In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1914) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
From Biographical review of Lee County, Iowa; (1905), Story of Lee County, Iowa; (1914)
GEORGE P. JENKINS, M. D.
Dr. George F. Jenkins, president and professor of principles and practice of medicine, physical diagnosis and clinical medicine in the Keokuk Medical College, College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, has been identified with this institution for a quarter of a century. He has won more than local renown because of the successful results which have attended his life work when viewed from the professional standpoint and the medical fraternity as well as the general public accord him high rank as a physician and surgeon. He was born in Clark county, Missouri, in July, 1842, a son of Robert and Elizabeth ( Rambo) Jenkins. The family is of Welsh lineage and the ancestry in America can be traced back to n.-nid Jcnkin.s, the great-great-grandfather i)f Dr. Jenkins, who became a resident of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1700. Through several generations the family was connected with the iron works of Conestoga. Pennsylvania, being among the oldest representatives of that great inm industry of the Keystone state. The mill and plant at Conestoga were in possession of the family for one hundred and thirty-seven years, terminating in
Robert Jenkins, father of Dr. Jenkins, was born near the old ancestral home in Lancaster county and became an emigrant to the West, settling in Clark county, Missouri, in 1837. There he made his home for a long period, rearing his family in that county. His wife's ancestors came to the United States with a Swfedish colony about 1665 and were colonial settlers of Chester county, Pennsylvania. Her grandfather, Ezekial Rambo, espoused the cause of liberty at the time of the Revolutionary War and did valiant service for the colonists. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins were married in Pennsylvania, but the greater part of their married life was passed in Missouri. They were members of the Presbyterian church and were promoters of the substantial develop])ment and progress of their locality.
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Parsons College, at Fairfield, Iowa, in 1884.
Dr. Jenkins located for practice in Keokuk, entering upon a successful career in this city. Realizing that in the professions as well as in the great industrial and commercial departments of activity, success and advancement are due to close application, thorough preparation and thorough understanding of the work to be done, Dr. Jenkins has always remained an earnest and conscientious student of the science of medicine, continually broadening his knowledge and also contributing to the sum total of information and experience which have made the labors of the profession partake almost of the nature of the marvelous. From the time of his graduation down to the present (1905) he has continued in the general practice of medicine and surgery in Keokuk and today stands at the head of the medical fraternity in his adopted city, having few peers and no superior. A valuable part of his services in behalf of humanity has been in the line of medical education. In 1879 he was elected to fill the chair of diseases of children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, occupying that position until 1882, when he was made professor of the iirincijjles and ]ir.ictice of medicine and clinical medicine in the same institution. ITe filled the latter chair until 1890, and was also president of the faculty during that period. In the year mentioned he assisted in the organization of the Keokuk Medical College; was elected its ])resident and also chosen for the chair of principles and ])practice of fliagnosis. retainitig that connection with medicine, clinical medicine and physical the school until 1900, when the consolidation ito the College of Physicians and Stu-gens was consummated under the name <if the Keokuk Medical College. College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the new institution he was elected to fill the same positions, and is not only president and professor in the college, but also dean of the faculty. Associated with physicians and surgeons, whose abilities have gained them much more than local reputation and Avhose work and writings have made them known to the profession throughout the country. Dr. Jenkins has labored persistently and effectively for the development of the skill and the raising of its standards. In 1898 a dental department was established, of which he was also chosen president, and in 1901 a department of pharmacy was founded, with which his official connection is the same. Both of these de]partments have pn.ived to 1)e successful adjuncts to the institution, and excellent work is being carried on therein. A capable faculty has been secured and the buildings assigned to its departments have been well equipped with every facility to advance the useful mol ])practical work of the students.
Dr. Jenkins was also Largely instrumental in the founding of St. Joseph's Hos- ])ital. at Keokuk, mid from the organization has been chief of its medical staff. Keokuk has benefited b\- his jirofcssional labors aside from his work as private practitioner and educator, for be has given close study to its sanitary conditions, and lins served as president of its board of health. He became a member of the Keokuk Medical Society in 1868, and was liondred with its presidency for two terms. He also belongs to the Lee County Medical Society; has been a member of the State Medical Society since 1869; has held various positions therein, and has been chairman of sections, which includes preparation of papers read before the society. He was also elected its president in 1 89 1. In 1873 he became a member of the American Medical Association; has attended the majority of its sessions, and was elected to its house of delegates in 1901, while in 1903 the association conferred upon him the honor of election to its vice-presidency. His writings have been valued contributions to medical literature. He is the author of a number of articles which have been published in the leading medical journals of his day. including the Medical and Surgical Reporter, of Philadelphia, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Transactions of the Iowa State Medical Society. In Keokuk, in addition to his general practice, he has been for many years first medical examiner for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, for the New York Mutual Life, the New York Life, the Equitable, the Connecticut Mutual, the Pennsylvania Mutual, the Mutual Benefit, the Aetna, of Hartford, the Pacific Mutual, and the Travelers' Life Insurance Companies, of Hartford, the Preferred Accident Insurance Company, of New York, the Iowa State Traveling Men's Association, and others.
Dr. Jenkins was married December 29, 1870, to Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Van Wagenen, of Fulton, New York, a daughter of Captain Van Wagenen, a representative of one of the old Holland families of the Empire state, established along the Hudson in colonial days. They have four children, of whom the eldest is Marcia L., the wife of Ilazen L. Sawyer, of Keokuk; Florence E. is the wife of Harry Bovden Blood, of Keokuk; George Van Wagenen, who acquired his literary education in Parsons College, pursued the work of the sophomore year in Keokuk Medical College, and in 1898 he enlisted in Company
A. Iowa Regiment, at Fairfield, Iowa, for service in the Spanish-American War. He was sergeant of his regiment, and died of typhoid fever contracted in camp at Jacksonville, Florida. Katherine E., the youngest, is at home. Dr. and Mrs. Jenkins are members of the Presbyterian church, and their social prominence is equal to his professional standing. His professional duties and Iiis work in connection with the college, hov>'e\er, Ieave him little leisure time. He has carried his investigations far and wide into the realms of scientific knowledge, and has made researches along original lines, wherein experience and deductive thought have Ijrought him knowledge that the profession recognizes as valuable to the great humanitarian work that claims the attention of the medical fraternity.
As printed in Biographical review of Lee County, Iowa; (1905). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
GEORGE F. JENKINS, M. D.
In the field of medical education and practice the name of Dr. George F. Jenkins was widely and favorably known. He was honored with the vice presidency of the American Medical Association, which indicates his high standing among his professional brethren. His honors were well earned, for he was ever a close and logical student and one who in the performance of his duties displayed the utmost conscientiousness and fidelity to high standards. He was born in Clark county, Missouri, July 15, 1842, a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Rambo) Jenkins. The family is of Welsh lineage, the ancestry being traced back to David Jenkins, who became a resident of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in {joe. Robert Jenkins, the father of Dr. Jenkins, came to Missouri in 1837, settling in Clark county. His wife's people came to the United States with a Swedish colony in 1665 and Ezekiel Rambo, the great-grandfather, participated in the American Revolution.
Dr. Jenkins of this review, after attending the common schools and the high school at Alexandria, Missouri, became a student in Jones' Commercial College at St. Louis. He was a young man of twenty-three years, when, in 1861;, he started overland with a mule team for California. He found no satisfactory situation there and entered upon the study of medicine, becoming a student in what was then the Toland Medical College, now the medical department of the LIniversity of California, on the ist of August, 1865. After the college closed he returned to Missouri by way of Panama and New York and studied and practiced with Dr. R. S. McKee in Clark county, Missouri, for nine months. Wishing to attain still higher efficiency in his chosen calling, he then entered upon a course of lectures at the Missouri Medical College and was graduated from that institution on the 28th of February, 1867. Seventeen years later Parsons College of Fairfield, Iowa, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
In the year of his graduation from the Missouri Medical College Dr. Jenkins opened an office in Keokuk and remained in active practice in this city from the 7th of April, 1867, until his death in 1914, or for a period of forty-seven years. He remained constantly a student of his profession, reading broadly and thinking deeply and thus keeping in touch with the advanced thought and knowledge of the profession and its modern-day methods. He did as excellent work as an educator as he did as practitioner. In 1879 he was elected to the chair of diseases of children, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, and in 1882 to the chair of principles and practice of medicine, clinical medicine and physical diagnosis, in the same institution. In 1890 he aided in organizing the Keokuk Medical College, in which he was elected to the same chair, and so continued following the amalgamation of the two schools. He remained in that connection until his demise and was regarded as one of the most able educators in connection with medical schools of the middle west. In 1885 he was elected president of the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and when the Keokuk Medical College was established he was elected president of that institution and thus continued until it was merged with Drake University in 1908. He was also president of the Keokuk Dental College, the Keokuk College of Pharmacy and the Keokuk Nurses' Training School after the organization of those departments.
In hospital as well as in private practice Dr. Jenkins was well known. He aided in establishing St. joseph's Hospital in 1885 and from the beginning was chief of the medical staff of that institution. He was president of the Keokuk Medical Society and was a charter member of the Lee County Medical Society. He was an active member of the Iowa State Medical Society from 1869 until his death and in 1 891 was honored with election to its presidency. He joined the American Medical Association in 1873 and attended the majority of its sessions from that time to his demise. He was elected to the house of delegates in 1901 and to the vice presidency of the association in 1903. He was instrumental in organizing St. Joseph's Hospital in Keokuk and was the author of many articles which have been a valuable contribution to medical science.
In addition to his private practice and his efforts in the educational field Dr. Jenkins was medical examiner for most of the old insurance companies and a number of fraternities. He was likewise president of the board of health of Keokuk and was a member of the Keokuk board of education. He stood at all times for progress and advancement. He was a man of strcjng mentality and his powers were well directed, productive of splendid results for the institutions with which he was connected and for the public interests under his direction.
On the 29th of December, 1870, Dr. Jenkins was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Van Wagenen, of Fulton, New York, a daughter of Captain Van Wagenen, a representative of one of the old Holland families of the Empire state, established along the Hudson in colonial days. The Van Wagenen, like the Jenkins family, was prominently represented in the Revolutionary war. Five children were born unto Dr. and Mrs. Jenkins. Ann Page, the eldest, died in infancy. Marcia L. is the deceased wife of Hazen L Sawyer, of Keokuk. Florence E. is the wife of Henry Boyden Blood, of Keokuk. George, who acquired his literary education in Parsons College and took the work of the sophomore year in the Keokuk Medical College, enlisted in 1898 in Company A, Fifty-first Iowa Regiment at Fairfield, Iowa, for service in the Spanish-American war and died in camp at Jacksonville, Florida, of typhoid fever. Katherine E. is the wife of Karl Kiedaisch, of Chicago, and they have an interesting little son, George Jenkins, named in honor of his grandfather, Dr. George F. Jenkins of Keokuk. 71ie demise of the latter on the 4th of September, 1914, was deeply mourned not only by his family but also by his many friends throughout the state and his loss will be keenly felt in the medical circles of Iowa.
As printed in Story of Lee County, Iowa; (1914). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Their biographies name George F. Jenkins: William Patterson
The printed record stops around 1905. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.