Chauncey S. Kenney

CHAUNCEY S. KENNEY, M. D. One of the institutions that reflect the enlightened thought and purpose of Kansas as a commonwealth is the sanatorium for tuberculosis patients which was established in Norton County in 1913. This institution, four miles east of Norton, was provided and maintained by state funds for the purpose of caring for incipient pulmonary tuberculosis patients. It has a capacity for fifty-one patients and its privileges are open to persons who have been residents of Kansas at least one year. The present building equipment consists of eleven structures, office building, employes' building, three pavilions for patients, a power plant, superintendent's cottage and several farm buildings.

The meritorious work of the institution is in a degree a reflection of the splendid service of Dr. Chauncey S. Kenney, who has been superintendent from the time it was opened. Doctor Kenney is a skilled physician and surgeon, and has been established in Western Kansas more than fifteen years, during the last ten of which he has made a specialty of tuberculosis.

He was born at Saranac, Michigan, April 27, 1877. His grandfather, David Kenney, was a native of New York State, and was a pioneer in Central Michigan, where he located in 1856. He died near Pierson, Michigan. Alexander Kenney, father of Doctor Kenney, was born at Schenectady, New York, in 1842. He was fourteen years of age when his parents moved to Central Michigan, and he grew up and married there. He spent his active career as a farmer near Saranac, where he died in 1879. He was a democrat and an active member of the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Lois Lucena Kimball. His wife was born at Pawnal, Vermont, July 31, 1840, daughter of Martin and Lucena Kimball, both of whom were natives of Vermont. Martin Kimball was born in 1803, and was a pioneer farmer of Michigan, locating in that state in 1848. He died at Saranac in 1876. The name Kimball was originally spelled Kimbauld and it was brought to America by two brothers from England. Their coming was sometime during the seventeenth century. The race of one of these brothers ran out in about two generations and all the other Kimballs among the older American stock of that name are descended from the other brother.

Lois Lucena Kimball was eight years of age when her parents went to Michigan, and she is still living at Saranac, her home having been in that community for seventy years. She was the mother of five children, Doctor Kenney being the youngest. The oldest, Bradney Eugene, was a stock buyer, and died at Topeka, Kansas, August 28, 1918, Allin died at Saranac, Michigan, in 1870, at the age of two years; Lulu Belle, born in 1873, is the wife of Charles H. Dillenback, a blacksmith living at Clarksville; Earl Kimball, born in 1875, is a farmer at Saranac, Michigan.

Chauncey S. Kenney grew up at Saranac, graduated from high school in 1895, and taught school for two years. In 1897 he entered the Ferris Institute at Big Rapids, Michigan, taking a college course, and in 1898 matriculated in the Detroit College of Medicine. He graduated Doctor of Medicine in May, 1902, and at once came to Kansas, being located and engaged in a general practice at Norcatur from 1902 to 1910. After that he established his home at Norton until appointed to his present office in 1913.

Doctor Kenney served as mayor of Norcatur from 1905 to 1907. He is a democrat, a member of the Lutheran Church, is past master of Norcatur Lodge, No. 317, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a present member of Norton Lodge, No. 199, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is also affiliated with Norton Chapter, No. 93, Royal Arch Masons, Norcatur Lodge of Odd Fellows, Norcatur Camp of Modern Woodmen of America, Norcatur Lodge Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Court of Honor and the Kansas Fraternal Citizens.

May 20, 1904, at Norcatur, Doctor Kenney married Miss Lola M. Corns, daughter of Dr. Charles V. and Castilla E. (LeCount) Corns. Her father, who died in 1900, was a physician and surgeon. Her mother is now living at Norton. Doctor and Mrs. Kenney have three children: Gray A., born December 30, 1905; Helen C., born July 23, 1910; and Geraldine M., born April 12, 1915.