There is no period in the world’s history which fails to demonstrate that exceptional ability and knowledge are invariably triumphant and lasting, and live in memory long after the finite clay has returned to mother earth.
In medicine, as. in every profession or business, nothing succeeds like success, but to attain success requires a master mind, a logical and conservative policy and a thorough understanding of one’s chosen calling. This being. true, what shall be said of those who are inordinately endowed with genius and ability of accomplishment? Hence, is so much as success is measured by achievement, and in turn, success is bona fide proof of exceptional capability, it can be perceived that the prolific mind if not permitted to hide its lamp of genius under a bushel. Personal adaptation and knowledge are recognized with a certainty that passes understanding, and are never permitted to remain dormant for any great length of time. Whether it be found in business, politics, art or medicine, the result is the the same-cream will not cease rising until it has reached the top.
A timely and parallel case for illustration is to be found in Doctor A. H. Arp, of Moline. Born December 4, 1861, in Davenport, Iowa, and being left fatherless at the age of three and a-half years, he was never the less endued with the perquisites which go to make a virile and intelligent being, and such he has been during his entire lifetime.
After the death of his father his mother removed to Moline, where she took abode with her brother, Doctor P. H. Wessel. In that city he received his education, and after being graduated from the public schools be began to study law under the direction of Honorable William A. Meese. Finding law incompatible to his inclinations, Mr. Arp took up the science of medicine under the tutorage of Doctor P. H. Wessel, his uncle, and in 1879 entered the Iowa State University, from which he graduated in 1882, being one of the first class in that college to finish the three years’ medicine course. He re-urned to Moline and began his profession under auspicious circumstances, and Moline has since been his home.
In 1888 he formed a partnership with Doctor Wessel, a consolidation which did not terminate until 1895, since which time Doctor A. H. Arp has practiced as an individual physician. How successful he has been is apparent by the scores of patients who daily visit his office, by the remarkable cures he has effected, and by the fact that he is the attending physician for nearly, if not all, of the manufactories in the Plow City; chief surgeon of the Tri-City Railway and Light Company, and surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway shops. He is a member of the Rock Island County Medical Society, Illinois State Medical Society, American Medical Association, Association of Railway Surgeons, Tri-State Medical Society of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri; he served as City physician of Moline from 1883 to 1887, and from 1892 to 1897 in the same capacity; he was appointed on the first hospital board under the state law, and was its secretary or president for six years; and is a member of its medical staff, and of the adjunct staff of St. Anthony’s hospital. In 1907 Doctor A. H. Arp was appointed commissioner of health under the administration of Mayor Andrew Olson, which position he still holds, and under his management a great many needed reforms as to public health have been inaugurated. As may be surmised, he is a member of numerous orders, among which may be named King Philip Tribe, Improved Order of Red men, of which he is a charter member; Improved Order of Forresters; Modern Woodmen of America, No. 38; Tribe of Ben Hur; Royal Neighbors, etc., and these he represents as physician for the order. Is medical examiner for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Comp-any, the Equitable of New York, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, etc.
December 24, 1889, Doctor Arp was wed in Rock Island to Miss Mattie Hardy, who was born in Wisconsin, she is a graduate of the Rock Island High School, was graduated in music under Professor Kramer of Davenport, and was for two years a well known music teacher in Chicago. Two children were born to this union, namely: A. Henry and Louis C.
A volume larger than this could be written relative to the experiences and cures wrought by Doctor Arp, but since his reputation as a skilled hand and master mind in medicine and surgery has spread to limitless miles, any effort to confine them to details or define them would be futile.
Coming from the great middle class of “men who do things,” Doctor Arp was physically as well as mentally qualified to succeed, as evidenced by the rapid strides in medicine that he can check to his credit. He is jovial, but never ungracious; kindly and gentle, though courageous and stern; strong and virile, yet womanly in tenderness and sympathy.
As a physician he is par excellent, and his reputation throughout the middle west is paramount to that of any physician, regard-less of the school which awarded him a sheep-skin. Medicine magnifies before him with the ease and celerity with which the sun disposes of the dew, and as a diagnostician and surgeon he is an acknowledged superior, even by those who would fain say otherwise. Socially he is recognized in every plane and by everyone, and in brief, it may be said that aside from his skill as a physician and a gentle. administrator to suffering mankind, he is pleasant, painstaking, conscientious, and of sterling integrity. What more need be said, for of what avail are weak words compared with the lasting monument of service which he has rendered to all who came under his care.