W. J. P. KINGSLEY
Willey J. P. Kingsley, M. D., mayor of the city of Rome, N Y., a son of Obediah and Lovina (Tucker) Kingsley, and was born on a farm I Frankfort, Herkimer County, four miles east of Utica, on July 9,
1824. His grandfather, Jedediah Kingsley, came from Rhode Island to Utica when that city contained but one frame building; he soon moved to Herkimer County and died there.
Dr. Kingsley obtained his education by his own efforts. Reared on a farm amid the deprivations of the pioneer life of those early days his advantages at district schools were necessarily limited, but by continued exertion he was enabled to attend Whitestown Seminary, from which he graduated. He read medicine with Drs. Charles B. Coventry and D. G. Thomas, of Utica, and took a two years’ course at the Geneva Medical College. In March, 1855, he was graduated with the degree of M. D. from the New York Medical College and the same year began the practice of his profession in Utica. In the spring of 1856 he came to Rome, where he has ever since resided. For many years he was engaged in a large general surgical practice, having at one time a more extensive professional business than any other physician in the city. Finally cancer cases presented themselves in such constantly increasing numbers that he was obliged to devote most of his time to their treatment, and eventually abandoned his family practice altogether. He now confines his attention exclusively to the treatment of cancer, chronic diseases, and to surgery, having specially equipped hospitals for the purpose. He has treated over 40,000 cancer cases, and enjoys almost a world wide reputation for skill and success.
Dr. Kingsley has been president of the Farmers’ National Bank of Rome, since its organization, and was president of its predecessor, the Bank of Rome, which was incorporated as a State Bank in 1865. He was one of the incorporators of the Central New York Institution for the Deaf Mutes in Rome in 1875 and served as its vice-president until 1895, when he was elected president. He was president of the old Rome Iron Works and is now vice-president of the Rome Brass and Copper Company, the Rome Cemetery Association, and the Jervis Literary Association. He was one of the directors of the locomotive works, and is heavily interested in many other business enterprises. He is the largest tax payer in the city. In charitable and benevolent movements he is always a prominent factor, and no project promising benefit to the community fails to receive his substantial aid and encouragement. Public spirited, enterprising, liberal, and kind hearted, eh is widely respected as a citizen as well as a successful physician. The Y. M. C. A., the city hospital, and numerous other similar objects, as well as nearly every important commercial or manufacturing enterprise, have felt the impulse of his aid and benevolence. In politics, he has always been a staunch Republican, but has never sought office or public preferment. At the charter election in March, 1895, he was elected mayor of the city of Rome, though a Democratic stronghold, by a handsome majority, and his service in that capacity has been characterized by fidelity, impartiality, and general satisfaction.
December 4, 1860, Dr. Kingsley was married to Miss Georgeanna M. Vogel, daughter of Henry C. Vogel, D. D., for many years pastor of the Baptist Church at Rome. They have three sons: Burt A., who died two years, three months, and thirteen days’ George L., who was graduated from Yale College in 1886 and from Harvard Medical College in 1890, appointed house surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital, and died there September 25, 1890; and Willey L, also a graduate of Yale College, class of 1886, and Harvard Medical College, in 1890, who after receiving his diploma as M. D., formed a partnership with his father under the style of W. J. P. Kingsley & Son, which still continues. In 1891 Dr. & Mrs. Kingsley erected in the Rome Cemetery a handsome memorial chapel, and in the same year equipped the new gymnasium of Yale University at New Haven, Conn., both in memory of their deceased son, Dr. George L.
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