Abbey, Frank L., M. D.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Frank L. Abbey, M. D., long a resident of Newton and formerly a druggist but for twenty years a successful physician, had during the greater part of his professional career been identified with the Axtell Hospital as a member of its staff of physicians.

Doctor Abbey was born at Kingsbury, Illinois, February 1, 1861. He is of English ancestry, his grandfather, Luke Abbey, having been born in Yorkshire, England, in 1787. When about twenty-four years of age he came to America with his second wife and two children, and settled first in New Jersey, then in Ohio and finally, as a pioneer farmer, at Kingsbury, Illinois, in 1837. He died there in 1869. He married for his third wife Miss Hannah Mills, who was a native of New Jersey and died at Kingsbury, Illinois. She was the grandmother of Doctor Abbey. Charles W. Abbey, father of Doctor Abbey, was born at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1830 and when seven years of age accompanied his parents to Kingsbury, Illinois. He grew up and married there and spent his active career as a farmer. In 1864 he enlisted in Company B of the One Hundred and Fortieth Illinois Infantry and was in active service until the close of the war. In 1871 he came to Kansas, locating on a farm near Abilene for nine years, and then for seventeen years farmed in Coffey County near Burlington. He finally retired and came to Newton, where he died in 1909. Charles W. Abbey was a strict republican in politics and a member of the Masonic fraternity. The maiden name of his wife was Emily C. King. She was born in 1837 at Petersburg, New York, and is now living, at the age of eighty, in Newton, Kansas. Doctor Abbey was the oldest of her three children. William S. became a railroad engineer and died in San Antonio, Texas. L. B. Abbey, the youngest, is now assistant superintendent of terminals for the Kansas City Southern Railway Company and lives at Port Arthur, Texas.

Doctor Abbey was educated in the public schools of Kingsbury, Illinois, and after the family came to Kansas in 1871 attended school near Abilene. He was also a student in the State Normal School at Emporia and for four years was enrolled among the teachers of Coffey County. After the two years' course he graduated in 1888 in pharmacy from the Kansas University and then came to Newton and spent ten years in the drug business. Doctor Abbey took his medical degree from Kansas University in 1897 and since then had enjoyed a general practice at Newton and in the Axtell Hospital. For almost twenty years he was the anaesthetist for the hospital. For the past fifteen years he had also held in addition to other professional responsibilities the position of coroner of Harvey County. He is an honored member of the County and State Medical societies and was formerly a member of the American Medical Association.

Doctor Abbey is a republican, a member and deacon in the Congregational Church, is past noble grand of Newton Lodge No. 100, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of Newton Camp No. 603, Modern Woodmen of America, and Newton Lodge No. 74, Ancient Order of United Workmen.

In 1912 Doctor Abbey built his modern home at 318 East Fifth Street in Newton, and he also owned a farm of eighty acres 9½ miles southeast of Newton. He formerly had considerable other property both in town and country. In 1883, at Colony, Kansas, Doctor Abbey married Miss Florence Axtell, daughter of John Milton Axtell and half-sister of Doctor Axtell, a founder of Axtell Hospital in Newton. Doctor and Mrs. Abbey have a family of six children. Charles Earl lives at Port Arthur, Texas, and is shipping clerk for the Texas Oil Company. Lawrence A. is now at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in the training camp as a member of Company B of the Seventh Regiment, United States Engineers. Mary Emily married Edward J. Hinkhouse, manager of the Panhandle Lumber Company at Amarillo, Texas. Edward L. is clerk in the superintendent's office of the Santa Fe Railway at Newton. Frank L., Jr., is now enrolled as a member of Company K of the Third Infantry, Kansas National Guard. The youngest of the family, Florence, is attending Fairmount College, Wichita, Kansas.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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