EDWARD F. BEEH is a native Iowan who has become a distinguished
surgeon, and in that field his name is held in very high respect in Fort Dodge,
and that section of the state.
Doctor Beeh was born at Belle Plaine, Iowa. October 15, 1888. His parents,
Henry and Frances (Nowotny) Beeh, were also natives of Iowa, and both are living
at Belle Plaine. There is some interesting family history regarding the Beeh
and Nowotny families. Before coming to America these families lived on the
border between Germany and Hungary, Doctor Beeh's grandfather, Henry C. Beeh,
living about fifteen miles from the Bohemian line, while John Nowotny was a
Bohemian about ten miles from the German frontier. These two men knew each
other, in fact, were quite intimate, and they both decided at the same time to
come to America. They made the voyage across the ocean on the same boat. It
was during the 1850's that they settled in Iowa, which was then a raw and new
western state. Henry C. Beeh selected as his location some land in Benton
County, while John Nowotny went to Iowa County. The oldest son of the Beeh
family married the oldest daughter of the Nowotny family and later the oldest
son of the Nowotny household claimed as a bride the oldest daughter of the Beeh
family, and thus the friendship that had started in the old country was cemented
by closer family ties. In Germany and Bohemia neither family had owned a great
deal of land or other possessions, and the trip across the ocean required most
of the money that they had, so that they started in Iowa as poor as the poorest
of the pioneers who came to this side of the Mississippi River in search of new
homes and new opportunities. They were thrifty and industrious, and both
families owned large and well-improved farms before the first generation had
passed from the scene of the living.
The father of Doctor Beeh spent all his active life as an Iowa farmer and was
enjoying the comforts of retired life in Belle Plaine at the time of his death,
November 15, 1929. He held some township offices, was an independent voter and
had no church affiliations, but his wife is a loyal Catholic. Of their three
children two are living, Edward F., and Bernadine, wife of C. F. Feller, a
farmer at Victor, Iowa.
Dr. Edward F. Beeh was reared on a farm, learned its routine of work while
attending school and in 1908 graduated from the Belle Plaine High School. From
there he entered the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, took his Bachelor of
Science degree in 1912, doing his pre-medical work while there, and in 1914 he
was graduated with his medical degree from Northwestern University School of
Medicine in Chicago. He spent his internship in a hospital in Denver, Colorado,
and there came under the direction of the eminent surgeon Dr. Leonard Freeman.
Doctor Beeh in 1917 located at Fort Dodge, and practically all of his time has
been taken up with his practice as a surgeon. He is on the surgical staff of
one of Fort Dodge's hospitals. He is a member of the Webster County, Iowa State
and American Medical Associations, the Austin Flint Surgical Society and is a
charter member of the International Surgical Assembly.
He spent one year in the war service, being stationed at Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and later at Camp Lee, Petersburg, Virginia, where he was on the
Base Hospital staff. He gave his professional care to a great many of the
returned veterans from overseas. He was discharged, with the rank of first
lieutenant, March 1, 1919.
Doctor Beeh married, in 1919, Miss Ann Barrett. She was born at Macomb,
Illinois, was educated in Illinois schools and colleges and was teaching at Iowa
City when she and Doctor Beeh married. They have one son, Edward F., Jr., born
February 15, 1928. Doctor Beeh is a member of the Corpus Christi Catholic
Church of Fort Dodge, is a member of the Knights of Columbus, B. P. O. Elks,
Rotary Club of Fort Dodge and in politics votes independently. |