Edwin M. Heffelfinger, M. D.

HEFFELFINGER, MILES, EDGINGTON

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/12/2011 at 16:36:03

EDWIN M. HEFFELFINGER, M. D., who is a practicing physician and surgeon of Grundy Centre, has won among his professional brethren an enviable reputation, while his skill and ability have gained for him throughout the community a liberal and lucrative patronage. He has ever been a deep student of the science of medicine, and keeps abreast of the times in every particular. Merit has won him a success, which is a just reward of his efforts.

The Doctor was born in Chester County, Pa., in December, 1844, and is a son of Dr. Lewis and Mary (Miles) Heffelfinger. The father served as Sheriff of Chester County, Pa., and in connection with the practice of medicine also engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1857, he went to Mt. Carroll, Ill., and in Carroll County purchased a partially improved tract of land, to the further cultivation of which he devoted his energies until 1868, when he sold out and came to Grundy County. He purchased wild land in Palermo Township, and broke one hundred and sixty acres. He was one of the first physicians of Grundy Centre, and continued the practice of medicine until his death in 1869. He had been educated in the University of Medicine in Philadelphia. During the war, he entered the service in 1862, and raised Company I, of the Thirty-fourth Illinois Infantry, of which he was elected Captain. He continued one of the faithful defenders of the Old Flag until the cessation of hostilities, when he received an honorable discharge. In early life he was an active worker in the Whig party, and afterward became a stanch Republican. His wife is still living and makes her home in Des Moines.

Doctor Heffelfinger of this sketch remained in his native county until fifteen years of age and then accompanied his parents to Mt. Carroll, Ill., where he grew to manhood. He attended the Mt. Carroll Seminary, but at length abandoned the text books for the musket, enlisting as one of the boys in blue in August, 1864. He served as a non-commissioned officer of Company A, One Hundred and Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and was mustered out at the close of the struggle, in June, 1865.

The following year the Doctor came with his father to Iowa. He had previously read medicine with him, and began practice in this place in 1874. He took his first course of lectures in the Chicago Medical College in 1870, and his second course at the Bennett Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1874. Between his first and second college courses he practiced for about eighteen months in Stanton, Iowa.

In 1878 the Doctor was united in marriage with Miss Mary A., daughter of Jonathan Edgington, a resident of Hardin County, Iowa, where he is engaged in the grain and coal business. They have one child, Miles A. In politics the Doctor is a Republican, and in his social relations is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic. He is also a Mason and has taken the Knight Templar degree. Prominent in professional and social circles, he well deserves representation in the history of his adopted county.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894