Dr. Bierring, professor of pathology and bacteriology in the State University of Iowa, at Iowa City, is one of those deserving men whom fortune has favored early in life. He was born in Davenport, July 15, 1868, being the son of Jeppe Bierring and Elizabeth (Jessen) Bierring, and received his first education in the public schools of this city. From his earliest boyhood he was confronted with the knowledge that he must depend upon his own efforts for the education he hoped to obtain, and the necessity of the case naturally developed him into a self-reliant and determined man.
His father and mother were married near Hamburg, Germany, in 1866, and came to Davenport during the same year. Mr. Bierring is of Danish and his wife of German descent. The former had been in this country previous to the time he located here in 1866. He has spent the most of his life in the occupation of a seafaring man. During the war he served in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, under Admiral Dahlgren.
Professor Bierring was a newsboy during his schooldays, but at the same time gave careful attention to his studies and obtained a good education in the public schools and high school. He did not graduate from the latter, however, having been compelled to leave his studies because of injuries received in a railroad accident. When he had sufficiently recovered to admit of it, he obtained private instruction at his home from a tutor. He studied Latin while confined to his bed.
It had been his intention from boyhood up to study medicine. He had a natural tendency in that direction, but when he had recovered from the injuries he had received he was unable to take the medical course which he desired, on account of the lack of funds, and for that reason began a course in the Davenport Business College in 1885, graduating in the spring of 1886. Immediately after graduation he became bookkeeper for S. P. Bryant & Co., wholesale coat and shoe merchants, and remained with this firm until September, 1889. His services were of great value to his employers, and although the work was not to his taste, nevertheless, he did not shirk and was regarded as a faithful and hard-working man.
In 1889 he had accumulated enough money to enable him to take a course in the medical department of the State University of Iowa. After he had been there two years, and during the summer of 1891 , he was appointed house physician at Mercy Hospital in Davenport, but returned in the fall to the university to complete his course of study. At that time he was appointed assistant professor of pathology and bacteriology, the professorship then being held by the late Dr. J. M. Parker, Jr. He also acted during five months of that time as house physician to Mercy Hospital, connected with the university.
Dr. Parker's health was not good during this time, and it was evident to the Board of Regents of the University that he would be compelled, sooner than he might desire, to give up the chair of pathology and bacteriology.
Dr. Bierring had been more than ordinarily successful as an instructor, and had devoted all his time and energies to close application to the study of these branches. It was decided by the Board of Regents early in 1892 that Dr. Bierring should become the successor of Dr. Parker when the latter should find it necessary to give up his work. For this reason, in March, 1892, Dr. Bierring went to Europe to more completely equip himself for the work he was eventually to undertake.
At Vienna he remained at the Royal University for three "semesters," or three terms of six months each. During the summer vacation of 1892 he did special work in bacteriology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and in the fall of that year began his course in Vienna. His work was done in the university and in the general hospital which is connected with the latter and is one of the largest in the world. He had every opportunity he could desire to fit himself thoroughly for the chair at the University of Iowa.
Previous to his departure for Europe there had been an understanding between himself and the Board of Regents that he should take up the work at the commencement of the fall term of 1893. However, a vacancy was caused much sooner than any one had anticipated, by the sad and untimely death of Dr. Parker, in August, 1892. The official appointment to the chair, therefore, reached Dr. Bierring in March, 1893, but he continued his course at Vienna, returning to Iowa City in the fall. The chair had been filled temporarily by Dr. E. H. Williams, of Iowa City.
Shortly after the close of the school term in 1894 Professor Bierring went to Paris, to be gone five months, for the purpose of engaging in work in the bacteriological laboratory of the Pasteur Institute, and also to work in the Paris hospitals. He and his friends consider that he was extremely fortunate in being able to secure a place at the famous institute in Paris, for the simple reason that applications for admission there are so numerous that the great majority of the applicants are unfortunate enough not to obtain entrance. The Pasteur Institute, as almost every one knows, is so liberally endowed that it has greater facilities for special work in the sciences than any other institution in the world. It was, perhaps, the best place in which Dr. Bierring could pursue his studies, and the time he spent there was productive of great benefit to him, and to the institution with which he is connected.
As Dr. Bierring is only twenty- six years old, his advancement has been truly remarkable. It is by no means flattery to say that he is possessed of a peculiar adaptability for the profession in which he is engaged, and that he perseveres to a greater degree, perhaps, than the vast majority of men. He began life with a fixed purpose, and has wavered from it only when circumstances were such that he was compelled to go into commercial life for a few years in order to secure the financial aid necessary to continue his medical course ; and even when he was engaged in business for a short time, every odd moment was spent in study for his chosen profession. He has been rewarded to a great degree for his perseverance and determination, and the future undoubtedly has much in store for a man possessed of such superior talents.
Dr. Bierring is a member and a past captain of the Sons of Veterans and very active in the order. He is a member of the Johnson County Medical Society, being vice-president of the same.
BIOGRAPHIES