Dr. Asa Horr 1817-1896

HORR, SHERMAN, SMITH, HACKBUSCH, VINAL, STERNES, BOOTH, BIGELOW

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 7/3/2016 at 22:52:42

ASA HORR MD who has had a long and successful career as a medical practitioner in Dubuque has been located here since August 1847 being the oldest member of the profession in this locality. He is Chief of the Medical Staff of Mercy Hospital and belongs to the American Medical the State and County and the Cedar Valley District Medical Societies. Several times he has been President of the County Association of which he was one of the organizers.

During the war he was Post Surgeon at Camp Franklin and also examined recruits for the regular army troops being later for ten years Pension Examiner in this city. The Doctor is a noted scholar both in the languages and in many scientific departments.

Dr. Horr was born in Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio September 2, 1817. His paternal grandfather was a farmer in Massachusetts and removed to Lewis County, NY in the early days of its history when it was known as the Black River Country and there he continued in agricultural pursuits until his death.

The Horr family is of English descent and the name was originally spelled Hoar but our subject's grandfather had the name changed by the Albany Legislature to its present spelling. The father of the Doctor bore the name of Isaac and his birth occurred in the Bay State where he grew to manhood and was married. He took part in the War of 1812 and five years later became a resident of Worthington, Ohio having removed there from Lewis County, NY. He engaged in merchandising being successful for several years but about 1826 returned to Lewis County, NY where he died one year later, aged forty one years. His wife Nancy Smith, was born and married in Salem, Mass and after her husband's death in the Empire State returned to Ohio where she died when in her sixty ninth year.

Eight of her ten children grew to maturity but only four are now living our subject and his three sisters; Leonard was a Captain in the Twenty first Iowa Infantry until his health failing he retired. His death occurred in this city where he had been engaged in the real estate business.

Dr. Horr until ten years old lived in Ohio where he attended Worthington College of which Bishop Chase was Principal and one of his classmates was Salmon P. Chase, late Chief Justice of the United States. In 1826 he returned to New York and on his father's death the children were scattered being taken by various relatives to bring up.

that the Doctor had thought seriously of entering the medical profession was during the cholera epidemic of 1834-35 when several of his employees contracted the disease and as there were no physicians in the locality and he had assisted his mother, who was a good nurse in former years, he determined to use his best efforts for the afflicted men. Using the old fashioned remedies of smart weed and penny royal with good nursing he managed to bring the men through all right and was often afterward annoyed by the many people who came to him for treatment of various disorders.

In 1836. Mr. Horr went to Ohio and entered the Worthington Medical College from which he was graduated two years later with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For two years subsequently he practiced with Dr. Hyland of Fairfield County and then for six years practiced in Baltimore, Ohio. In 1846 he graduated from the medical department of the Western Reserve University of Cleveland receiving a degree. With the intention of going to Galena, Ill. he visited a brother at Elizabeth and was there prevailed upon to assist the doctors of the place during the epidemic which was prevalent. After a year's time he removed to Dubuque arriving here in August 1847, when this was a village of only two thousand inhabitants.

Dr. Horr built an office at the corner of Fifth and Main Streets and has since conducted an extensive practice his office being now at No. 1125 Main Street. For one year he was County Physician and is a member of the Public Health Association of the United

In Baltimore Ohio Dr. Horr was married in 1841 to Eliza Sherman,a native of Worthington. She was reared as a member of the Vinal family in Springfield and died in Dubuque during the war. Her three children are Edward W. a merchant of Blandville, Ky; Augusta S., Mrs. Hackbusch died in February 1894 and May H., wife of Charles G. Sternes of Waterloo, Iowa. The present wife of Dr. Horr is Mrs. Ella S. Booth, was born in Galena Ill. and presides with true hospitality over her pleasant home at the corner of Thirteenth and Main Streets.

The doctor is a fine botanist geologist and astronomer. He has made large collections of Ohio and Iowa plants has an interesting collection of geological specimens and in 1864 erected a private astronomical observatory and was the first to determine accurately the longitude of Dubuque. A member of many learned societies he has been President of the Iowa Institute of Science and Arts and in company with J.M. Bigelow published a catalogue of the plants of Fairfield County Ohio.

For fifteen or twenty years Dr. Horr had charge of the city clock and took the time astronomically. He has the finest medical and chemical library in this portion of the state and is an advocate of phonetic spelling. For some years he has been interested in real estate and owns a number of pieces of business property as well as an interest in some coal mines. In politics he is independent and fraternally is a Knight Templar Mason Ohio.

THE HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY IOWA
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