Null, Dr Frederick F - 1878-1953

NULL, EMPEY, GREGORY, ALBERT, CHAMPION, BAUER, FAULKNER

Posted By: Janet Schuldt, Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/25/2009 at 17:31:06

Hawarden Independent, Hawarden, Sioux, Iowa, USA Thursday, October 22, 1953 page 1 continued on page 7

Dr. F.F. Null of Hawarden Dies at Age 75

Dr. F.F. Null, a physician and surgeon in Hawarden in the past 30 years and in northwest Iowa for nearly half a century, died last Thursday at the Hawarden Hospital at the age of 75.

Dr. Null spent much of the past summer at his cottage at Lake Ponto, Minnesota, which had been his summer vacation home for many years. Fishing was his hobby.

He came to Hawarden in 1923 from Ireton after a partnership had been formed between his and Dr. A. J. Meyer. In 1980 this partnership was dissolved and Dr. Raymond Gregory, his son--in-law, came here and practiced for three years. In 1948 Dr. Null entered into partnership with Dr. D. K. Haggar and later Dr. E. M. Eneboe became a member of the firm. Dr. Null had not been active for the past year.

Many experiences.

In a reminiscent mood several weeks before his death, Dr. Null recalled dozens of incidents, many of them humorous and some of them sad, in which in participated.

Because he did not keep a record, the number of babies delivered by Dr. Null will never be known except that it is a large number. In recent years, it was possible that when he delivered a baby he also had been the doctor at the birth of both the child’s mother and grandmother.

Dr. Null began his long career as a family doctor at Sloan, Iowa, in 1907.

First Delivery

It was at Sloan when he was 29 years old that he delivered the first of many hundreds of babies and it was that delivery which probably was performed under the most difficult circumstances.

That first baby was born in an unheated box car on a railroad siding at Sloan, Iowa in the winter of 1907. Problems of cleanliness, the lack of hot water and the necessity of building a fire and improvising other necessities made that first experience with babies memorable for Dr. Null

The doctor, whose experience covered a historic period of medical improvements and developments, spent nearly all of his spare time in the early part of his carrier studying text books to increase his knowledge of medicine.

College Instructor

At one time he accepted the instructorship of a class of student at the Sioux City College of Medicine in order to further increase his knowledge in a particular field.

Dr. Null spent two years at Sloan and then moved to Struble for two more years, 1909 and 1910, before he established another extensive “horse and buggy” practice at Ireton .

It was at Ireton where he experienced one of the most grueling test of stamina in all of his medical practice during the disastrous influenza epidemic when he carried on for as many a seven days without sleep except for an occasional nap while someone else drove him to the home of his next case.

More Difficult Years

Dr. Null was considerably older when, like many other physicians throughout the country, he was called up on to help maintain the health of people at home when other physicians were serving with the armed services.

That, too, was a long and difficult period and many of his friends believed that it considerably shortened the length of his life.

The advent of “miracle drugs” and other medical advancements in recent years were seen and appreciated during his active practicing of medicine by a physician who also had advanced in his own field from horse and buggy days to powerful automobiles and jet airplanes.

Helped Establish Hospital

Before the Hawarden hospital was built, Dr. Null and his partners operated a private hospital. He was active in the establishment of the local Hawarden Community hospital.

A son of William and Etta Null, pioneers of Plymouth county, Frederick F. Null was born February 25,m 1878, at Le Mars.

He graduated from Morningside Academy in 1908 and from the Sioux City Medical college in 1907. He was a post graduate of the Illinois School of Medicine of Chicago and of Polyclinic of Surgery of New York City.

Married in 1901

He married Miss Edith Empry of Sioux City September 4, 1904. To this union were born four children, a daughter and three sons. Mrs. Null preceded him in death four years. He is survived by his four children.

Dr. Null took a keen interest in the political affairs of Hawarden. He was a past member of the city council. He was a staunch democrat throughout his life.

He was a member of the Sioux Valley Northwest Iowa and Iowa Medical societies and American Medical association. He was a member of the Commerce, Rotary club, Hawarden Golf club, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Easton Star, Dale Lodge, A. F. and A. M. Scottish rite No 5, 32nd degree and the Associated church.

Survivors are one daughter, Mrs. Raymond Gregory of Galveston, Texas, three sons, Hobart of Backus, Minnesota, Raymond of Chicago and Capt. Wilson Null of Scott Field, Illinois: four sisters, Mrs. Etta Albert of Le Mars, who spent the past three years helping care for Dr. Null, Mrs. Katherine Champion of Mapleton, Iowa, Mrs. Margaret Bauer of Brunswick, Nebraska, and Mrs. Lillian Faulkner of Akron; two brothers, Albert and George Null, both of Le Mars, and nine grandchildren.