement that there was only one family of Kendigs who came over with the Mennonites, and up until the year 1810, there is no mention of any Kendig who emigrated to Lancaster County except the six brothers and their families, and one sister, Elizabeth, who married Hans Herr. That the Kendig family was both wealthy and influential is gathered from the fact that Martin Kendig owned considerable land and extensive business interests. Hans Herr, the husband of Elizabeth Kendig, had in his possession a patent of nobility dating back to 1060, and as a man of gentle birth always married in his own class, the inference is clear that the Kendig family was of considerable prominence in Switzerland. In this genealogy furnished by Dr. Benjamin S. Kendig the first ancestor on record of Dr. Edwin L. Kendig was John Jacob Kendig, of Berne, Switzerland, who lived in the sixteenth century. His son, John Jacob Kendig, married Jane Milan. Of this marriage was born Martin Kendig, who emigrated to Pennsylvania. A son of this Martin Kendig was Martin Kendig, Jr. His son, John Kendig, who married Anne Witner, had issue, a son, John, who married Polly Mary Kline. Their son, Urias Kendig, son of the second John Kendig, the paternal grandfather of Dr. Edwin L. Kendig, born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, moved to Virginia about 1849. He there married Isabella Atkins, and this branch of the family has from that time on lived in Virginia. Dr. Kendig's paternal grandfather, Urias Perkins Kendig, served in the Mexican AVar under General Scott. Samuel Edgar Kendig, the son of Urias, married Minerva Eudora Fleming. Dr. Kendig's maternal grandmother was Bozel Fleming, born in Middle Virginia, either in Fluvanna or Hanover Counties, who married Lucy Boxley, of Louisa County. The Atkins family was of English descent. The Boxleys also were of English descent, having come from the family of that name settled in Kent County, England. The Fleming family is not only very ancient but very numerous in Great Britain. According to the German account, the name originated from the tribe of Flaminii, who had settled in England nearly fifteen hundred years ago. This seems apocryphal. Baring-Gould, an English author, who has studied much on family names, says that the common-sense explanation is that the family name was assumed in England because of their being Flemings, or people who had come from Flanders to England. The first certain record we have of them is when William the Conqueror gave an estate to William le Fleming, which bears out Baring-Gould's contention. The family multiplied immensely, and became very conspicuous in many sections of Great Britain, holding numerous titles. By the fifteenth century three great families had developed, the English, the Scotch and the Irish. The Virginia family of this name is descended from the Scottish branch, which, for the last five or sis hundred years, has been a very conspicuous family in that country. Dr. Kendig, therefore, has in his veins German, English and Scotch blood. His work, so far in life, indicates that he is living up to the best traditions of these three great racial stocks. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MAKERS OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE VOLUME II By LEONARD WILSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS Illustrated with many full page engravings B. F. JOHNSON, INC. CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A. 1916 Copyright, 1916 by B. F. Johnson, Inc. 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