Levi Atchley Golden

LEVI ATCHLEY GOLDEN, M. D. While the people of Smith County, and especially those around Kensington, have come to look upon Doctor Golden's services as a physician and surgeon practically indispensable, and though he has given more than forty years of his life to his profession and is one of the prominent men in medical circles in Kansas, he is scarcely less well known over the state as a land owner and as a livestock and grain farmer. It is no exaggeration to say that the extent of his holdings and the volume of his production places him among the first half dozen largest land owners and stock farmers in Kansas.

Doctor Golden is of old American stock, of remote German ancestry. His great-great-grandfather came from Germany and planted the family in New Jersey in colonial times. Amos Golden, father of Doctor Golden, was born in New Jersey in 1821, and in 1853 came west and settled in Coe Township of Rock Island County, Illinois. He was one of the early farmers in that vicinity and lived in the county the rest of his life. He died at Cordovia, Illinois, in 1911. He was a republican politically and a very active and devout member of the Baptist Church. He married, in New Jersey, Theresa Reading, who was born in that state in 1828. She died in Coe Township, near Cordovia, Illinois, in 1908, the mother of four children: W. R., a farmer in Iowa; Eva, wife of William H. Ashdown, a farmer at Port Byron, Illinois; Dr. L. A., of Kensington, Kansas; and C. J., who is on the old farm in Illinois.

Levi Atchley Golden was born at Port Byron in Rock Island County, Illinois, July 22, 1858. It is interesting to note that he was named Levi Atchley in honor of his uncle, the judge of the District Court at Trenton. New Jersey. The old Golden farm where Doctor Golden's father spent some of his early years is not far from Camp Dix, at Trenton, New Jersey, where Doctor Golden's son, Reed, received his final training for war. The early education of Doctor Golden came from the public schools of his native village, including the high school. For one year, 1878, he was a student in Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, but took most of his medical studies in Rush Medical College at Chicago, from which he graduated M. D. in 1880. During a period of more than forty years he has taken at least a dozen post-graduate courses in Chicago and Kansas City, and in spite of his many varied interests, he is still a keen and enthusiastic student and keeps pace with the wonderful improvements in medical research and knowledge. For years he has specialized in surgery and is one of the skilled men in that branch of professional work. Soon after his graduation he began practice at Cedarville, in Smith County, Kansas, but his home has been at Kensington since the village was founded in 1893. In his professional capacity he has served as health officer at Kensington, and in 1904 Governor Bailey appointed him a member of the State Board of Health, served so for six years and was president of the board one year. He is also local surgeon for the Rock Island Railway Company at Kensington, and in October, 1918, attended the American Association of Railway Surgeons in convention at Chicago. He is also local surgeon for the Rock Island Railway Company at Kensington. He is also a member of the county and state medical societies, and a member of the American Medical Association. Fraternally Doctor Golden is affiliated with Kensington Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Kensington Lodge No. 409, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Politically he is a republican.

Had he not chosen the profession of medicine it is very evident that Doctor Golden could have made a career as a farmer and stockman. His investments in land have not been solely a means of disposing of the surplus income from his practice, since he is drawn naturally into agricultural and animal husbandry and has pursued that occupation, at first only an incident of his busy professional life, to a success beyond the dreams of most men. In calling him one of the largest farmers and farm owners of Kansas it is only necessary to prove the assertion by noting some of his holdings. One farm, highly developed and noted for its diversified products as well as its blooded stock, comprises 1,100 acres and is located at Claudell, Kansas. All his separate farms, or ranches in extent, as they might properly be called, are thoroughly improved. In Wallace County he has 10,000 acres, in Sherman County 16,000 acres, in Cheyenne County a full section and in Thomas County two complete sections. Some of the best cattle for breeding or for market are raised on his land and farms. It would be a conservative estimate to call his total land holdings worth at least a million dollars. He has also been a banker. He was founder of the Citizens State Bank at Kensington, served as its president two years, and after that was a director until he sold his stock.

July 21, 1880, soon after getting his medical degree, Doctor Golden married at Port Byron, Illinois, Eva G. Hollister, daughter of A. F. and Rebecca (Reed) Hollister. Her parents are now deceased, her father having been a farmer in Illinois. Doctor Golden lost his wife after more than thirty-seven years of companionship, on January 5, 1917. She was the mother of two sturdy young patriots. Reed and Levi Dick Golden. Reed, who was born November 7, 1896, is a graduate of the Kensington High School and was a junior in the Kansas University when the war with Germany broke out. He at once volunteered his services, attended the third officers training camp at Camp Funston, later was sent to Camp Lee, Virginia, and from there to Camp Dix in New Jersey, from which camp he was sent overseas. He is a first lieutenant with the army in France and has made a good record throughout his service. The younger son, Levi Dick, was born March 17, 1902, and was a student in Wentworth Military Academy at Lexington, Missouri, and from there was sent by the Academy to attend the Officers Reserve Training Corps at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, during the summer of 1918. Soon after his return to complete his education at Lexington he was summoned by the army authorities for special service, with expenses paid and the regular salary of thirty dollars a month, and was recommended for a first lieutenant. This office he now holds at Wentworth Military Academy and is acting assistant instructor in military tactics. Dr. L. A. Golden is now retiring from active practice and his time is taken up in consultation practice, for which he has the reputation of being one of the ablest diagnosticians in the state.

Pages 2336-2337.