Among the ablest representatives of the medical profession of Idaho is Dr. Gritman, of Moscow, who is successfully engaged in practice as the senior member of the firm of Gritman & Ward, and is also conducting the Moscow Hospital. He was born near Springfield, Illinois, December 28, 1862. His grandfather, Erastus Gritman, was a native of Germany, and when a young man crossed the broad Atlantic to America, locating at Lockport. He thus became the progenitor of the family in the United States. He was married at Lockport, spent the remainder of his life there and died at the age of seventy-nine years, an honest, industrious and respected farmer. His son, Delos Walter Gritman, the Doctor’s father, was born in Lockport in 1831, and in his nineteenth year removed to central Illinois, where he married Mary Ellen Davis, a native of Maryland. In his early life he was a carpenter, contractor and builder, but later became a prosperous farmer. He and his wife were valued members of the Methodist church. The father died in 1893 at the age of sixty-two years, and the mother died exactly a year later, at the age of fifty-eight years. They had a family of nine children, eight of whom are living.
The Doctor, the third in order of birth, was reared on the home farm and obtained his literary education in Lincoln, Illinois. He then became a student in the Cincinnati Medical College and was graduated in the class of 1890, entering upon an active connection with the medical profession in that city. There he remained until September 1892, when he was called home on account of the death of his mother, the family having in the meantime removed to Washington. His father being in poor health, the Doctor did not return to the east, but remained on the Pacific coast and soon afterward opened an office in Moscow, where he rapidly acquired a large and lucrative patronage. He is well versed in his chosen profession and his devotion thereto has made him one of its most able representatives in this part of the state. In 1897 he opened the hospital, which is a well built two-story brick structure, located on the main street of the town and containing sixty rooms. It is fitted up with all modern appliances and conveniences for the care of the sick, and has been well patronized. In his practice Dr. Gritman is now associated with Dr. Ward, and in the hospital they are assisted by an able corps of trained nurses. Their office is on the first floor of the hospital building, and in addition to the care of the patients in the institution they enjoy a large general practice, both in medicine and surgery.
On the nth of January 1895, Dr. Gritman was united in marriage to Miss Bertie E. Cox, a native of Washington, and their hospitable home is the center of a cultured society circle, their friends in the community being many. The Doctor is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Fraternal Union of America, and in his political views is a stanch Republican, but has never been a politician in the sense of office-seeking, preferring to devote his time and energies to his professional duties, in which he is meeting with most creditable success and in which he has attained a most enviable reputation.
