Dr. Ivan Dana Kahle and Margie R. Boyer
Husband Dr. Ivan Dana Kahle 1 2
Born: 8 Aug 1875 - near Pine City, Elk Twp, Clarion Co, PA 1 2 3 Christened: Died: 1 Jan 1959 2 Buried: - Knox Union Cemetery, Knox, Beaver Twp, Clarion Co, PA
Father: Levi Wesley Kahle (1842-1939) 2 3 Mother: Chloe C. Wood (1847-1899) 2 3
Marriage: 11 Dec 1897 2 3
Wife Margie R. Boyer 2 3 4
Born: 3 Feb 1873 - Salem Twp, Clarion Co, PA 2 Christened: Died: 18 Dec 1953 2 Buried: - Knox Union Cemetery, Knox, Beaver Twp, Clarion Co, PA
Father: Alfred S. Boyer (1832-1900) 5 6 Mother: Mary Jane Weaver (1836-Aft 1913) 5
Children
1 F Kathleen Boyer Kahle 3 7
Born: 29 Jul 1898 3 Christened: Died: 18 Apr 1992 Buried:Spouse: Leland Talmadge Sheffer (1895/1896-1969) 7 8 Marr: 2 Oct 1919 - Elderton, Plum Creek Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 8 9
2 M Standish Calvert Kahle 3 4 10
Born: 15 Apr 1903 3 10 Christened: Died: Nov 1979 - ? Greenville, Mercer Co, PA Buried:Spouse: Helen F. Burgwin (1903-2000) 10 Marr: 22 Oct 1923 - ? Venango Co, PA 10
General Notes: Husband - Dr. Ivan Dana Kahle
He received his early education in the public schools and in the Clarion State Normal School, and then taught for six years in Elk, Washington and Ashland townships, Clarion County, Pennsylvania. He was then in the mercantile business in Pine City for two years, and in 1901 entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1905. He commenced the active practice of his profession in Wick, West Virginia, where he remained until 1908, and then settled in Knox, Pennsylvania, where he built up a large and lucrative practice. He was a member of the Clarion County Medical Association, and was also a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and surgeon to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. He was a Democrat in politics, and a Methodist in religion. [GPHAV, 925]
Spending his boyhood on the home farm of his family, he attended the one-room country school in the neighborhood, but decided at the age of seventeen years that farming was not for him. It was in May, 1893, that he left home, walked through thirty-two miles of forest, ate for lunch a 10-cent can of "Cove" oysters and a few crackers at Marienville at 3.30 in the afternoon, then took employment as a "lumberjack" with the Bell Lumber Company at a wage of $1.00 a day and board. Working all summer and gathering a financial stake, he went to the World's Fair in Chicago in the autumn, then returned to Marienville and worked in the lumber trade until he decided that lumbering, likewise, was not for him. Noticing the contented appearance of school teachers and the seemingly good work that they did, Dr. Kahle attended the State Teachers' College at Clarion and afterward taught school for $28 per month. After his marriage, he and his wife both taught for a time. But both were adventurous by nature, and they determined to go into business and operate a small department store in the village of Pitch Pine. I. Dana Kahle brought in such rural products as butter, eggs, calves, chickens and other produce, carting them by horse and wagon, while his wife served as clerk in the store. For a time he hired a clerk to substitute for him in the store, while he himself continued to teach.
The Kahles sold their property in 1900, and with a capital of $1,450 and a small baby set out for Baltimore, Maryland, where he had determined to study medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His desire was to serve humanity and to gain at the same time a decent and dignified place for himself and his family in life. He ran out of funds after his second year in college, but, having set his goal he took a job as stevedore on a Baltimore wharf, attending medical school each morning and rushing down to do his duties at the wharf in the afternoons. Working until 8.00 o'clock, he then returned home for supper and for study to prepare his lessons for the ensuing day. Incidentally, the great Baltimore fire of that year boosted living expenses to a considerable degree. Depressed and moneyless, Dr. Kahle sought employment in the West Virginia oil fields, but met only one unfortunate experience after another.
Life often reveals that unexpected events come to rescue the earthly pilgrim from the depths of despair, even when that despair is blackest. Some people might regard, under such circumstances, the birth of a son as meaning that much more responsibility. But the birth of Dr. Kahle's son, Standish Calvert Kahle, on April 15, 1903, somehow mysteriously gave him the needed impulse for his next action. He spent every available moment studying for the State test to be given May 1, that year, by the West Virginia Board of Medical Examiners, at Wheeling. The announcement that he had passed the examination as "No. 42" on the list came at a time when Dr. Kahle and his family were at the low ebb of their emotions. They went immediately to the West Virginia oil fields, where he started his career of reading meters and running a pump station and all the family lived in a rude 12x16-foot shanty that he erected for the purpose. In West Virginia he was allowed to practice, but Dr. Kahle now desired to practice in other places which required two more years of study. His aim thus became the gathering of enough money to finance these two years. A mountaineer visited him one day and asked him to attend his son, suffering from pneumonia. The son recovered, and the news traveled. Afflicted people came in increasing numbers for Dr. Kahle's ministrations. After a third year in medical school, he returned to Wick, a small West Virginia town, and set up a medical office. After only one month at Wick, he was thrown pell-mell into a typhoid epidemic, in which he treated as many as forty bedridden patients at a time. Once more he was able to resume his studies in Baltimore, but was
called home to Wick two weeks before his graduation to meet an unfortunate situation in which his assistant had fled after running afoul of the authorities in a "bootlegging" venture. Unable to attend his own graduation exercises because of the needs of sick people in Wick, he arranged for a substitute to receive his diploma. The entire student body broke into spontaneous cheering when Dr. Kahle's name was called, and the dean spent several minutes in complimenting the physician who had so soon plunged fully into his professional labors, citing him as an example to future students.
Until 1908 Dr. Kahle remained in Wick, going by horseback to treat many of his patients, working under difficult and trying conditions, and one time almost drowning along with his good horse when West Virginia waters were at flood-tide. While in Wick, he also figured prominently in politics, and was elected a delegate from Tyler County to a convention in Charleston, where a gubernatorial candidate was to be nominated. It was on July 6, 1908, that Charles and Frank Crape, in Knox, Pennsylvania, on a visit to that place, learned that a local physician, Dr. Shoemaker, was about to leave Knox. They immediately told Dr. Kahle of the opportunity that was thus opened to him in Knox. At once he disposed of his political, professional and material ties in West Virginia and returned to his native State. With his family, he arrived in Knox on July 21, 1908, undaunted by the fact that two other young physicians had preceded him with the same idea in mind, and purchased a property in Main Street, to serve as office and home.
The people of Knox were overjoyed as they came to know the qualities of this splendid physician, who brought with him a tremendous breadth of experience, in life and in medicine, and who now took his rightful place as advisor and friend, as well as physician. He brought into the world more than three thousand babies, and took an outstanding part in promoting community health. At the same time he bought and developed oil and lime properties, residential real estate and industrial holdings. He was active in the first lime works project for making pulverized lime in Clarion County.
In 1926 Dr. Kahle became active in Pennsylvania politics, announcing his candidacy for the State Legislature and being elected by a large majority to the lower house for three terms. In 1934 he was elected a senator.
Along with his other achievements, he wrote poems, and in these found a medium for expression of the essence of his amazing experiences. He belonged to the Methodist Church. He was a member of the Democratic party and a member of the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Masons.
1 Joseph Riesenman, Jr., History of Northwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. III (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1943), Pg 407.
2 M. S. Kahle, The Wood Line, Ancestors & Descendants (Personal genealogical research, Dec 1977), Pg 13.
3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 925.
4 Joseph Riesenman, Jr., History of Northwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. III (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1943), Pg 408.
5 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 926.
6 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 1033.
7 Joseph Riesenman, Jr., History of Northwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. III (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1943), Pg 408, 456.
8 M. S. Kahle, The Wood Line, Ancestors & Descendants (Personal genealogical research, Dec 1977), Pg 15.
9 Joseph Riesenman, Jr., History of Northwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. III (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1943), Pg 456.
10
M. S. Kahle, The Wood Line, Ancestors & Descendants (Personal genealogical research, Dec 1977), Pg 16.
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