F. M. Kent, M.D.
The state of Ohio with its pulsing industrial activities and rapid development has witbin its confines many men of marked ability and high character in the various professional lines. He whose name initiates this review has gained recognition as one of the able and successful physicians of Greene county, and by his labors, his high professional attainments and his sterling characteristics has justified the respect and confidence in which be is held by the medical fraternity and the local public. He makes his home in Spring Valley, but was born in Bellbrook, Greene county, August 31, 1864, his parents being George W. and Mary (Snodgrass) Kent. The father, who was probably born in Montgomery county, this state, was a tailor in early life and later purchased a small tract of land near Bellbrook, wbereon he spent the greater part of his life, but his last days were passed in Spring Valley, where be died, when about seventy-three years of age. His widow is still living there. In their family were four children, of whom the Doctor is the youngest, the others being E. M., a grocer of Spring Valley; E. S., who is engaged in conducting a men's furnishing store in Dayton; Ida, the wife of Dr. W. H. Finley, of Xenia.
The Doctor spent his early life upon his father's farm at Bellbrook, where be continued until 1883. His early education, obtained in the district schools, was supplemented by study in the Normal School at Lebanon and at Yellow Springs, and when nineteen years of age he began teaching, following that profession in Spring Valley and in Sugarcreek township for four years. He began preparation for the practice of medicine as a student in the ofifice of Dr. Finley of Spring Valley, and in 1887 matriculated in the Oliio Medical College of Cincinnati, in which be was graduated in 1889. He began practice in Lowell. Ohio, where he remained for a year and a half, and had a good patronage from the beginning, but seeking a broader field of labor he came to Spring Valley and has here practiced with success, owing to his ability and close attention to bis professional duties.
The Doctor was married at the home of the bride in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, June 3, 1891, to Miss Martha Graham, a daughter of the Rev. T. B. and Abigail (Taylor) Graham. She is a lady of superior culture and knowledge, was was educated in the common schools and at Adrian, Michigan, and afterward engaged in teaching school for several years. She was teaching in Bellbrook wben she became acquainted with the Doctor. Her parents still reside at Richwood, Ohio. The Doctor and Mrs. Kent have three children. Kathleen, George Graham and Tliomas Marion, all born in Spring Valley.
Dr. Kent votes with the Democracy and in 1893 was appointed a pension examiner and served for five years. He is a member of Spring Valley Lodge, No. 302, I. O. O. F., is its examiner, and in the present year, T902, he became a manber of Xenia Lodge, No. 668, B. P. O. E. In the line of his profession he is connected with the Greene County Medical Society and with the State and National Medical Societies and by the interchange of thought which forms a featine of those organizations he keeps in touch with the progress which is continually carrying the science of medicine toward perfection. His life is a busy one. so frequent are the demands made upon his professional skill, and it is therefore well that he takes a deep and abiding interest in his work, in which he has attained a hig'h degree of proficiencv.
From History of Greene County, Ohio, by George F. Robinson (S. J. Clarke Publishing Co, 1902)