In 1891, Dr. Samuel Kennedy and his brother, Dr. James Kennedy, came to the Oklahoma Territory, which had recently opened for settlement, and set up a medical practice in the fledgling Village of Tulsa. The young doctors became the pioneer physicians and surgeons of the area, investing great amounts of time and energy in both their practice and the growing city of Tulsa. Samuel Kennedy married a woman of partial Osage ancestry, Agnes Lombard, and with her had seven children. The brothers retired from their highly successful practice in 1901, but continued to help grow and improve their adopted home town. Samuel entered the oil business after the discovery of black gold in the Tulsa area, acquiring an Osage lease with his partner, W.A. Springer.
Special Collections acquired a scrapbook from Dr. Samuel Kennedy’s family in 1990 which contains newspaper clippings, photographs, and published ephemera documents. This extensive trove of early Tulsa history primarily focuses on the activities of Dr. Kennedy and his family, but also includes carefully preserved obituaries of Kennedy’s friends and business contacts, news about the fledgling oil industry, and developments in downtown Tulsa. Dr. Kennedy and his son, Col. Joe E. Kennedy, painstakingly created the scrapbook, producing a fascinating summary of Tulsa in its formative years.