Amon Rathbone Jenkins
physician and surgeon, and son of Thomas Morris Jenkins and Mary Ann King, was born in the City of Henderson on the twelfth day of September, 1860. His early education was obtained from schools taught by Professors Rousseau, Kirby and Posey. His paternal grandfather was born in England, and came to this country in 1810, settling in the City of Columbus, Ohio. His paternal grandmother was a native of Maryland. His maternal grandfather was John Boyle King, born in 1876, on Boyle farm, County Cork, Ireland; came to America at an early age, and was a distinguished soldier in the War of 1812. His maternal grandmother, Madeline Hager King, of the family of Ormdorffs, Hagers and Boharques, early colonist, was born in Maryland.
The subject of this sketch early conceived a taste for medicine and began its study even before he had finished his High School education. He entered the office of Dr. Arch Dixon, and there prepared himself to enter upon a regular collegiate course. In 1878 he matriculated at the Louisville Medical University, and attended its winter course. Returning home he was employed in the active study of his profession, and many experiments were made by him upon living animals to tell the physiological action of remedies and to prove or disprove the accept theories in regard to them. He returned to college in the autumn of 1879, and could have graduated with honor the following spring, but, bring under age, was compelled to attend a third course, graduating in 1881. Dr. Jenkins then returned to Henderson, and immediately began an active practice, turning his attention particularly to surgery. In 1883 he went abroad, spending a year in Berlin, Prussia, where he was enrolled as a regular student in Frederick Wilhelm Koeniglicher Universitaet in Berlin, under the tutelage of such masters as Virchen, Von Langenbeck, Van Bergman, Koch, Schroedin and Prof. Esmarch, in Keil. He returned to Henderson in 1884, and again practiced his profession with zeal and energy until 1885, when he again returned to Berlin, where he perfected himself in the art of surgery, witnessing and assisting in all of the capital operations in the entire domain of surgical attainment. At the present time he is in active practice in this, his native city, and has achieved a reputation far greater than that of many who have devoted a lifetime. Unless misfortune should overtake him, his name will be written high up on the roll of fame, along with the brightest and best in the annals of American Surgery. At the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, held at Crab Orchard Springs, Kentucky, in July, 1887, he was elected its Vice President. The Doctor is a regular correspondent to the principal medical and surgical journals of this country, England and Germany.
-The History of Henderson County, Kentucky by Starling 1887 page 808-09;