KEENAN, CHARLES G. (1813-1870). Charles G. Keenan, legislator and physician, was born on February 28, 1813, in Giles County, Tennessee, the son of John Keenan. His father served Walker County, Texas, as its first treasurer, and Charles was the first physician to locate in Huntsville, Texas. Dr. Keenan was selected to the first board of trustees of Andrews Female Academy and was an original member of the Forest Masonic Lodge at Huntsville. In addition to his local affiliation with the Masons, he served in the Grand Lodge as grand junior warden in 1850 and held the office of grand treasurer of the Texas Grand Chapter of York Rite Masons for ten years. Before his arrival in Texas Keenan had served as a United States surgeon in the Indian campaigns. He was elected to the state legislature from Walker County three times. He represented Montgomery County in the First and Second legislatures and Walker County in the Third Legislature, where he was speaker in 1849. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1851 and served for a period as superintendent of the State Asylum for the Insane. Keenan died at Huntsville in 1870.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: D'Anne McAdams Crews, ed., Huntsville and Walker County, Texas: A Bicentennial History (Huntsville, Texas: Sam Houston State University, 1976).