Dr. Warren P. Elmer, making a specialty of internal medicine, was born in Lodi, Ohio, October 1, 1879, a son of Warren Elmer, who was also a native of the Buckeye state and a representative of an old family of Ohio and New York. The Elmers are of English origin and the family was founded in America in 1650 by Edward Elmer, since which time representatives of the name have participated in the Colonial wars, the Revolutionary war and other military struggles, defending American Interests. Warren Elmer, Sr., was a breeder and stock raiser, who specialized in breeding and raising carriage horses and in this was very successful. He wedded Virginia White, a native of Ohio, who was descended from Vermont ancestry, and to a more remote period the ancestry is traced back to Peter White, who came over on the Mayflower and who was the father of Peregrine White, the first white child born in New England. The family was founded in Ohio during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The death of Warren Elmer occurred October 6, 1917, when he had reached the age of seventy-eight years and his wife died in November, 1918, at the age of seventy-four years.
Dr. Elmer is the only survivor of a family of three children. He was educated in the public schools at Lodi, Ohio, in Stanford University of California and in the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him the M. D. degree in 1903. He was also graduated from the St. Louis University in 1905 with the Bachelor of Science degree. He entered upon professional work as an interne and assistant in medicine at the University of Michigan, where he remained for two years. He came to St. Louis as an instructor in medicine in the St. Louis University early in 1905 and the same year went abroad for further study, doing post-graduate work in Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. Following his return he began practicing as a specialist in internal medicine and has continuously devoted his attention to this branch of professional work through the intervening period. He is professor of internal medicine in St. Louis University School of Medicine. He is a member of the consulting staff of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Hospital, also of the St. Louis City Hospital, St. John’s Hospital and the Jewish Hospital. He belongs to the St. Louis, Missouri State and American Medical Associations and to the St. Louis Society of Internal Medicine, of which he is now the president. He is widely known as a contributor to medical journals on internal medicine and such has been his study and experience that his opinions are largely accepted as authority on this branch of practice. During the World war he was contract surgeon for the Student Army Training Corps.
On the 30th of June, 1915, in Chicago, Dr. Elmer was married to Miss Frances Jennings, a native of Nebraska and a daughter of John W. Jennings of an old Philadelphia family. Dr. and Mrs. Elmer have become parents of three children: Virginia Mary, Frances Lois and Warren P., Jr. Dr. Elmer belongs to the Masonic lodge at Lodi, Ohio, and is well known in club circles in St. Louis as a representative of the University and Normandie Golf Clubs. He has ever been actuated by a most progressive spirit in all that he has undertaken and a laudable ambition has caused him to prepare most carefully and thoroughly for professional work, in which he has gained substantial success.