HUGH JENKINS, b 30 Aug 1857

JENKINS, MATTHEWSON, HOWARD, SANBORN

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 6/12/2004 at 07:25:27

Among the comparatively few medical practitioners who take a deep and genuine interest in their profession and labor conscientiously to elevate it, may be most properly classed the subject of this notice. He became a citizen of Preston in March of 1881, and has fully established himself in the esteem and confidence of the people, not only as a physician and surgeon but as a citizen as well. Liberal and public-spirited, no worthy enterprise passes unnoticed by him or fails to receive his moral and substantial aid. He has been a close student and an extensive reader, is careful and conscientious in his diagnosis of diseases, making no experiements upon his patients, but determining the cause of the trouble before he begins to administer a remedy. He occupies a pleasant home in the central part of the town which is presided over by a very estimable and accomplished lady and which in all its appointments indicates culture and refinement. The Doctor's library is filled with the best medical works extant, and he has expended no small portion of his means in research and investigation in connection with the profession to which he is devoting the best years of his life. It is hardly necessary to say that he enjoys a large and lucrative practice. In 1883 he associated himself in the drug business with his father and brother, and they operate under the firm name of Dr. H. Jenkins & Co., having a well equipped brick store located at the corner of Gillett and Elliott Streets. The Doctor's office is in the rear of the store on Elliott Street.

Dr. Jenkins is a native of Illinois, having been born in Granville, Aug. 30, 1857. His father Rev. John L. Jenkins, was a minister of the Congregational Church, in which capacity he served until about four years ago when he came to this county and associated himself with his son in the present firm. The mother of our subject, who in her girlhood was Miss Asha M. Matthewson, was born at Wheelock, Vt., which State was also the birthplace of her husband. They were the parents of two sons only, Hugh and Harley M., the latter belonging to the firm of Dr. H. Jenkins & Co., druggists.

Our subject during his boyhood and youth accompanied his parents in their removals from place to place, as it was the fashion of those days for ministers to only sojourn a certain length of time with one charge. The first recollections of Hugh J. are of the city of Rochester, N.Y., where his father was Pastor of the Congregational Church. They lived mostly in Western New York, and four or five years at Castile. The boys attended the common school, and Hugh J. in due time repaired to Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen years, and entered under upon an academic course a Airy View. Upon the completion of this he turned his attention to the study of medicine upon which he entered under the instruction of an uncle, H.P. Matthewson M.D., an old army surgeon, who was then a resident of Omaha, Neb. Our subject remained with him several years, and in the meantime Dr. Matthewson was appointed Superintendent of the State Insane Hospital at Lincoln, and Dr. Jenkins was made Supervisor of the male wards.

While in Nebraska Dr. Jenkins operated very efficiently with nervous diseases and gained a prestige among his professional brethren which he will never lost. In 1879, desirous of perfecting himself still further in his profession, and after having attended Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago, and became particularly interested in diseases of the heart and lungs. He was graduated from this institution in the class of '81, and later was proffered in the position of assistant superintendent of the Insane Hospital of Nebraska with a liberal salary. But he preferred to located elsewhere, and after a short visit with his parents at their old home in New York, he took up his abode in Preston of which he has since been a resident.

The marriage of Dr. Hugh Jenkins and Miss May Howard, was celebrated at the bride's home in Vermont in Sept. 29, 1881. This lady was born in Vermont, Nov. 20, 1858, and is the daughter of Milton and Marsella (Sanborn) Howard, who are also natives of the Green Mountain State, and are still living there on their farm near Thetford. Mrs. Jenkins is descended from an old and excellent family of English ancestry, who came to America during the early part of the present century. Mrs. Jenkins was the only child of her parents, and completed her education in Thetford Hill Academy. She developed into a pleasing and attractive young lady, and it is hardly necessary to say, was the life of the home household. Of her union with our subject there has been born one child, a daughter, Marie W. The Doctor and Mrs. Jenkins are members in good standing of the Congregational Church at Preston, in which our subject is a Trustee, and to the support of which he contributes liberally. Politically he supports the principles of the Republican party. Professionally he belongs to the Jackson County Medical Association, which was organized in 1882, and of which he is a charter member. He is the surgeon of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company of the Marion division, and examining surgeon for nearly all the Life Insurance Companies doing business in this part of the county.

In the year 1883, Dr. Jenkins purchased a large stock of drugs and medicines, and opened a store in Preston which has now become one of the largest of the kind in the place, and from the proceeds of which he enjoys a handsome income. He owns his residence, and is in fact surrounded by all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. His accumulations are the result of his own industry and strict attention to business, as he came to this place with little besides his books and instruments. His reputation is not merely local but extends all over the county.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)