Dr. Henry W. Hermann, who has attained prominence in the field of neurology, was born on the 9th of June, 1855, at Hermansburg, Washington county, Arkansas, and is a son of Charles F. and Lena D. (Wilhelmi) Hermann. According to a genealogical record printed by C. F. Hermann, the first date mentioned in connection with the family in America is 1650. In a volume entitled Founders of Harman’s Station, Kentucky, it appears that one Heinrich Hermann from the same family reached America about the year 1700, penetrated as far west as the Mississippi river, and was celebrated as an Indian fighter. During the Revolutionary war his sons fought the British who had incited the Indians to make war upon the early settlers. The Wilhelmi genealogy dates back to 1525, naming a minister, the builder of a beautiful pulpit at Elprincen, Westphalia. The eldest son in this family has been a minister for nine generations and the father of Lena D. Wilhelmi also devoted his life to that holy calling.
Charles F. Hermann left his home at Mannheim, Germany, in 1848 after the failure of the revolution when liberty loving men sought to establish a republic. Unsuccessful in this attempt he resolved to emigrate to America and enjoy the advantages, opportunities and liberties of the new world. Crossing the Atlantic he and his brother John founded the town of Hermansburg, Arkansas, which was destroyed during the Rebellion. They afterward settled in St. Louis, establishing the firm of C. F. Hermann & Company in 1865. Charles F. Hermann wedded Lena D. Wilhelmi, whose ancestors had also been participants in the struggle for German independence, while later representatives of the name settled in Franklin county, Missouri, about 1850.
Dr. Hermann, of this review, pursued his early education in the St. Louis public schools and high school and was also a student in the St. Louis Eyser Institute. He began reading law with Finklenburg & Rassieur in 1874 and then took up a course in dentistry as a student in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, from which he was graduated in 1876. He had not yet found the field of labor which he wished to make his life work, however, and entered the Jefferson Medical College, from which he was graduated cum laude in 1878. He received the degree of the Washington University in 1896 and since 1878 he has continuously followed his profession. He was house physician at the German, now the Lankenau Hospital in Philadelphia in 1879 and he has availed himself of every opportunity to promote and broaden his knowledge and advance his efficiency in his chosen field. To this end he has attended the universities of Heidelberg, Strassburg, Vienna, Leipsic, Berlin and London. In the practice of medicine he has specialized in neuro-psychiatry. He has been assistant neurologist at St. Vincent’s Asylum since June, 1887, and chief of staff since 1891. He became professor of nervous diseases and electro-therapeutics at the St. Louis Post Graduate School of Medicine in 1885 and in the Missouri Medical College in 1893. Re was one of the founders of the Post Graduate School of Medicine and Polyclinic and was a stockholder in the Missouri Medical College until 1896. In 1885 he was made consulting physician of the St. Louis Insane Asylum and he was on the staff of the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in 1897, also appointed on the staff of the City Hospital, March 28, 1919, and of the Mullanphy Hospital on the 30th of July, 1919. He is a most able and successful practitioner of broad scientific attainments and wide experience, and his position according to professional and public opinion is one of notable prominence.
On the 18th of November, 1896, at St. Louis Dr. Hermann was united in marriage to Miss Linda Hofmann, a daughter of E. G. Hofmann, who was the senior partner of the Hofmann Brothers Produce Company. Her family lived in St. Louis county, south of Carondelet. To Dr. and Mrs. Hermann have been born two children: Vera, now a student in the University of Wisconsin at Madison; and Margaret, who is attending the Washington University and is secretary of her class.
In politics Dr. Hermann is a democrat with independent tendency. During the World war he became a member of the Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps. He Is of the Evangelical Lutheran faith, and attends the Ethical Society, belongs to the St.. Louis Automobile Club, to the Citizens Industrial Society, to the Glen Echo Golf Club and various scientific and professional bodies, including the American Medical Association, the Missouri State Medical Association, the St. Louis Medical Society, the Neurological Society and the Missouri Society for Mental Hygiene. Recognizing the fact. that. the path of opportunity ever opens before the man of resolute and determined purpose, Mr. Hermann has steadily advanced as the result of his wide experience, his thorough study and his laudable ambition, and his position is today among the representatives of the medical fraternity a very enviable one.