Thomas C. Kimball
A life of kindly capable service to the community and to hundred of individuals came to a close with the death of Dr. Thomas C. Kimball at his home in Marion in 1906. Among his contemporaries it is doubtful if any medical man enjoyed greater love and respect among so many people in Grant County as Dr. Kimball. He possessed broad human sympathies, and it was love as well as duty that kept him at work so many years in a profession which more than any other is one of personal service. For a number of years his son, Glen D. Kimball, was associated with the father in general practice and in the management of the Marion Hospital, and the younger Dr. Kimball is still one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Grant County.
Dr. Thomas C. Kimball was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, in 1844, a son of Moses and Louisa Jane Kimball. Moses Kimball, a farmer, came from Ohio to Miami County, Indiana. Thomas C. Kimball was a soldier during the war between the states, a private in Company I of the Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. After the war he studied medicine, was engaged in practice in Miami County for some years, and in 1883 moved to Marion and continued his profession there until his death. Dr. Kimball was one of twelve chief surgeons with the rank of major appointed by President McKinley for the United States volunteer troops during the Spanish-American war. He was always an active Republican, and was the first pension examiner for the district of which Marion was the center, and held the office from his first appointment until his death excepting four years during the first Cleveland administration. In Masonry he attained thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite.
Dr. Thomas C. Kimball married Louisa J. Vinnedge, who was born in Indiana, and is now living in Chicago with a son. Their four children were: Indian, wife of J.L. Hoover of Harford City, Indiana; Dr. Glen D. of Marion; Carl V. Kimball, a lumber merchant in Chicago; and E.A. Kimball, Columbus City, Indiana.
With his son Dr. Glen D. Kimball the elder Kimball in 1896 founded the Marion Hospital, and it remained practically under their management until his death. A great deal of his time and means were spent in maintaining this valuable institution, and in the earlier years it was a work of philanthropy, since the hospital did not become self-supporting until recent years.
Glen D. Kimball, M.D., son of the late Dr. Thomas C. Kimball, and the only member of the family still living in Marion, was born in 1870. He finished his literary education at Marion, was a student in Notre Dame University at South Bend, and in 1892 was graduated M.D. from the Rush Medical College in Chicago. After three years at Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Kimball returned to Marion and took up the work of founding the Marion Hospital in association with his father. Besides his services in connection with the hospital and in caring for his large private practice, Dr. Kimball is county health officer and county coroner, and in 1903 was elected to the lower house of the Indiana legislature. He is one of the active Republicans of Grant County. On October 22, 1902, Dr. Kimball married Minnie Murdoff, daughter of Ashley Murdoff of Marion. Mrs. Kimball has a prominent part in Marion musical affairs.
Submitted by: Gina Reasoner