DR. J. M. EMMERT, ATLANTIC.

An active and serviceable professional life and a successful and influential public career of nearly thirty years in Cass county, have established Dr. J. M. Emmert, of Atlantic, firmly in the regard of the people here and led him to the highest standing in his profession. He is the leading physician and surgeon of the county, and one of its most respected, influential and representative citizens.

The Doctor was born in Washington county, Md., on June 13, 1846, the son of Joshua and Ann G. (Funk) Emmert, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Pennsylvania. They passed their lives as prosperous and progressive farmers in Maryland, where the mother died in 1886 and the father in 1892. Their offspring numbered five sons and four daughters. Of these, three of the sons and three of the daughters are living. Two of the sons live in this county and the other is a prominent physician at Avoca, Pottawattamie county, this State. Of the daughters two are residents of Chicago and one lives in Washington, D. C.

The father was a devout member of the Dunkard or German Baptist Church, and his father, Joseph Emmert, was one of the leading preachers and a controlling force in that denomination. In 1844 he led a colony of the faith to Lee county, Ill., where he entered a large tract of land and built the first Dunkard meeting house, paying the expense of the construction almost wholly out of his own money. The rest of his life was passed in that county, where he died in 1861, after long years of appreciated service to his brethern in the church and all classes of people around him. His family comprised four sons and five daughters, all now deceased.

The Doctor's maternal grandfather, Henry Funk, was a large landowner and a prominent distiller in Franklin county, Pa., and became a wealthy man for his day. He served in the Legislature of Pennsylvania when Thaddeus Stevens was its leading member, and was one of the followers and intimate friends of that distinguished public man. He died in Franklin county about the year 1848, and his wife in 1860. They were the parents of a large family of children.

Dr. Emmert was reared to manhood on his father's farm, and attended public and private schools in his native State until he reached the age of sixteen. He then entered an excellent academy at Mechanicsburg, Pa., and afterward completed his course at a similar institution in Green Castle. He also attended the State Normal School at Millersville, Pa. His professional studies were begu n at Waynesboro, Pa., in the office of Dr. I. N. Sniveley, who is still living there, and with whom he remained until 1870, when he entered Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1872. He began his professional career in June, of that year, at Hamburg, Fremont county, Iowa, where he remained until 1874. Since that year he has continuously lived at Atlantic.

When the Doctor located in this city the population was sparse, and his professional duties carried him over several counties. The life of rural doctors in this section at that time was full of toil and called for stern endurance. The day's work, and often that of the night as well, covered many miles of wild country, to visit families living remote from town and from one another. But Nature, distributing her favors iwth a system of constant balances and a flexibility of function which kept them in condition for their work, and enabled them to continue it so long and do it so well. Dr. Emmert attributes much of the vigor of body and mind and elasticity of spirits he now enjoys, when he has about completed his three-score years, to his continued exercise on horsebakc, in the open air, during the years of his early practice. But during th ewhole of his professional activity he has actively participated in the organizations formed for the concentration, increase and guidance of the usefulness of his cult.

From its organization in 1874 Dr. Emmert has been a member of the Cass County Medical Society, and some years later organized the 'Botna Valley Medical Society, of which he was the first president. He is also a member of the State Medical Society, and in 1889 was its president. In 1897 he helped to found the Missouri Valley Medical Association, being the leader in the movement, and the first vice-president, and second president of the body. In 1902 he was selected to read the address for the Iowa State Society before the American Medical Association, in session at Saratoga, of which he has been a member since 1882. In 1892 he was appointed a member of the State Board of Health, but in 1898 he resigned this position on his election to the State Senate and because of exacting duties in other lines. To the development and improvement of the city he has materially contributed by the erection of the Emmert Block, which was built in 1886-7, and other structures, and in other ways, both numerous and important.

In politics Dr. Emmert has been a life-long Democrat, and for many years a leader of his party. In addition to serving in a number of minor local offices he was recorder of Atlantic, and in 1878 the candidate of his party for the supervisorship, but was defeated by a small majority. Afterward he served for some years on the school board, and in 1881 was the Democratic nominee for Representative in the Legislature. In 1897 he was elected to the State Senate, and at the end of his term of four years was re-elected, receiving a majority of six votes. This election was contested, and he lost the seat. Many times he has been a delegate to county and State conventions, and in 1884 was one of the representatives of the State in the National Democratic convention which nominated Cleveland for President. In fraternal circles his is a zealous and enthusiastic Freemason, being a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and in church membership is a Presbyterian, and has long been an elder in his congregation.

In 1873 Dr. Emmert was married to Ida E. Washabaugh, a native of Pennsylvania. They have two children living--Max W., who is a student at the Johns Hopkins University, and Joseph M., Jr., who is living at home. For little less than a generation of human life has the Doctor lived and labored among this people, contributing to their physical, mental, moral and material advancement, and now there is not one among them that does not do him reverence, for his life exhibits an unbroken record of useful and inspiring citizenship.


From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 325-328.