The Rev. and Mrs. Kenyon were parents of three sons and a daughter. They were William S. Kenyon, for many years a United States Senator from Iowa and later a U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge; A. M. (Dick) Kenyon, associated with the serum company for many years; F. A. Kenyon, a banker at Washta; and Miss Charlotte Kenyon.
The Rev. Mr. Kenyon came to Fort Dodge in 1885 and served the Presbyterian Church here until the following year. He then founded the Fort Dodge Collegiate Institute which later became Buena Vista College. The school was moved from Fort Dodge to Hawarden and then to its present location in Storm Lake where it is now Buena Vista College, operated by the Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Mr. Kenyon died in 1902.
William S. Kenyon was a prominent attorney here for many years, was Webster County attorney and district court judge. In 1911 he was elected U. S. senator from Iowa and served until 1922 when he resigned from the Senate and was named a federal Circuit Court judge. He maintained an office in the federal building here during his years as a judge and when in Fort Dodge lived with his sister in the home at 1229 2nd Ave. N. In 1929 during his judicial career Kenyon was named a member of President Herbert Hoover’s Law Enforcement Commission. Judge Kenyon died in 1933 at age 64.
A. M. Kenyon was secretary of the Fort Dodge Serum Company (now the Fort Dodge Laboratories) for 28 years until his retirement in 1946. Two of his sons reside here now—Robert P. Kenyon and Bruce Kenyon; a third son Fergus Kenyon, lives in Lewiston, Idaho.
THE WOLFE HOME
This sturdy-looking cement block house—known for many years as the ‘stone house’ or the ‘castle’—has occupied the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue North and Sixteenth Street since 1908.
Henry W. Wolfe purchased the corner lot in 1903 that extended along Sixteenth Street from Fifth to Sixth Avenues North and five years later built the big house. In 1910 he erected the cement house just to the north—at the Sixth Avenue corner.
The house with the address of 1530 5th Ave. N. is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bocken, 831 N. 21st St. who purchased it in 1965. Many years ago it was converted into a duplex with two apartments that are rented out. Each apartment has a living room, dining room, kitchen on the first floor and two bedrooms and bath on the second floor.
A unique feature of the house is the corner tower-like area that extends from the ground floor to the attic. At the roof level is a cupola with six windows and a peaked roof. Wolfe, a Spanish-American War veteran brought back many mementoes of the Philippine Islands which he displayed in cases in the cupola area. There was also a landscape mural painting on the six sections of the wall.
Mrs. A. F. Jessen, 2442 10th Ave. N. is a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Wolfe, and relates interesting information about the house where she lived with her parents. Original interior arrangement of the house included a large living room, entry hall, dining room, library with fireplace, kitchen and pantry on the first floor; four bedrooms and bath on the second floor, the bedroom above the library with a fireplace.