Oggel, Herman D. (Dr) & Maude Mensink Family 1873-1964

OGGEL, DOESBURG, MENSINK, MIERAS

Posted By: Wilma J. VandeBerg (email)
Date: 4/5/2024 at 19:21:01

Oggel, Herman D. Dr. 1873-1964 and Maude Mensink Family

This story was taken from pages 451-452 of the Maurice Centennial Book (1891-1991). The story was transcribed for this BIOS by Beth De Leeuw of the Greater Sioux County Genealogical Society. Some research notes were added.

Dr. Herman D. Oggel practiced medicine at Maurice, for 53 years, from 1903 to 1956, ending a 56-year medical career.

He was born August 7, 1873, at Grand Haven, Michigan, the son of James M. and Otelia (Doesburg) Oggel. His family lived several years in Muskegon, Kalamazoo, and Holland, Michigan, before moving to Pella, Iowa, where his father was a partner in a bank with Henry Hospers. (Mr. Hospers later was an early-day resident of Orange City, and founded the Sioux County town that bears his name.)

A few years later, James M. Oggel and Henry Hospers sold their bank and moved their families to Orange City, where they opened a land bank and helped finance mostly Dutch immigrants in homesteading government land in northwestern Iowa, and eastern South Dakota.

James Oggel later sold his interest in the bank to Mr. Hospers and then become Sioux County Deputy Treasurer, a position he held for the next 35 years until his retirement.

The James M. Oggels had five children: John, E.C. (“Chris”), Herman, Cornelius and Deana. John operated his own portrait studio in Chicago for many years before becoming a photographer for Warner Bros. Studio in Hollywood, California; Chris served two terms as Sioux County Clerk of the District Court after his graduation from Iowa State University, Ames, and then earned a law degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He subsequently was a junior partner in a Los Angeles law firm before joining the Washington State Title & Trust Co., Seattle, Washington, where he become first vice president. He and his wife retired to Los Angeles, and are buried there.

Cornelius died as a boy of ten of spinal meningitis. He is buried in the family plot in Orange City; Deana married J.F. De Young, who devoted his working lifetime as secretary to William Rieckhoff of Orange City, who was an extensive land owner in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana.

The De Youngs had two sons, Dr. George M. and W. Russell. Dr. De Young died in Peoria, Illinois, while still in practice. He and his wife are buried in Peoria. Russell spent his working lifetime in the transportation business, rail, highway and air. He and his wife are retired in Des Moines. Both Russell and his brother served in the army in World War II. The J.F. De Youngs are buried in the family plot in Orange City.

Following his graduation in 1890, from Northwestern Classical Academy at Orange City, Herman D. Oggel clerked for a year in the Orange City post office and then clerked for the next five years in the Peter De Kruif drugstore.

The physician-to-be entered Rush Medical College, Chicago, in the fall of 1896, and was graduated Summa Cum Laude in June, 1900, in a class of 250.

Dr. Oggel began his practice as a junior partner of his family’s physician, Dr. Albert J. De Bey of Orange City. He established his own practice at Maurice, in 1903. On October 31, 1906, Dr. Oggel married Maude A. Mensink, daughter of Henry M. and Susannah (Mieras) Mensink, at the family farm in Maurice. Henry Mensink was a long-time businessman in Maurice, after having homesteaded in 1876, a quarter-section of land a mile east of what was to become Maurice.

Ever civic-minded, the Maurice physician was among the leaders in promoting construction of a water and sewer system, a fine new public school, and various other improvements for the town.

Dr. Oggel saw the community through many epidemics, such as flu in World War I, measles, smallpox, chickenpox, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diptheria, pneumonia, etc. He estimated that he had officiated at the births of more than 2000 babies and had set hundreds of bone fractures. The first baby he delivered was Helma Mieras, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Mieras, and his last was Gayle Ramhorst. Mrs. Oggel assisted her husband throughout the years, serving as a practical nurse. The country doctor began his career in the horse and buggy days and ended it by driving modern automobiles.

In the latter years of his practice, Dr. Oggel and Dr. C.B. Murphy of Alton, combined their efforts to write a history of Sioux County medicine at the request of the Sioux County Medical Society.

The longtime doctor was a 50-year member of the Iowa State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Sioux Valley Medical Society, the Sioux County Medical Society, and the Great Northern Railway Medical Association. He was the railway’s surgeon at Maurice, and held a lifetime pass on the line.

The Maurice community honored Dr. and Mrs. Oggel at a farewell reception and dinner at the school gymnasium in 1960, shortly before they moved to Waterloo, to spend their declining years in a duplex owned by their daughter Dorothy and her husband, Percy Eberly.

Dr. Oggel died in April, 1964, at age 90, and Mrs. Oggel died in April, 1967, at age 85. They are buried in the family plot at Memorial Park Cemetery, Sioux City.

The couple had two children, Dorothy of Coralville, Iowa, and Dean of St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Dorothy married Percy M. Eberly, former coach, principal and superintendent of the Maurice school, July 2, 1932. They had three sons, Dean of Wellman, Iowa, Lee of Tipton, Iowa, and Robert of Spirit Lake, Iowa. Dean married Carolyn Plock of Burlington, Iowa, September 9, 1962; Robert married Karla Pearson of Everly, Iowa, October 12, 1968; and Lee married Susan Schoon of Luverne, Minnesota, January 5, 1970. The Robert Eberlys have two sons, Scott and Matthew, and the Lee Eberlys have daughters Beth and Sarah and a son Benjamin.

Dean Oggel married Inez E. Shibley of Pipestone, Minnesota, on April 20, 1941. The couple has two sons, Dr. James D. Oggel, Sioux City, and Mark R. Oggel, Seattle, Washington. The James Oggels have a son, Christian, and daughters Hayley and Jennifer. Mark and his wife have two sons, Graham and Evan.

IN MEMORY OF Dr. and Mrs. H.D. Oggel by Dean and Inez Oggel and Dorothy (Oggel) Eberly

OBITUARY OF DR. HERMAN D. OGGEL

Alton Democrat of April 16, 1964
Dr. H. D. Oggel, 90, physician at Maurice for half a century died Monday at a hospital in Waterloo. He had been a patient there since suffering a hip fracture in a fall at his home three weeks ago.
Dr. Oggel was born Aug 7, 1873 at Grand Haven Mich. The family were Pella residents for a time and then moved to Orange City, where he grew to young manhood. He was graduated in 1890 from Northwestern Classical Academy and received his M. D. degree from Rush Medial College Chicago in 1900, graduation Summa cum Laude. He practiced medicine for two years in Orange city and established practice at Maurice where he continued until retiring in 1956.
He married Miss Maude Mensink at Maurice Oct 31, 1906. Three years ago the couple moved to Waterloo where they resided in a duplex owned by their daughter, Mrs. P. M. Eberly and her husband. On their departure from Maurice the couple were honored by a reception and farewell gifts.
Survivors are the widow, a daughter Mrs. Dorothy Eberly and a son Dean night editor of the Sioux City Journal and five grandchildren.
Dr Oggel was a member of the American Medical Assn. And a fellow of the Great Northern Ry. Surgical Assn. He was a member of the First Presbyterian church at Waterloo.
Funeral services this Thursday are at 1:30 in Calvin Chapel First Presbyterian church Sioux City with burial in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be grandsons: Dean, Lee and Robert Eberly, James and Mark Oggel and grandnephew David Van Peursem.

OBITUARY of Mrs. H. D. Oggel
Sioux County Capital of April 27, 1967
Mrs. H. D. Oggel, 85, formerly of Maurice Iowa, died early Sunday morning in a Waterloo, Iowa, hospital after a brief illness. Funeral services were held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Calvin Chapel of the First Presbyterian Church in Sioux City, The Rev. Luverne K. Clark, pastor officiated. Burial was made in the Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of Nesion-Barger Northside Funeral Home.
Mrs. Oggel, the former Maude Mensink, was born Feb. 24, 1882 on her parents homestead near Maurice. She moved to Maurice as a young girl and attended school there and at Le mars, Iowa. She was married to Dr. H. D. Oggel Oct 31, 1906 at Maurice. They lived in Maurice until 1960 when Dr. Oggel retired from medial practice they moved to Waterloo. He died in April 1964 .
Mrs. Oggel was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Waterloo, the United Presbyterian Women Association and Iowa Federated Women's Clubs.
Survivors include, a sister, Mrs. George De Groot of Maurice; a daughter, Mrs. P. M. Eberly of Waterloo; a son Dean Oggel of Sioux City and five grandsons.

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