Part Four: Doctor, Tennis Champion, Murderer. Just Who is Kenneth Uhls?
By February of 1924, Dr. Kenneth Uhls’ name was becoming known far and wide across the nation. Accounts of his arrest for the murder of a civil war veteran were featured in printed articles stretching from St. Louis to Sacramento. The story had all the elements guaranteed to sell newspapers, and the reading public was increasingly invested in the story of the doctor’s apparent fall from grace. People began to ask, “Just who is Kenneth Uhls?” Here is the backstory.
Kenneth Benton Uhls was born January 20, 1893, in Gueda Springs, Kansas, to Anna (Bean) Uhls and Dr. Lyman L. Uhls, who was a practicing physician in the town at the time. The Uhls had one other child, a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1886. When Kenneth was two years old, the family relocated to Osawatomie, where his father became an assistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane. After two years, Dr. Uhls relocated the family to Paola, where he took up a private practice. In 1899, Dr. Uhls was offered the position of Superintendent of the State Hospital, and once again the family relocated back to Osawatomie. For the next fourteen years the family became well entrenched in the community, and Dr. Uhls garnered a great reputation for ushering in important and positive reforms to the hospital and the way it treated patients.
By all accounts, Kenneth was a bright and well-rounded child. A playground accident at age fourteen resulted in his losing a few teeth, but otherwise his childhood was filled with social activities, attending the local Presbyterian church, and being involved in school plays and musicals. By the time he turned sixteen years old, Kenneth displayed an extraordinary talent for the game of tennis. Starting off as a member of the State Hospital Tennis Club, his skills gained recognition throughout the region and he was good enough to play in the 8thAnnual Missouri Valley Tennis Tournament at the Kansas City Athletic Club, where his skill was described as a “revelation.”
In 1912, Kenneth had been accepted to Stanford College, and he and a friend embarked on a twenty-day journey by car to California. This commute itself became a news story in several newspapers across Kansas, as they reported on Kenneth’s travels. For the next three years, he pursued his liberal arts degree and furthered his skills on the tennis court. Meanwhile, in 1913, Dr. Uhls resigned his position at the State Hospital, purchased the George Metcalf home and property near 74th & Military Highway for $18,000, and opened his own facility. The Uhls Sanitarium became a combination hospital and rehabilitation clinic for habitual drunkards and those addicted to narcotics. Dr. Uhls and his wife became very involved in the community of Overland Park, joining many clubs, organizations, and becoming very active members of the Overland Park Presbyterian Church.
Kenneth graduated from Stanford in 1915 and joined his family back in Overland Park. In the fall he entered the School of Medicine at the University of Kansas, where he met Charlotte Mary Hall from Vancouver, Washington. After a brief courtship, the two were married on August 28, 1916. By 1917, Kenneth Uhls was the captain of KU’s varsity tennis team. When the tennis courts were repaired at the university, he was quoted, “The spirit of spring is getting into their blood. And an unusual amount of interest is being shown. Such interest in the game is bound to improve the class of tennis at the University.” Kenneth represented KU in the Big Western Intercollegiate Tournament in Chicago, where a sportswriter for the Kansas City Star stated, “Kenneth Uhls is playing a good game and his work has been brilliant in spots and consistent throughout. Uhls should be considered one of the best players in the Missouri Valley Conference.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Uhls was encouraged to run for the Kansas State Legislature in 1918, representing Johnson County. He gained the reputation for being a solid leader who could reach across the aisle. Women’s suffrage was one of his big causes, which gained him popularity among both sexes in both parties. He won overwhelmingly in 1918 and was so highly respected that when he decided to run again in 1920, the Democrats chose not to nominate anyone to run against him. However, it was also around this same time that Dr. Uhls began experiencing periods of severe fatigue and pains, for which he would seek treatments in the mineral baths in Excelsior Springs.
In June of 1919, Kenneth graduated from the School of Medicine and began an internship at the Uhls Sanitarium. In August of the same year, a lightning strike destroyed the main building of the sanitarium. All patients were removed safely, and all furniture was saved. The building, however, was a total loss. Kenneth and his father decided to buy an adjoining tract of land with a large, modern, 10-room house. This purchase allowed the sanitarium to retain the current patient capacity. Kenneth’s business acumen impressed his father, and the two discussed the idea of expanding the practice of caring for the disturbed and addicted in other parts of the country. By August of 1920, Kenneth and his wife made the first of a series of business trips to Chicago and the East Coast. The purpose of these trips was to sell stocks in the new corporation he and his father established, The Uhls Sanitarium Inc., the nucleus of what they were determined would become the largest institution of its kind in the country. The value of the corporation was placed at $1,250,000. Kenneth, now a doctor like his father, presented himself as the active head of the sanitarium and in active charge of the new corporation.
Dr. Kenneth Uhls was recognized as a “rising star” within the business, medical and social community. When a new memorial fund was established in honor of the passing of former president Theodore Roosevelt, Kenneth proudly donated $5 to the fund, making him the second largest donor in Overland Park behind R. W. Coleman, who donated $25. John Marty donated $2, Louis Breyfogle and C.E. Pimcomb donated $1 each. It also became clear that Dr. Kenneth Uhls’ head was wrapped more around the business of making money than in healing the sick, as he began looking for business ventures outside the sanitarium. Evidence of this was revealed in 1921 when Kenneth and a friend, J.A. Hollenbeck, took over the management of the Grund Hotel at 6th & Ann Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. This turned out to be an ill-advised disaster. High prices were blamed for lack of patronage and the hotel was closed within a month.
It is believed that Kenneth’s primary focus on business, rather than healing, began to weigh heavily on his father. By February of 1922, Dr. Lyman Uhls and his wife Anna left Kansas City for a five-month stay in Long Beach, California, to address a host of worsening health issues. Meanwhile, with his father out of town, Kenneth continued to aggressively sell stocks in the sanitarium corporation throughout Missouri and Kansas, including the city of Hutchinson. In May of 1922, Kenneth Uhls was featured in the Kansas City society magazine, The Independent, as a mover and shaker, a champion Rockhill Tennis Club player, medical doctor, and successful businessman, living in a fashionable apartment at 4508 Mill Creek Parkway with his attractive wife and newly-born daughter, Mary Louise Uhls.
Upon Dr. Lyman Uhls’ return from Long Beach, he announced his health was not improving and therefore he would not seek a third term in the Kansas House of Representatives. In July of 1922, he was admitted to Research Hospital where he died on August 4 at age 65. Funeral services were held at the Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, with services conducted by Rev. A.D. Wolfe, pastor of the Overland Park Presbyterian Church. Among the hundreds in attendance were Louis Breyfogle, Jr. and a number of other Overland Park area friends. Dr. Lyman Uhls was buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas. Less than a year later, Dr. Uhls’ widow Anna decided to move to St. Louis and live with her daughter. Before leaving, she donated many books from the family collection to the Overland Park Presbyterian Church, becoming the nucleus of what would be known as the Uhls Library.
In November, Dr. Kenneth Uhls moved his family from their Plaza-area apartment back to the sanitarium grounds. He was now in complete charge, with no immediate family left in the area. He also soon found himself to be in way over his head with bills and mounting legal trouble. The dichotomy of the public image he had created of himself, in direct conflict with growing reality, led Kenneth Uhls down a path of desperation. Did that desperation lead him to Hutchinson, Kansas, in late December of 1923 on a mission of murder?
Click Here for Pt. 5
By February of 1924, Dr. Kenneth Uhls’ name was becoming known far and wide across the nation. Accounts of his arrest for the murder of a civil war veteran were featured in printed articles stretching from St. Louis to Sacramento. The story had all the elements guaranteed to sell newspapers, and the reading public was increasingly invested in the story of the doctor’s apparent fall from grace. People began to ask, “Just who is Kenneth Uhls?” Here is the backstory.
Kenneth Benton Uhls was born January 20, 1893, in Gueda Springs, Kansas, to Anna (Bean) Uhls and Dr. Lyman L. Uhls, who was a practicing physician in the town at the time. The Uhls had one other child, a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1886. When Kenneth was two years old, the family relocated to Osawatomie, where his father became an assistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane. After two years, Dr. Uhls relocated the family to Paola, where he took up a private practice. In 1899, Dr. Uhls was offered the position of Superintendent of the State Hospital, and once again the family relocated back to Osawatomie. For the next fourteen years the family became well entrenched in the community, and Dr. Uhls garnered a great reputation for ushering in important and positive reforms to the hospital and the way it treated patients.
By all accounts, Kenneth was a bright and well-rounded child. A playground accident at age fourteen resulted in his losing a few teeth, but otherwise his childhood was filled with social activities, attending the local Presbyterian church, and being involved in school plays and musicals. By the time he turned sixteen years old, Kenneth displayed an extraordinary talent for the game of tennis. Starting off as a member of the State Hospital Tennis Club, his skills gained recognition throughout the region and he was good enough to play in the 8thAnnual Missouri Valley Tennis Tournament at the Kansas City Athletic Club, where his skill was described as a “revelation.”
In 1912, Kenneth had been accepted to Stanford College, and he and a friend embarked on a twenty-day journey by car to California. This commute itself became a news story in several newspapers across Kansas, as they reported on Kenneth’s travels. For the next three years, he pursued his liberal arts degree and furthered his skills on the tennis court. Meanwhile, in 1913, Dr. Uhls resigned his position at the State Hospital, purchased the George Metcalf home and property near 74th & Military Highway for $18,000, and opened his own facility. The Uhls Sanitarium became a combination hospital and rehabilitation clinic for habitual drunkards and those addicted to narcotics. Dr. Uhls and his wife became very involved in the community of Overland Park, joining many clubs, organizations, and becoming very active members of the Overland Park Presbyterian Church.
Kenneth graduated from Stanford in 1915 and joined his family back in Overland Park. In the fall he entered the School of Medicine at the University of Kansas, where he met Charlotte Mary Hall from Vancouver, Washington. After a brief courtship, the two were married on August 28, 1916. By 1917, Kenneth Uhls was the captain of KU’s varsity tennis team. When the tennis courts were repaired at the university, he was quoted, “The spirit of spring is getting into their blood. And an unusual amount of interest is being shown. Such interest in the game is bound to improve the class of tennis at the University.” Kenneth represented KU in the Big Western Intercollegiate Tournament in Chicago, where a sportswriter for the Kansas City Star stated, “Kenneth Uhls is playing a good game and his work has been brilliant in spots and consistent throughout. Uhls should be considered one of the best players in the Missouri Valley Conference.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Uhls was encouraged to run for the Kansas State Legislature in 1918, representing Johnson County. He gained the reputation for being a solid leader who could reach across the aisle. Women’s suffrage was one of his big causes, which gained him popularity among both sexes in both parties. He won overwhelmingly in 1918 and was so highly respected that when he decided to run again in 1920, the Democrats chose not to nominate anyone to run against him. However, it was also around this same time that Dr. Uhls began experiencing periods of severe fatigue and pains, for which he would seek treatments in the mineral baths in Excelsior Springs.
In June of 1919, Kenneth graduated from the School of Medicine and began an internship at the Uhls Sanitarium. In August of the same year, a lightning strike destroyed the main building of the sanitarium. All patients were removed safely, and all furniture was saved. The building, however, was a total loss. Kenneth and his father decided to buy an adjoining tract of land with a large, modern, 10-room house. This purchase allowed the sanitarium to retain the current patient capacity. Kenneth’s business acumen impressed his father, and the two discussed the idea of expanding the practice of caring for the disturbed and addicted in other parts of the country. By August of 1920, Kenneth and his wife made the first of a series of business trips to Chicago and the East Coast. The purpose of these trips was to sell stocks in the new corporation he and his father established, The Uhls Sanitarium Inc., the nucleus of what they were determined would become the largest institution of its kind in the country. The value of the corporation was placed at $1,250,000. Kenneth, now a doctor like his father, presented himself as the active head of the sanitarium and in active charge of the new corporation.
Dr. Kenneth Uhls was recognized as a “rising star” within the business, medical and social community. When a new memorial fund was established in honor of the passing of former president Theodore Roosevelt, Kenneth proudly donated $5 to the fund, making him the second largest donor in Overland Park behind R. W. Coleman, who donated $25. John Marty donated $2, Louis Breyfogle and C.E. Pimcomb donated $1 each. It also became clear that Dr. Kenneth Uhls’ head was wrapped more around the business of making money than in healing the sick, as he began looking for business ventures outside the sanitarium. Evidence of this was revealed in 1921 when Kenneth and a friend, J.A. Hollenbeck, took over the management of the Grund Hotel at 6th & Ann Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. This turned out to be an ill-advised disaster. High prices were blamed for lack of patronage and the hotel was closed within a month.
It is believed that Kenneth’s primary focus on business, rather than healing, began to weigh heavily on his father. By February of 1922, Dr. Lyman Uhls and his wife Anna left Kansas City for a five-month stay in Long Beach, California, to address a host of worsening health issues. Meanwhile, with his father out of town, Kenneth continued to aggressively sell stocks in the sanitarium corporation throughout Missouri and Kansas, including the city of Hutchinson. In May of 1922, Kenneth Uhls was featured in the Kansas City society magazine, The Independent, as a mover and shaker, a champion Rockhill Tennis Club player, medical doctor, and successful businessman, living in a fashionable apartment at 4508 Mill Creek Parkway with his attractive wife and newly-born daughter, Mary Louise Uhls.
Upon Dr. Lyman Uhls’ return from Long Beach, he announced his health was not improving and therefore he would not seek a third term in the Kansas House of Representatives. In July of 1922, he was admitted to Research Hospital where he died on August 4 at age 65. Funeral services were held at the Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, with services conducted by Rev. A.D. Wolfe, pastor of the Overland Park Presbyterian Church. Among the hundreds in attendance were Louis Breyfogle, Jr. and a number of other Overland Park area friends. Dr. Lyman Uhls was buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas. Less than a year later, Dr. Uhls’ widow Anna decided to move to St. Louis and live with her daughter. Before leaving, she donated many books from the family collection to the Overland Park Presbyterian Church, becoming the nucleus of what would be known as the Uhls Library.
In November, Dr. Kenneth Uhls moved his family from their Plaza-area apartment back to the sanitarium grounds. He was now in complete charge, with no immediate family left in the area. He also soon found himself to be in way over his head with bills and mounting legal trouble. The dichotomy of the public image he had created of himself, in direct conflict with growing reality, led Kenneth Uhls down a path of desperation. Did that desperation lead him to Hutchinson, Kansas, in late December of 1923 on a mission of murder?
Click Here for Pt. 5
