Randolph  County,  Indiana

Forest  A.  Chenoweth

Among the prominent and successful medical men of Randolph county who are deserving of conspicuous mention in a work of the province assigned to the one in hand is Dr. Forest A. Chenoweth, of Winchester, for his career has been in every way an honorable one and though strenuous there is nothing in it savoring in the slightest degree of disrepute, his relations with his fellowmen having ever been above reproach. Although his father was a physician of note and he was reared in a comfortable environment our subject is entitled to the proud American title of self-made man, being for the most part the architect of his own fortunes, for he realized at the outset that he could not win on the reputation of his father or the assistance of anyone, but must work diligently and persistently in order to advance himself; so he may feel a sense of pride in his achievements and the honorable position which he has attained among the enterprising and successful citizens of the locality in which the busy years of his active life have been spent. He comes of a distinguished old family.

            Doctor Chenoweth was born February 26, 1858, in Darke county, Ohio.  He is a son of  John T. and Hannah V. (Miller) Chenoweth, both natives of Darke county, Ohio, where they grew to maturity, were educated and married, where they resided until 1860, when they moved to Huntsville, Randolph county, Indiana, moving on in 1863, to Williamsburg, Wayne county, this state, and in 1875 located in Winchester, where they made their home until in April, 1903, when the father died. The mother still survives. The Chenoweths are an old family, the first of the name having emigrated to America in 1716 and settled in Maryland, near what is now the great city of Baltimore. There were three of them, John and his two sons, Arthur and Richard. The subject of this sketch is descended direct from the son, Arthur. From Baltimore this branch of the family settled in Virginia, Thomas, son of Arthur, having located in Berkley county, that state, and in the year 1750 he braved the wilds across the Blue Ridge mountains, locating at Maysville, Kentucky, moving on with his family in 1788 to what is now Franklin county, Ohio. John, son of Thomas, married Betsy Foster, September 6, 1807, and they settled in Darke county, Ohio, in 1818. They reared a family of twelve children, and their descendants located in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas. The family is of French origin and some were among the Huguenot refugees who fled to England and thence to Switzerland, from which country they crossed the great Atlantic to the new world about 1716. Doctor Chenoweth, of this review, is a descendant of  John and Betsy Chenoweth, who located in Darke county, Ohio, in 1818. Many of the male members of the family have been well known as successful lawyers, physicians, educators and ministers, as well as bankers and commercial men.

John T. Chenoweth, father of our subject, was a physician of more than ordinary ability. He practiced his profession from 1860 until his death, and he had a record of having lost but two diptheria patients during all those years, one case after he had practiced twenty years and another after an experience of forty years, a record probably never experienced by any other physician, especially in those early days when anti-toxine and the modern methods of treating that dreaded disease were unknown. He was a man of strong character and pronounced convictions, a leader of his professional brethren and an influential man in the community.             Dr. Forest A. Chenoweth lived in Williamsburg, Wayne county, until he was twelve years of age. He attended the public schools, and after coming to Winchester he took the high school course. He began life for himself as a teacher, following that profession in Washington township during the winter of 1876-7 and taught in the winter of 1881-2 in the Round Top district in White River township, reading medicine under his father the mean while. In the winter of 1880-1 he attended the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and also the winter of 1882-3. He located at Deerfield, Randolph county in 1883 for the practice of his

profession, but remained there only a short time, for we find him in Winchester in August of that year, where he practiced until August, 1884; when he went to a cattle ranch in Kansas, roughing it for a year, then returned to Winchester, but soon took up his studies again in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, from which institution he was graduated in 1886. Thus well equipped for his chosen vocation he located in Winchester, where he has since been successfully engaged in the general practice of his profession, taking his place in the front rank of the medical men of this section of the Hoosier state, building up a large and lucrative practice. He has remained a close student of all that pertains to his work and has kept well abreast of the times. He took a post-graduate course in the Post-Graduate Hospital in New York in 1898. During the early part of his career he specialized in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, but in recent years he has done a general practice.
            Doctor Chenoweth was married June 8, 1887, to Anna Railsback, a daughter of Edward and Mary (Adams) Railsback, a prominent family of Oxford. The mother is a descendant of the famous Adams family of Massachusetts. The union of the Doctor and wife has been without issue.
            Doctor Chenoweth is a member of the Randolph County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He has been president of the first named. Politically, he is a Republican, and is actively interested in local public affairs. He has been health officer of both Winchester and Randolph county. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic Order, and has taken the degrees up to the thirty-second. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. His wife belongs to the Presbyterian church. They are prominent in the best social circles of Winchester.
Past and Present of Randolph County, Indiana, 1914.
Contributed by Gina Richardson

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