| Appanoose County >> 1903 Index Biographical and Genealogical History of Appanoose and Monroe Counties, Iowa. K Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Polly Eckles. N. E. Kendall, an attorney at law, was born in Lucas county, Iowa, near Russell, on March 7, 1868, the son of Elijah L. and Lucinda (Stevens) Kendall. The father was born in Shelby county, Indiana, and the mother in Hendricks county, Indiana. When Elijah Kendall was in boyhood his parents came to Iowa and settled in Lucas county, where they lived and died. Grandfather Abbott G. Kendall was a native of Highland county, Ohio, and was a son of Aaron M. Kendall, of Irish descent. The father of our subject was a farmer and was a member of Company C, Eighteenth Iowa Infantry, and served four years as a private in the Civil war. He died in 1896, aged seventy years, and his wife died when our subject was a boy. N.E. Kendall was reared on a farm and given a common school education. He was fifteen years old when he left the farm to take up the battle of life for himself. He went to Chariton, Iowa, and entered the law office of Stuart Brothers, as a stenographer and law student. He later came to Albia and entered the law office of T.B. Perry, in the same relation, and was admitted to the bar May 15, 1889, since which time he has practiced in Albia. He is a Republican and was city attorney for Albia for two terms and county attorney for two terms; also a member of the Republican state committee for three terms, being secretary one term, and vice chairman two terms. He was elected a member of the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth general assemblies of Iowa. In 1896 he was married to Miss Belle Wooden, of Centerville. Mr. Kendall is a Master Mason, a Knight of Pythias, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The subject of this sketch is a man who has been prominent in many of the affairs of life, has fought on the battlefields of the south in defense of the Union, has been a leading farmer of the county for nearly half a century and has taken an active part in public, social and religious matters of the community. His grandfather was Elisha Kenworthy and was a native of Pennsylvania; he and his wife Sarah both died in Indiana. Thomas Kenworthy, the father of D.C. Kenworthy, was born in Ohio, where he was reared on a farm. In 1844 he went to Miami county, Indiana, and until 1853 ran a grist and saw mill. Then coming to Monroe county, Iowa, he bought a farm near where the subject of this sketch now lives; selling this place a few years later he removed to Ringgold county, but soon sold the farm he had acquired there to the Burlington railroad, and then went to Oregon, where he died at the age of eighty-five. He was successful medical practitioner in Iowa for a number of years and was a man of sterling traits of character. He lived during the heat of the slavery strife and was an uncompromising abolitionist Republican and was an active supporter of John C. Freemont in the first campaign of that party; he was also a friend of Colonel Jim Lane of Kansas. He was a Methodist in religion. He was married in Montgomery county, Indiana, to Sarah Beesley, a native of Pennsylvania; she was the mother of twelve children: Sirena, Irnada, Delitha, Louisa, Mary, Saphrona, Martha, David C., and four others. Thomas Kenworthy's second wife was Minerva Jackson, by whom he had seven children; she died in Oregon. David C. Kenworthy was born in Crawfordsville, Montgomery county, Indiana, July 13, 1839, and was fourteen years old when he came to Monroe county, in November, 1853, and here he was reared and completed his education in the common schools. When he was twenty-two years old he enlisted, in July, 1861, in Company H, First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, under Colonel F. Warren and Captain D. Anderson. He saw much active service in the campaign in Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi; he was in the engagements with General Price's army, also Quantrell's raiders and Bill Anderson's troopers. He was in the battle at Jackson, Missouri; Little Rock, Arkansas; Camden, Missouri; and he started to assist General Banks in the Red River expedition, but his regiment failed to reach him in time; they then went on a forced march up the Saline river to meet General Price and after crossing on pontoon bridges engaged in a hard fight which lasted all day; he took part in the battle of the Poison Springs on the Little Missouri and then received a veteran's furlough for thirty days. He was stationed at Mexico and St. Joseph, Missouri, and fought bushwhackers all over the state; he was sent to Jefferson City to support the Union forces against Price and received his final discharge in November, 1865, returning home with a most enviable war record. While on his veteran's furlough Mr. Kenworthy was married, May 29, 1864, to Alice Harris, who was born in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1845, being the daughter of R.B. Harris, a native of New York, and of Mary Bains, a native of Wales. Morris Bains, the father of the latter, is now one hundred years old and was born in Wales, where he married Alice Jones; in 1835 they came to Delaware county, Ohio, and in 1856 came to Monroe county; they had two children, Edward, deceased, and Mrs. Harris; Mr. Bains has eight great-great-grandchildren, thirty-six great-grandchildren, and eighteen grandchildren, and he is known and respected as one of the patriarchs of the county. R.B. Harris and wife had fourteen children: William, who was a soldier in the Civil war in the First Iowa Cavalry and died while in the service; Alice, who became Mrs. Kenworthy; Zilia, deceased; Morris; Albert; Edward, deceased; Clinton, deceased; Emily McGinnis, living in this county; Mary; Losinia, the wife of the Rev. William Potter, of the Methodist church at Ainsworth, Iowa; Hattie; and three others. The father of these children passed away at the age of eighty and the mother at the age of seventy-seven, the former being a member of the Republican party, and both devoted members of the Methodist church. Mr. and Mrs. Kenworthy are the parents of five children: Florence, the wife of Henry Payne, of Albia; Mattie R. Barnhill, of Franklin township, a former teacher of the county; Arthur, who married Myra Searcy, of this county; Hattie, of Albia; and Maud Richardson, residing in this county. Mr. Kenworthy lives on a three hundred acre farm, known as the old George Town farm. He takes an active interest in the success of the Republican party and is a member of the central committee of the township, of which he has been chairman for years; he is a leading member of the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Albia; and he has been steward of the Methodist church for many years and one of its most liberal supporters. Throughout his long residence in the county he has proved himself a man of no mean ability, and is held in high regard. One of the retired farmers of Monroe county who has been an inhabitant of this state for over sixty-five years, thus being able to take a front seat in the old settlers' meetings, is David W. Kenworthy. He is the son of Jehu and Amaretta ( Stockton ) Kenworthy. Jehu Kenworthy was born in North Carolina in 1801 and there grew up to manhood. Long before Iowa was admitted to statehood he came to Cedar county and in 1854 removed to Monroe county and bought land near the present site of the village of Tyrone; and on this farm of two hundred and forty acres he lived until his death. In politics he was a member of that famous organization known as the Know Nothing party and was also a Whig and a Republican; he and his wife were members of the Christian church. His wife was a native of Ohio and bore him eleven children: Rebecca, deceased; Alzina, deceased; Clark, deceased; Mary is living; Ira, deceased; William, deceased; David W. is living; Jesse, deceased; Charles Otis is living; George, deceased, and Winfield Scott is living. David W. Kenworthy is a native son of Iowa, having been born in Cedar county, October 20, 1838; the first few years of his life were spent here and in 1847 he went to Montgomery county, Indiana, where he remained for nine years. He then returned to Monroe county, but soon after emigrated to Oregon, which was at that time one of the growing and newly developed sections of the country. While there the Civil war burst upon the country and he was one of the first to enlist, enrolling himself on December 10, 1861, at Phoenix, in Company D, First Oregon Cavalry; they spent the following winter at Camp Baker and in the spring crossed the state to Oregon City, where they were engaged in numerous skirmishes with the Indians; after three years' service he was mustered out at Vancouver, Dec. 10, 1864. The year following his army service he drove a team for the government and in May, 1865, he returned to Monroe county and engaged in farming, which occupation he has continued up to the present time. On February 2, 1866, Mr. Kenworthy was married to Miss Elizabeth McCreary, a native of Ohio, who came to Iowa at an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Kenworthy became the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters: Arthur, Amaretta, Nona, William, Harry and Mark; all were born in this county and are living at the present time. Mr. Kenworthy has always found that the Republican party expressed his political belief, and in the various affairs of public concern has shown himself a true and representative citizen of the county. Dr. S. M. King was born in Portage county, Ohio, September 27, 1836, on a farm, and when two years old his parents moved to Illinois. His parents were Joel E. and Emeline ( Barnes ) King, both natives of Massachusetts. The father's parents were Robert and Bridget ( Morgan ) King, natives of Massachusetts, and great-grandfather Robert King was a native of Ireland and died in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1802, aged sixty-two years. His wife was also a native of Ireland, and he married in Ireland and they had eleven children. He was a practicing physician. His son, Dr. Robert King, was also a practicing physician and participated in the war of 1812, as a captain of the Massachusetts militia. He removed from Massachusetts to Portage county, Ohio, in 1826, and lived and died there. He had twelve children, of whom was Joel Elisha King, our subject's father, born in 1813 and died in 1890 in Fairfield, Iowa. His wife is living in Mount Pleasant, Iowa; she was born December 24, 1813. They had eight children, six now living. He, too, was a physician and in 1861 enlisted in Company E., Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was detailed to the hospital service. In 1862 he was discharged on account of physical disability. He moved to Fairfield, Iowa, in 1865 and practiced there up to his death. He was a Republican and a Methodist. When he went to Illinois from Ohio it was to preach, but he gave up the ministry for medicine. Sylvester Morgan King was the eldest of the children and he was reared in Illinois. On April 19, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry; as a private, and was at Fredericksburg, Fort Donelson and Shiloh, being severely wounded at the last battle. On October 12, 1862, he was discharged and August 15, 1864, re-enlisted from Akron, Ohio, in Company I, Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and served in all the engagements, including Hatcher's Run, Five Forks, Dinwiddie, Sailor's Creek, Farmville, and on to Appomattox under Sheridan. He was discharged May 30, 1865, at the close of the war, and then came to Iowa. He soon went to Cleveland, Ohio, and there attended the Cleveland Homeopathic College, in 1866, and then came to Iowa and located at Eddyville, where he remained till 1870, when he came to Albia. He has been in active practice ever since. In 1878 he graduated from the Hahnermann Hospital College at Chicago. He is a member of the Iowa Homeopathic Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a thirty-second degree Mason, of the Scottish Rite, is a Knight of Pythias, a Modern Woodman, and belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workman. He was married in 1866 to Louisa M. Chaffee. Robert Kingsberry is a native of the bright, green isle of Erin, and with all the lively and progressive qualities of the race, he, like thousands carrying the blood of the ancient Celts in their veins, has closely identified himself with the American democracy and filled the niche of a worthy and upright citizen. He was born in the north of Ireland, county Monaghan, in the month of March, 1823. His father, Robert Kingsberry, was born in 1802 and died in 1858, and spent his whole life in tilling the soil of his native land. His mother's maiden name was Mattie Dugan. She came to America and lived with the subject of this sketch, passing away about 1863. Robert spent the first twenty-four years of his life on the farm of his father, and in 1848 decided to cast in his lot with the great world he had heard so much about on the other side of the Atlantic. He landed in New York on June 13 and remained there one month, acquainting himself with the ways of the new world, and then went to Cleveland and from there to Xenia, Ohio, where lived for a number of years. In the latter place he was engaged in railroading on the Little Miami Railroad for sixteen years, and for two years was engineer on a switch engine in Centerville. In February, 1864, Mr. Kingsberry enlisted in Company K., One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and until the close of the war saw much hard service in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. He was mustered out at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, with a creditable record as a soldier for his adopted country. Mr. Kingsberry dates his arrival in Iowa in the year following the war. He had previously, in 1853, purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in this county, and here he has ever since made his home, owning at the present time two hundred and twenty acres of choice land. On the 26 th of February, 1850, Mr. Kingsberry married Miss Sarah Mills, who was living at Springfield, Ohio, at the time of her marriage. She was born in Ireland, January 1, 1828, and was reared on a farm near the home of her future husband. Her father died in 1836, and in 1847 she came to America with her mother, who died three months after landing. Mr. and Mrs. Kingsberry had eight children, of whom the six following are living: W.D., George, Mary, Robert, Jr., Jennie, and Maggie. Mr. Kingsberry was for a number of years secretary of the school board. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, holds closely to the tenets of the Republican party and is a member of the Methodist church. In all the relations of life, whether in the position of the skilled mechanic, as a soldier or as a farmer, whether in private business affairs or in the larger public interests, he has made his influence felt as a man of integrity, thorough, capable and honest.
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