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ISAAC
W. KEENAN, M. D. An enumeration of the
representative professional men of Guernsey county would be
incomplete without specific mention of the well-known and
popular physician whose name introduces this biographical
sketch. A member of one of the old and highly esteemed
families of the eastern part of the state and for many years a
public-spirited citizen, Dr. Isaac W. Kennan has stamped
the impress of his individuality upon the community and added
luster to the honorable name which he bears, standing second to
none in his professional brethren in this locality.
Isaac W. Keenan was born September 20, 1868, on
a farm near Quaker City, Guernsey county, Ohio, the son of
Hugh and Phoebe T. (Hall) Keenan. The father came to
the Quaker City locality as a mere lad, and the mother,
Phoebe T. Hall, was the daughter of Isaac A. Hall,
who was of the early pioneers and members of one of the most
prominent and prosperous families in southeastern Ohio.
The father was an extensive fruit grower, such as apples, pears,
and berries. The Halls were Quakers, and Mr.
Keenan also became a Quaker and lived and died in that
faith. Hugh Keenan was highly respected and
a man of integrity. He died in February, 1907, his wife
dying in the fall of 1905, and both are buried in the cemetery
near the Quaker church. Mr. and Mrs. Keenan had a
family of five sons and six daughters, all of whom are living:
Ida, now Mrs. Joel Carter, of Quaker City; John
T., of East Liverpool, Ohio; Ella E., single,
of Coshocton, Ohio; Eva, now Mrs. Curtis Merriman,
of Oxford, Ohio; Isaac W., the subject of this sketch;
Lucretia, now Mrs. Frank Stone, of Cambridge, Ohio;
Eli E. of Columbus, Ohio; Hattie M., a trained
nurse of Coshocton, Ohio; Anna L., of Coshocton; Dr.
J. S. Ely, of Barnesville, and in the fall of 1892 he
entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, graduating in
1895. On August 17, 1895, he opened an office in Piedmont,
Harrison county, Ohio, for the practice of medicine, and
remained until the fall of 1899, when he came to Quaker City.
Having given considerable study and attention to surgery, he
established a hospital while located in Quaker City and
established a practice, attracting patients from all parts of
southeastern Ohio, mostly a surgical practice as far as hospital
patients were concerned. In 1905 he took a special course in
surgery at the Chicago Post-Graduate School, graduating in
October, 1905. In the fall of 1906 he moved his hospital
from Quaker City to Cambridge and located at the corner of Ninth
street and Gomber avenue, where he treats surgical cases wholly,
devoting all his time to this work, giving up the regular
practice. He has won an enviable reputation, is a skillful
surgeon in all kinds of surgical work, and besides his large
hospital practice is called in consultation to many places in
southeastern Ohio. His hospital will accommodate as many
as twenty patients and is usually well filled. He has
patients from all parts of Ohio, West Virginia and frequently
from Pittsburg and western Pennsylvania. He is a man of
skill and courage and very successful.
Doctor Keenan was married June 11, 1895, to
Marietta H. Ridgway, daughter of Oldham and Martha (Heade)
Ridgway, of Quaker City. To them have been born three
sons, Carleton, Harry and Paul. The family
residence is the old Doctor Clark home on Clark street,
an old-time large brick house standing in spacious grounds, an
admirable location for a pleasant and happy home, and for many
years the home of Doctor Clark, one of Cambridge's early
and prominent physicians.
Doctor Keenan gives his profession his entire
attention and is greatly wrapped up in his work. He is an
agreeable and intellectual gentleman, of broad and charitable
views. He was brought up a Republican in politics, but is
now an independent voter, always giving an intelligent interest
to all public matters, but not participating more than to vote.
Doctor Keenan and family are members of the
Methodist Episcopal church, and their home is all that the name
implies. Mrs. Keenan assists the Doctor in his
hospital work, and renders a proficient service in this
connection.
Doctor Keenan stands high in the community, and
few men are more favorably known, both in his profession and as
a man and a citizen. In connection with the hospital, he
has established a regular training school for training nurses in
hospital work. This school is in charge of Miss Mary
Callahan, a trained nurse from Columbus, Ohio, and is the
first school of its kind established in Guernsey county.
The Keenan hospital is also the first hospital
established in Guernsey county and, while it is a private
hospital, it is open to the medical profession, where patients
of any physician can be brought and cared for. In this
respect it has a public feature. |
